Climbing Mt. Elbert

Tuesday afternoon, I got a message about an opportunity to climb a 14er, one of Colorado's many mountains that is at least 14,000 feet tall. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance. The plan was to climb Mt. Elbert, which at 14,433 ft is the tallest mountain in Colorado, and the second highest in the lower 48 states.

Our group of five (plus one German shepherd) met at a campsite near the trailhead at around 10pm Wednesday night. We set up our tents and made a fire, but soon went to sleep, in anticipation of our 5.40 am wake up call. We were a bit sluggish in the morning, and didn't make it to the trailhead 'til 7.00 am, about the same time that the sun started lighting up the top half of the mountain.


The first couple of hours were on a good trail through the woods, a nice, albeit all uphill, hike.


We hit the tree line around 9.00 am.


From there, it was another three hours to the top. It was mostly easy trail hiking, but the last mile (with 1000 vertical feet to go) had some steep loose rock sections that made the going a bit slower.


After five hours, 4.5 miles, and 4,500 ft of vertical gain, we finally made it to the top. We couldn't have asked for better weather for the climb. Clear blue skies, low winds, and temperatures ranging from the upper 30s to lower 60s made for a great day (though, my face got a bit sun burned). Even at the summit (where I had my celebratory PB&J), the wind was very light.


We hung out on the summit for a few minutes, then started the journey back down. It took us less than three hours to make the return trip. For me, going down was worse than the trip up. That's when I started to feel it in my quads. Most of the way up, I felt great, aside from the normal increased breathing rate and pulse that accompanies uphill hiking. I don't think I really started to feel the altitude until we got to around 13,500 ft, which I attribute to the fact that I live at 9,200 feet.

Overall, I had a great experience and couldn't have asked for a better group to climb my first 14er with. Everyone was very supportive and laid back during the climb. Even Isis (the German shepherd) helped by checking on each one of us constantly, and warning the leaders of any stragglers (this was her third 14er). There are a lot more good pictures on flickr. A plot of our track, with geotagged pictures is on everytrail (I haven't figured out how to embed them well, yet). I'm already planning my next 14er...