Mt. Elbert Trip Report 06/23/2012

Report Type	Mini
Peak(s)	Mt. Elbert - 14,438 feet
Date Posted	06/23/2012
Date Climbed	06/22/2012
Author	bcm1234

3rd time's the charm!
Where to begin, I guess I start where I first started at the Harvard/Columbia trailhead, I went to bed that night very nervous of what I was going to be doing the coming morning. After an hour of restless sleep, I woke up to sound of the people next to me getting into their car. I ended up talking to them a came to find that it had taken them nearly 15 hours to do the trip. At this point I knew that I needed to reconsider what I was doing because I had only packed enough water for about 8 hour or hiking. I quickly pulled out my iPhone and used the 14ers app (great app btw) to decided to go take on Elbert. This was a great decision, while the drive to get the trail was hard at 10:00pm i made it in one piece. I met some other nice guys that night and decided to join them the next morning for the hike since it was just me. We left the next morning at about 5:50am and while the trail is easy, it defiantly gets steep at points but nothing too bad. Do not be fooled tho, the "summit" is the first of two that you have to over come, then once over the first the second one laughs at you as you climb it, but once up it, the third summit is the correct one. We summited in about 3hrs and 25 min, spent 45 min at the top then started the long trek down. We ended the hike on at about 6 hours round trip with was very exciting for me. Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

3rd time's the charm!

Where to begin, I guess I start where I first started at the Harvard/Columbia trailhead, I went to bed that night very nervous of what I was going to be doing the coming morning. After an hour of restless sleep, I woke up to sound of the people next to me getting into their car. I ended up talking to them a came to find that it had taken them nearly 15 hours to do the trip. At this point I knew that I needed to reconsider what I was doing because I had only packed enough water for about 8 hour or hiking. I quickly pulled out my iPhone and used the 14ers app (great app btw) to decided to go take on Elbert. This was a great decision, while the drive to get the trail was hard at 10:00pm i made it in one piece. I met some other nice guys that night and decided to join them the next morning for the hike since it was just me. We left the next morning at about 5:50am and while the trail is easy, it defiantly gets steep at points but nothing too bad. Do not be fooled tho, the "summit" is the first of two that you have to over come, then once over the first the second one laughs at you as you climb it, but once up it, the third summit is the correct one. We summited in about 3hrs and 25 min, spent 45 min at the top then started the long trek down. We ended the hike on at about 6 hours round trip with was very exciting for me.

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

cfb	Smart Move 6/24/2012 4:23pm Most of us have set our sights a little high in pursuing some of our endeavors. It was a good move to reconsider and congrats on bagging Elbert. Although Elbert's not too difficult, it's a haul
zephyr_pelicante	Good call 6/24/2012 11:20pm H&C definitely take more than 8hrs for the average hiker so its good you made the decision. Good job on Elbert, glad you had a good time. I often hear hikers lament about Elbert's false summits!

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