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Mt Elbert 14,440 ft via East Ridge on January 10th, 2010
January 10th was the day for Dave Gibson’s annual Mt Elbert trip…or was it?
You decide: Mt Elbert 17 Jan 10
When I arrived at the South Elbert Trailhead (9560 ft, 2wd) on Sunday I was surprised to see no cars there! I’d been running late but set out about 8 am.
This trail was very nice & well-traveled. The Colorado Trail comes to a signed junction with the Mt Elbert trail at 1.8 miles (10,400 ft) The trail then makes a journey through the trees, in places very steeply.
The view really opens up around 12,000 ft, and the wind picked up just a little in this area. Not knowing what conditions to expect I’d carried snowshoes (which I never used!) and stashed them at this point.
The upper slopes were wind-scoured & the snow was easy to travel on top of! I could choose bare rock or snow at this point. The switchbacks seemed to go on forever.
Finally the summit was in view, by which time I’d settled into a nice, but slow chug.
It was about 1:15 pm.
On the summit I took pictures, made a panoramic movie, and looked for the summit register. I didn’t find a summit register.
Two large poles are frozen into a rock pile on the summit. There was only a mild wind but it was too cold to take my gloves off, I thought.
I moved as quickly as I could coming down, reaching the trailhead at about 4 pm. |
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