Mount Elbert

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Colorado Hut-to-Hut Adventure – Day 9 – 9/16/12 –MountElbert - 9 Miles
Our time in Glenwood Springs was so short that I believe Iblinked and missed a lot.  A very earlymorning departure after too few hours of sleep and we were traveling eastwardagain, this time to put the cherry on top of our Colorado Sunday (get it?) – summitingMount Elbert.  The popular North MountElbert Trail is 9 miles roundtrip and I wanted as much time as possible for thejourney.  At 14,440 feet, the secondhighest peak in the lower 48 states, most people have never heard of MountElbert.   Colorado has 53 mountains over 14,000 feethigh, and names like Pike’s Peak (14,114) and Longs Peak (14,255) are morefamous.  But Mount Elbert was right infront of us, so here we go. 
Jeff gave us the details of his experience climbing thismountain:  trail more than half abovetree line, not dangerous, not technical, some rock scrambling but no narrowedges from which to plummet (I beg todiffer with this post-hike), “it gets really steep near the top,” and hedid it without acclimatizing and was very slow. Well, I now had 8 days of acclimation so I would be … very slow.  It was the 4,500 feet of ascent in 4.5 milesthat sobered me up.  But I can do this.
Jeff’s trailhead for Mount Massive was a half-mile fromours.  Although he had more miles tocomplete his summit, he is pretty fast when he hikes solo and I knew he wouldbe back at the parking lot before me. Cathy and I were quickly ready to hit the trail so we started off,knowing that Mike would catch up to us soon enough. 
The first part of the hike is on the CDT and wassurprisingly gentle.  At 1.4 miles theCDT continues straight and a right turn put us on the summit trail.  Soon after, Cathy was ready to pull ahead sowe made a plan to meet up every hour. When the trail got steeper I realized this was a mistake because Cathywould be spending a lot of time waiting for me. Sure enough, I was 10 minutes behind her for the first stop, so we madea plan to meet one more time in another hour and see how far apart wewere.  After that we would adjust orabandon plans and every hiker for him/herself. Cathy started off again and I waited for Mike (10 minutes behindme). 
Here comes Mike (1)
At the tree line Mike wanted to stop for lunch.  I had very little appetite but ate a smallsnack.  I left Mike enjoying his hoagie,knowing he would catch up to me easily, and began my snail’s pace up thedeceptive mountain.
That doesn’t look too hard, does it?
Jeff’s view of the Mount Elbert trail from his trail toMount Massive



A brilliant blue sky, a few interesting clouds rollingthrough, a cold but comfortable temperature, a very light breeze, lots ofpeople (after all, it was a Sunday) and very little oxygen:  almost perfect conditions for peakbagging a14-er, right?  And yes, there areelementary school age children and their dogs on the trail.  I can do this.
One step at a time, don’t forget to look around once in awhile, admire the scenery, look at the pretty rocks.  Every step was earned.  Are those people or ants above me?  It was impossible to guess distance accordingto my pace, but it looked like I was nearing the summit sooner than I hadexpected.  So I asked a guy descending,and he smiled kindly and said I was less than half the distance, that I waslooking at the first of several false summits. (False summit:  the peak in front of you that appears to bethe top of the world but is in fact obscuring the huge mountain behind it.)
Another fellow who was hiking down stopped and asked if myname was Sharon?  A message fromCathy:  it was too cold for her to stopand she was continuing to the top.
The trail curved up and around the shoulder of the falsesummit to the western side of the mountain where a blustery wind was howling,and the temperature dropped significantly. I was expending a lot of energy but my hands quickly grew numb from thecold.  The thought of turning aroundcrossed my mind – more than once.
I began a prayer mantra: God, please walk with me.  Not “get me to the top” or “keep me safe,” just“walk with me.” 
Another step, another, and I chatted with nearly everyperson that passed me descending.  Everyone was very encouraging.  One fellow was sitting in a sunny spot backon the eastern side, out of the wind. His wife had gone on ahead but he had called it quits and was patientlywaiting for her.  This gave me incentiveto keep going, because I was going to get farther than at least one person.
Looking over at Mount Massive - I don’t see Jeff
Traces of snow began to appear in the rock pile



After the second false summit I reached a dangerously steepsection.  Now, steep is steep until youreach something really steep, i.e. everything is relative.  What looks annoyingly steep becomesinsignificant to what is ridiculously steep, and that’s what this was.  As I was hesitating, a very nice woman on herway down stopped to give me encouragement, saying that, yes, this was crazydangerous but it was the very worst part and that it would improve in a couplehundred yards.  I can do this.
Another view from Jeff’s part of the world (the back side of Mount Elbert from where we were hiking)
Here comes Mike (2)
About 20 minutes before I reached the top, Cathy passed meon her way back down – just too cold to hang out for a long time.  The final 100 yards felt euphoric, the elevationeased up,  I could see people, and I DIDIT!!
Mike and I took many photos of each other, from everyperspec- tive, but it’s hard to make it look like anything but standing on arocky trail.  The vastness of the openspace is just so difficult to convey in two dimensions.  The day was so clear, we could see Pike’sPeak about 100 miles away. 
A more interesting background
Behind me is La Plata, at 14,336 feet



My ascent took 4.5 hours and it was mid- afternoon when westarted back down.  Now that I wasn’tworking so hard, I put my long pants back on and another jacket layer.  My fingers were tingling for most of thedownward trek, not so much from the cold as probably I was dehydrated. 
There goes Mike (3)



I leap- frogged with a 4^th grade girl and her dadgoing downhill – we passed each other over and over.  They had a very long day and she looked verytired, but she was still smiling.  I toldher she was certainly the only girl in her class who had climbed the second highestmountain in the country with her dad.  Sonice to see a father spending time outside with his daughter. 
At the tree line Mike and I caught up with each other again.  As we were resting we talked about an olderman that we had both passed who was noticeably limping and making extremelyslow progress.  Mike had talked with himbriefly and the man had a sore toe and a bad knee.  It was getting late, so we waited for thefellow to see if he wanted assistance or just companionship the rest of theway.  He assured us that he was slow butokay, that he had water and a flashlight as well as a head lamp, i.e. he waswell prepared.  This was not his firsthike.  In fact, although it was his first14-er, it was his 40^th state high point! 
The last mile was a gentle roll downhill to Cathy and Jeff waiting for us in the parking lot. A successful day for everyone! What else to do but have a fabulous Mexican meal to celebrate?  The Grill Bar & Cafe in Leadville fit the bill withgreat margaritas, too.
After dinner, we parted ways with Mike and his van, and therest of us drove a couple of hours east towards Denver to crash before ourflight home the next day.  This was theweather the day we left Colorado.  Whatnext?



“He left yesterday behind himYou might say he was born againYou might say he found the keyTo every door”~ John Denver