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| Peak(s): |
Mt. Elbert - 14,438 feet
|
| Date Posted: |
03/20/2011 |
| Date Climbed: |
03/18/2011 |
| Author: |
kangstma |
| Elbert - East Ridge |
My friend and I had attempted Elbert in November, but I was missing some gear and we'd started late, so we ended up turning back at treeline since the weather was getting bad and we didn't think we had enough time to get back before dark. This time, we had a few winter 13ers and 14ers under our belts, so we were much more confident. We also had planned an overnight, just for the hell of it, so we planned on climbing up to around treeline Friday, then summiting on Saturday.
In November we could drive almost to the Northeast Ridge trailhead, so we figured since so much snow had melted we'd be able to get close again this time. Turned out not - the road was closed about 6 miles away, so we turned back and went around to the Black Cloud trailhead. We started up around 3 pm, so we figured we'd have plenty of time to get to treeline and set up camp.
From 9,700' to about 10,200' the trail was about half snow half mud - easy walking in just boots. With moderately heavy packs it was somewhat slow going, but not difficult. After 10,200' however, the snowpack was 2-4 feet deep and made for slow, painful walking. The snow has started to break down, so it's nothing but slush underneath an inch crust. Each step we took we'd posthole knee-deep or worse. We put on our snowshoes, but it made almost no difference. Sometimes the shoes would keep us up, but more than half the time we'd still posthole down past our knees.
It took us 3 hours to climb from 9,700' to 10,800', at which point it was getting dark and we had to set up camp. The campsite wasn't bad, and the weather was great, but the hike up was so miserable that we decided we didn't want to go through with the summit the next day. We slept in a bit, then hiked up again to around 11,400' just to see how the snow was (even that took an hour). It was slightly easier going during the morning as long as we kept to open spaces, but as soon as the trail would take us back in the woods we'd start postholing again.
I can't comment on the snowpack above treeline, but I'm assuming that it's probably perfect for crampons or microspikes at this point. Below treeline though, it's pretty miserable. The weather was great - 40's during the day and a low around 20 at night. I hiked in a baseball hat and a long sleeve shirt the entire time, and was warm at night in a 10 degree bag. Since we didn't make it, we'll be doing it again mid-April.
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