Elbert conditions 1/31/10

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Aubrey
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Elbert conditions 1/31/10

Post by Aubrey »

Didn’t make it to the summit of Mt. Elbert on Sunday (1/31/10), but I thought I’d share some info on the conditions (East Ridge), for those interested.

We parked at the paved/lower trailhead at 9,600’. The lot was plowed and empty. Temp was 5 degrees. Mostly sunny. Chance of snow was in the forecast for the afternoon.

At 8:30 a.m. we started walking up the snow-covered road. Fortunately there were previous snowshoe tracks the whole way, and it was packed-down enough that we didn’t need our snowshoes. We still brought them, though, because we didn’t know what the upper trail would be like. After two miles on the road we made it to the trailhead.

After hitting the CDT / Elbert trail junction, we cached our heavy snowshoes in the hopes that the trail would be packed all the way up. For the most part, it was. Although there were a few occasions where we postholed. You just have to stay right in the middle of the tracks.

Even though the snow was mostly packed down, it was like walking in sand, which was rather exhausting.

Breaking out of the trees ... View toward the south / valley:

Image

Above treeline, the snow was mostly blown off so there was very little – if any – avalanche danger while on the ridge. The wind was insanely brutal though. So weird how it was completely still down below, but blowing like hell at a certain point on the ridge.

BTW, the snow on the ridge wasn’t all packed down and/or icy. We postholed up to our shins in a few spots, making the climb even more cumbersome.

By about 12:30 we made it to 13,000 feet and then called it quits, mainly because we were running out of time. We didn’t think we’d have enough time to get to the summit and then all the way back down before it got dark. Plus, we could see snow clouds in the mountains to our north and couldn’t tell what those clouds were doing on the other side of Elbert. Our main goal for the day was just training, which we achieved, so it wasn’t very disappointing to have to turn around.

Image

As we learned, in order to make the summit we should’ve started much earlier. The extra four miles RT on the road sucked up more time and energy than we expected.

On the other hand, our descent went pretty fast, even though it was plagued with some postholing issues. Gotta stay on the packed-down snow or this’ll happen:

Image

Made it back to our lonely truck in the parking lot at 2:40. Didn’t see anyone else on the mountain all day. All in all, we gained about 3,500’ and hiked 9 miles — all on snow.

Hope this helps someone.
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Doctor No
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Re: Elbert conditions 1/31/10

Post by Doctor No »

Wow - that last photo is bringing back bad memories of our attempt at La Plata on Saturday.
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Bean
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Re: Elbert conditions 1/31/10

Post by Bean »

It's not looking great but certainly better than it was before. Do you have any photos that show coverage on any of the other routes? I'm wondering if there are any top-to-bottom continuous lines available.
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Aubrey
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Re: Elbert conditions 1/31/10

Post by Aubrey »

Bean wrote:It's not looking great but certainly better than it was before. Do you have any photos that show coverage on any of the other routes? I'm wondering if there are any top-to-bottom continuous lines available.
Sorry, Bean, no great photos to share ... and I wasn't really looking/photographing with a skier's eye. The east ridge definitely had a lot of exposed rocks and grass so it would be hard to find a good line all the way down. Unless you didn't care about your skis.

Image

Image
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Re: Elbert conditions 1/31/10

Post by Bean »

Yeah that's pretty bad and I do in fact care about my bases. Hmm, maybe NE ridge.
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