Mt. Elbert

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 5/28/2024, By: Jkoch
Info: Great day with perfect weather. still a lot of snow up there. We used spikes for the ascent and they were fine. We left at 5am at upper 4wd trailhead. Topped out a little after 10 am. We hung out a little at the summit and headed down a little before 11. It was pretty warm at that time so we did use snow shoes and I found them to be beneficial. One guy from our group did not put his snow shoes on and seemed to get along fine but with lots of poshtoling. Long day for the 7 of us but we all summited. 9 hrs round trip. This was the first 14er for all but one of us. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 5/27/2024, By: HikesInGeologicTime
Info: There appears to be snow everywhere on this mountain except for the East Ridge from roughly 12,800 feet up to where it meets the summit slope, so if you were hoping to use this as a nice, mellow ski descent to be kind to injured body parts that would already be aggravated from the ascent, current forecasts seem to say better luck next year. Box Creek Couloirs appeared to have decent coverage still, although snow that was soft/punchy much of the time I was on it would likely have made me nervous about that option despite a green CAIC forecast even if I had been thought I would be able to convince my ankle it could totally handle terrain that steep after what I had put it through on the nice, mellow approach. No pics because I climbed in the dark in hopes of a sunrise summit; while the moon was bright enough to give me a good idea that the surprise tundra I found myself hiking was likely to be a feature rather than a bug for a few hundred feet, it probably was not bright enough to convey as much through the limits of my phone camera. While I did have much better view of the mountain that confirmed my earlier impressions in the morning sun as I was driving back north, I was making good time in hopes of beating the rest of the holiday traffic back to I-70, and anyway, my middle finger would have been at least partially blocking the view for most of the shots. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 5/25/2024, By: ladenedge
Info: Snow starts in patches at about one mile, and we put on microspikes at about two miles. Even starting at 5:30am, we had some postholing in the third mile. Tried snowshoes, but they ended up being more harm than good so we switched back. However, on the upper slopes - where even on a low-wind-forecast day it was pretty brutal - we were slipping pretty badly in microspikes (maybe even dangerously, since you could slide quite a ways if you lost your feet in a gust of wind). Switching to snowshoes for the steep final 1/2 mile made a *huge* difference in both our progress and sense of safety. I should mention again that the upper slopes were pretty rough (cold, windy, slow-going), even on a cloudless, low-wind day. We are somewhat relaxed (read: slow) hikers, and we summited at noon. Glissading down is highly possible right now, as the other hardy climber we summited with proved - looked pretty fun! Snow on the way down in the afternoon was okay until that last mile of snow, when even our showshoes were postholing like crazy and it was pretty miserable. We got back to the 4x4 trailhead at 3:30pm. Highly recommend an early start, of course, but trying to be down around noon would be best. Maybe even earlier as it starts to warm up. Good luck! 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 5/22/2024, By: Brian Garkie
Info: The trail from TH to treeline was about 90% snow. In the morning it was frozen and easily traveled with traction added to shoes. In the afternoon it was soft where snowshoes were very helpful. The stretch from the Colorado Trail to TH had slushy snow in the afternoon with plenty of exposure. Poles were very helpful. Above treeline there was 100% snow cover that was frozen, but the wind was brutal. I had my two teenagers with me. It was their first 14er attempt. We turned around at 13,000 feet due to cold. A couple of guys made it to the false summit and couldn't handle the wind chill either. Air temp was well below freezing from 12,000 feet up. Without the wind, summitting is doable as long as the snow above treeline stays frozen. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 5/23/2024, By: noah_kj
Info: Intermittent snow begins roughly 1/2 mile from the trailhead, with complete snow coverage beginning about 11,000ft. Had a good freeze overnight with low temps before and after sunrise (18 degrees at TH when we started at 4:30), so microspikes were the way to go aside from a short snowshoe stretch on the flatter terrain near treeline. Fresh snow the night before and increasing winds throughout the AM contributed to some growing wind slab risk in some areas, but the standard route up the ridge never seemed risky. If you want to get this one in soon, pick a day with a solid overnight freeze throughout the mountain, and start and finish early if you want to avoid slush and wet slide risk. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 5/22/2024, By: gregpeak
Info: The first mile is clear. The second mile is about half clear and half snow. From there to the summit is continuous snow. About 3-4 inches of new snow fell last night. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 5/19/2024, By: ztweb
