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| Blanca/Ellingwood Beta |
I'll keep this one short. I'm sure there will be some better reports with some pics. Couple things you need to know. The road in from the bottom is brutal to hike. Your feet are beaten to a pulp by the time you get to the lake. Worst approach I've ever done! The ascent up Blanca is fairly straightforward. If you stay on route (which we didn't) it avoids some of the steepness of the whole thing. I think the sooner you gain the ridge the better off on this climb. The ridge provides some fun (safe) scrambling and the view to the other side of Blance is pretty cool. Not to mention that the ridge is solid compared to the side slope that leads up to it. The 'traverse' to Ellingwood is a lot of fun and fairly well cairned. There is no need to drop down more than a 100' or so below the ridge saddle. You will hit one spot where it seems like you should climb up and over a cliff rib....this is a mistake. Simply drop a few feet (to a not so obvious cairn) below and then continue along the side hill until you reach the end of the cliff bands. Study this a bit when you are on Blanca. You will see a groove in the rock that is similar to the avenue on Kit Carson. That's your traverse line. Time: 1 hour (or less) from Blanca summit to Ellingwood summit. Absolutely worth the effort to do both of these in one shot. Pick your own line for your descent. There's not a lot of trouble you can get into if you aim for the center region of the big bowl that seperates Blanca and Ellingwood.
Off topic, the 'silver sage steakhouse' (say that five times fast) in Fort Garland is worth a stop. My buddy had two beers and a massive burger. I had a cheeseburger and an ice tea. Total bill: $20 (and comes on a tray with two Hawaiian Cookie things) worth every penny (especially when your buddy pics up the tab).
May your summits be real and your cairns be plenty,
~Ace
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