Mt. Elbert

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 8/22/2024, By: sky_high
Info: CFI is still doing trail work, so be mindful. Trail is in good shape, still no water past the trailhead. Expect showers and thunder and get below treeline by 1pm. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 8/10/2024, By: hsfedina
Info: CFI has done a great job. Switchbacks all the way up to the spine now. Lot in great shape, not one issue on the trail. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 8/6/2024, By: jimdvr
Info: The trail is in great shape. A crew from CO 14ers Initiative was building steps on a section of trail at about 13,000. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/16/2024, By: JiriClimber
Info: Nice, dry until noon then small showers and thunder. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 7/7/2024, By: Novicewhofailsmore
Info: Great weather. Last 1000 feet was very windy. This was a very physical hike. It felt like being on a stairmaster for 5 hours. The elevation gain is continuous. No natural springs past the 4X4 TH. It took all my extremities to make it. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 6/23/2024, By: Kcmartinez22
Info: Full summer conditions barring some snow fields hanging on around 13,600. Super easy to get creative and make it NBD. Skeeters are back. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/20/2024, By: stimko
Info: There were two small snow patches on the trail and one was easily avoidable. Full on summer conditions! 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/14/2024, By: Kuhlph
Info: What a beautiful climb! Didnt need snowshoes or spikes. A few patches of snow but either firm enough to traverse without snowshoes or easily avoided. Watch out at about 13,500 ft. The trail forks - there is no marking. We took the right fork which left us at a dead end after a sketchy snow traverse. Better to go straight up the mountain. See photo - look for the divergence. We took the better path on the way down. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/9/2024, By: AllADream
Info: The trail is almost in summer conditions. Theres some snow near tree line and the upper mountain you still have to get through but some is easily avoidable. Got to the summit in trail runners and no micro spikes, only slipped on a handful of steps. Did not miss them. On the way down I found a snowboard. If its yours and you can describe it, shoot me a message! 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 6/8/2024, By: blonde_dinosaur
Info: Very similar conditions to what catward77 posted on June 5. First of all, this is a delightful trail. Kudos to everyone who did trail work on it because it is awesome. I parked at the lower TH because Im a chicken but was lucky to get a ride up to the upper TH (thank you Jamie!). Im including a photo of the water crossing - it was raging pretty hard this afternoon. There is no snow below treeline, avoidable snow at treeline, and right above treeline is a snow traverse with very low consequence if you fell. Snow this morning was surprisingly good - still was supportive despite the warmth of the last few days. After the traverse, you can avoid the snow if you go off route, except for the last 600 ft or so (second pic). Most people opted to go straight up instead of doing switchbacks. Its a pretty low angle slope. Snow is melting out fast. My snowshoes got a free ride up and down the mountain. Unless you are starting in the legitimate afternoon you do not need them. Even then the snow was mashed potatoes and I dont know how much they would help. Summited at 9:30, started to descend around 10:15 with great plunge stepping conditions. Snow right above treeline was a disaster but cest la vie. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/8/2024, By: Jschoneboom
Info: Made the river crossing in my outback w/no issues. stepped off at about 6 and made summit around 9;30. Great snow all morning until the sun did its thing. We just used our yak Trax at about tree line up to the summit. No snowshoes are needed. Some post holing on the way down in short sections. Nothing crazy. Awesome day. 

Route: Northwest Gully
Posted On: 6/5/2024, By: Jcinco
Info: Climbed the West gully and skied the NW gully. Skied at 1pm and conditions were excellent down to about 12k, where conditions deteriorated. The W gully, which terminates just south of the summit, is in pretty fat, although the snow terminates mid-talus at about 14,200ft. The steeper and more varied NW gully, which runs from just north of the summit, is skiable from the summit via a snow tongue that runs along the rib dividing the W and NW gullies (the NW couloir, which joins the NW gully slopes and begins about 100 yards north of the summit, is bare of snow until well below 14,000ft). Excellent 3200 foot descent to South Halfmoon Creek. Halfmoon Creek is currently RAGING, making for an interesting crossing to start the day. Careful scouting will reveal an alternative to wading at the road crossing, although you will still get wet. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 6/5/2024, By: catward77
Info: Subaru Outback made it just before the stream crossing but did not attempt; saw someone with similar clearance (Toyota something) make it just fine. Main 4WD lot is only 10-ish minutes walking from there. Started around 4:45am from stream crossing. Very little snow on trail until almost out of treeline. Beyond that, you could bypass a lot of the snow until the summit push, but not without leaving the official trail. Above treeline, used spikes to the summit. Some softness but nothing annoying. Summited around 8:45am, began descent at 9:40am. Snow was softening by 10:15 but very minimal postholing. Feet sank 3-4 inches, allowing me to pretty much run down the snow. I brought snowshoes but never used them; if your time-of-day is similar to mine or earlier, I really don't think they're needed anymore on this route unless you're not okay with a couple short stretches of postholing. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 6/4/2024, By: ajpatella
Info: I was able to drive all the way to the 4WD TH in my Honda Pilot with no issues. Below tree line, I didn't use spikes at all since it was perfect except for a few drifts. Above tree line I threw on my spikes for most of it, except one section where I was using my snowshoes. You probably don't need to, but I had a pretty warm day and it hadn't frozen well overnight and I was just annoyed with the post holes. It was super freaking windy and somewhat unpleasant on the summit, but overall it was in pretty good condition for hiking. I kept losing the trail but if you're more diligent than me you could probably keep on it. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 6/2/2024, By: Nick_B
Info: Started 2:45am, 0.6 mile below East Ridge Trailhead (top of FSR 125B). Early start to ensure firm snow on ascent. Summited 7:20 am, hung out for 40min up top, descended 8am, arrived back at car 10:15am. 4WD road (125B) is totally dry and accessible, no scary or gnarly sections. I drive a stock Honda CRV, never hit or scraped anything. There's a creek 3/4 of the way in, and I was not confident in crossing it so I parked below. Anybody with a decent truck, SUV, or Subaru could shoot across the creek no problem. Weather = Blue Bird skies. Wind was mild, occasional gust that would come through strong but on average it wasn't bad at all. Snow condition = I took an early start to avoid postholes and not have to use snowshoes (yes, I did bring some just in case). Walked on micro spikes all the way to the summit, zero issues. I did notice about 7:30am the crust softened where the first 1-2" would compress which was actually kinda nice. By 8, the snow was definitely softening, but not postholing. 8:15, postholes start happening. 8:30, super frequent post holing and quite annoying. 8:45, I think I invented some new cuss words. 9am, I'd say by this time the snow is garbage. You either need to be back at treeline by 9, or just plan to use snowshoes. Trail notes = don't follow the East Ridge route via OnX app, it is wrong and a bushwhacked winter route. Just stick to the South Elbert trail the whole way. If you want to minimize elevation gain, use South Elbert summer trail all the way to the summit, requiring you to hook a left once you get to the top of Box couloir. At that junction you'll notice a boot trail shooting straight up; Go for it if you've got the cardio... I unfortunately did not, so I hooked left to the switchbacks to lessen the angle of ascent. The boot trail was the perfect descent line, just too steep for me on the uphill portion of the hike.