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Peak(s):  Mt. Elbert  -  14,438 feet
Date Posted:  05/14/2012
Date Climbed:   05/12/2012
Author:  zoriloco
 Great day on Mt Elbert Northeast Ridge   

It was thrusday around 9pm when my wife and I were still trying to figure out who would babysit our 3 year old daughter. Friday morning Liz calls me at work and confirms her aunt will do the honors and even better we can leave Denver right after work and car camp at the TH Woo hooo!

We left Denver at around 7pm and get to the TH around 10pm. Again our Xterra proved to be a great option for car camping.

Saturday at 4am our alarm goes off and wake up to lots of fog and snow on the ground, so we decided we would wait for the sun to come out for us to start. We ended up leaving the TH at 6am





After Gearing up and having a Protein shake for Breakfast we headed out



Even with some snow on the ground the lower part of the trail was very easy to follow













The closer we got to treeline it got a bit more difficult to find the route. At that point we pulled out our map and to walk thru some snow drifts.



At some point I noticed we were being followed by a couple. Finally someone that can take a picture of Liz and I together!



I tried to be funny by saying hopefully you're not following me because I dont know where the actual route is..... Lol they didnt think it was very funny I guess. Any how after some discussion we established what way we would follow.



Once we got above treeline route finding was not a problem at all.





The higher up we got the better the views



I believe this is Mt Massive, please let me know if Im wrong.



After the dissapointment of so many false summits I could finally see the real deal!





Liz making it to the summit



The costumary Guatemala National Flag



Liz's summit Dance







At the end it took us 9:47 hrs RT for just under 11 miles (route finding added some distance)



Comments or Questions
tockelstein2005
User
nice!
5/14/2012 4:23pm
awesome . nice photos and it's great to be able to experience this with your loved ones.


Rcizzle
User
Dang it
5/14/2012 5:16pm
I was suppose to climb Yale that day and I've always wanted to see the fog from treeline. But my partner and I left because of the rain that day and we did Columbia. Nice summit though, very neat.


Kiefer
User
Nice!
5/14/2012 7:42pm
LOVED the pictures! You've got some keepers here. Glad to see the weather improved for you and Liz up there.
Thanks for the report!


zoriloco
User
Thanks!
5/14/2012 9:11pm
I had also thought about doing Columbia but the updates on the trail conditions made me decided for Elbert.

The weather got really nice, I was expecting to climb with snow coming down all day. Mother nature was generous to us.


Rcizzle
User
Awesome!
5/14/2012 9:16pm
Yeah, I'm kicking myself lol. Great pictures, I'm epically jealous. Columbia sucked so you didn't miss anything there. A LOT of downed trees, soft snow, and scree/mud mix made things rather interesting.


Peezy167
Sweet!!!
5/17/2012 1:14am
Awesome pics!!! I did shavano last year, and I'm heading up to CO to do Elbert in 3 weeks!!! This post makes me even more excited!!!


sm0421
about traction
5/21/2012 8:14pm
do you think some kind of traction (microspikes) is necessary or can we do this with just hiking boots?

Will be there this Saturday, thanks!



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