Info: Still quite a bit of snow up there. From the trailhead, there were patches of easily crossable snow with longer stretches of dirt and mud between. Beginning around 11,500 feet, there was near-continuous snow all the way to the summit. I began just after 5am, summited at 8:20am, and got back to the trailhead around 11:10 after spending 10-15 minutes on the summit and multiple breaks on the way up and down. Snow was mostly hard and crusty during the ascent until the last 400-500 feet below the summit where I began to posthole to about my knee. I wore microspikes beginning around 12,000 feet. During the descent, the snow had softened considerably, so it was a slick and wet way down with some postholing. I switched to snowshoes on the summit and could not imagine what it would have been like going down without them. Overall, beautiful and pretty easy morning. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 5/14/2024, By: hexman2
Info: This trail was fully covered with powdery snow starting with about 1 foot deep to about 2 feet. We also put in a path with snowshoes, but it was way too hard to walk. so we turned around at 12,000 feet. The thing that made everything way more difficult was the fact that there was no signs or any visible trail marks. Definitely impossible to use this route to reach the summit. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 5/11/2024, By: Ssgustafson
Info: Continuous powdery snow on the route. It starts about 5-6" thick and at treeline it increases to about 1 foot. We put in a path with snowshoes, and one other person was skinning up. We turned around at 11,900'. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 5/4/2024, By: brian2018
Info: The approach trail was mostly clear of snow until ~11,000. From there it was fairly well covered to about 12,000. Spotty coverage from 12-13, above 13,000 full snow coverage. Skied from the summit, had to make 4 short boot packs on the way down the East ridge to move between areas where the snow has melted out. Left the summit at ~11am, snow above 13 was still good, snow between 13 and 11,5 was starting to get slushy. Should've been about an hour earlier. Trees on the way down were warm slush, skiable, but melting fast. Summer trail will probably be mostly free of snow below 13 within 2 weeks. 2 or 3 of the Box Creek chutes looked to have slid within the last 48 hours. Wind crust was noticeable on the ridge. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 4/21/2024, By: d_baker
Info: We drove up the road and got within 1/2 mile or so from 4wd TH. No issues, mostly melted out to that point. The quick road walk to TH is a mix of lingering snow/mud, and continuous but shallow snow. TH to treeline, mostly continuous snow, spotty in trees down low in some areas. Skiers kept skis on to the TH though on their descents. Above treeline, mix of thinning snow covered tundra, to deeper pockets of longer stretches of continuous snow. We didn't need/wear snowshoes in the morning and stashed snowshoes on ascent shortly after treeline with no regrets. Wore them down in afternoon from treeline to TH since we were punching through. Snowshoes for us were necessary and useful in the early afternoon hours for the descent from treeline. I didn't use traction at all today. A dozen or more skiers out today, from the summit and skiing the bowls. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 4/7/2024, By: tjagger
Info: Daniel (15 years old) and I started from the paved parking area at 8:15m and walked 1.8 miles to the summer trailhead. We used micro spikes on firm snow across the Colorado trail to the Mount Elbert trail. We followed a couple of boot prints to treeline. We switched to snow shoes all the way to the summit. The trail was tracked out in a few spots with boot tracks. We found that we should have started earlier with snow shoes as there was 4 or more feet of soft snow in places. The weather was 20 on top with light winds and sunny. We summited at 3:00pm, left at 3:30pm returning to the car 7 miles away at 7pm. The later finish meant that the snow was re consolidating towards sunset and easier to travel on. It was Daniels first winter condition fourteener. See https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/14774662814 for our day 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 3/26/2024, By: SageCanaday
Info: Parked at the South Elbert Trailhead. I was on skis and the other two in my party were on snowshoes...good choice! Solid trenchline up to 13,000' with a few splits and exposed rocks. I kept my skis on 99% of the time. It was quite sunny and warm this day and we summited around noon. I skied off the summit and it was fairly inconsistent feeling snow. Had to take care to avoid hitting rocks. The snow got better near treeline heading back to the CT. We saw maybe half a dozen other parties out this day (half on skis and half on snowshoes) 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 3/17/2024, By: sean23
Info: We climbed the east ridge from the 2WD TH. There was a solid trench till treeline. From 12000-12600, the trail was hard to follow. We ended up gaining the ridge rather than contour around. Visibility was poor, and we could not find previous tracks. The rest of the trail was easier to follow. Do NOT discard snowshoes once you get to the steep part of the ridge around 13200. Even above 14000, we were sinking into considerable snow and would have postholed. Wind has not scoured the summit area yet. Despite poor visibility for most of the trip, it was a great day in the mountains! 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 3/11/2024, By: CDubFTW
Info: We had to turn around at the tree line due to mountain sickness, but the trail was great. Solid trench with a few postholes , so watch your feet. Didnt use our snowshoes.