Mount Elbert

Mount Elbert is the second highest mountain of the 48 states, only a few feet lower than Mount Whitney. I hiked it in mid october 2004, one day after a failed attempt to summit my first 14-er, Mount Sherman, supposedly one of the easiest 14-er’s to hike, but only if you don’t have to fight hurricane force storms!

No such winds the next day, so I was all set to give it a try.

A few inches of snow had fallen the days before, so the trail wasn’t completely free of ice. A perfect occasion to use my Kathoola’s: very lightweigh crampons that are perfect to walk on packed snow. The teeth are more round than sharp, so they’re probably not very useful on pure ice. There were only 2 other hikers on the trail. They didn’t use crampons, but with them it was definitely easier to go up.

After an initial flat warmup, the North East ascent of Elbert is basically a steady walk up on an clean trail. At no point in time do you need to find your way through a annoying pile of rocks. Your only adversary is the weather and your own physical condition, combined with the altitude.

It took me roughly 7 hours to get to the top and back. When I arrived at the summit, bad weather seems to be coming in and it started snowing a little, so I quickly took a few pictures and headed back down. However, about half an hour later, the weather cleared up again.

Like many other peaks, Elbert has a few false summits: you think you’re almost there, but as you reach it, there’s an even higher point a bit further on.

All in all a very enjoyable climb.