Mt. Elbert Trip Report 01/19/2013

Report Type	Full
Peak(s)	Mt. Elbert - 14,438 feet
Date Posted	01/19/2013
Date Climbed	01/19/2013
Author	Bethie

Mt Elbert - East Ridge
Mt Elbert 14,433 ft S Mt Elbert TH 11.2 miles 4850 ft Steve Cassin, Katie Goodwin, Tiffany Cap & Beth Bershader We were supposed to backpack & climb Elbert last wkend but since the weather was so brutally cold & miserable we opted out. But we still had the Elbert itch so we went back this wkend to do it as a day hike. We started from the S Mt Elbert TH at 7am. Many cars passed us driving up to the summer TH, not sure why we didn't drive up?!* Anywho, it only took 40 minutes to reach the summer TH & we were surprised by the # of cars & people. Ran into Kevin Baker with his group just pulling in & said howdy then moved on. We quickly reached the turnoff & headed steeply up the slopes quickly realizing we wouldn't need snowshoes as the trail was pretty well trampled down. We ditched our snowshoes in some trees right below treeline & I left an extra bottle of water here for later. It felt like we hit treeline really fast. It was a bluebird sunny super warm day, lucky us! Up we went chit chatting away gaining the saddle at 13k where it got a little windy & chilly. We glanced down on the line of people coming up from below. The switchbacks disappeared and we made our own way up the slope now out of the wind & enjoying the warmth once again. We reached the summit where some guys from Indiana were hanging out with their buddy from Co Spgs & another guy by himself from Co Spgs. Woot! Woot! We were standing on the roof of Colorado! Gotta love it! Took about 4.5 hrs to summit. We got our obligatory group photo & had a quick bite enjoying the views & chatting up with these guys for about 30 minutes then decided to head down. We stayed on as many snow slopes as possible to make the descent go quickly. Said hello again to Kevin Baker & his buddies on their way up the final slopes. Down down down sliding effortlessly down. Ran into a dude from Michigan hoping to reach the summit before dark to camp on top. Reached our snowshoes, took another long break here for some snacks, water & to strip some layers as it was feeling very Florida like!! Started off again, ran into Hoot's group on their way up backpacking in to climb the peak the next day. From there we literally jogged & slid our way down laughing the whole way back to the summer TH. Then it was a 20 min slog on the road back to the cars. Only 2.5 hours down making it a 7.5 hour day finishing at 2:30!! Not too shabby. It was a good day!!

Mt Elbert - East Ridge

Mt Elbert 14,433 ft
S Mt Elbert TH
11.2 miles
4850 ft

Steve Cassin, Katie Goodwin, Tiffany Cap & Beth Bershader

We were supposed to backpack & climb Elbert last wkend but since the weather was so brutally cold & miserable we opted out. But we still had the Elbert itch so we went back this wkend to do it as a day hike. We started from the S Mt Elbert TH at 7am. Many cars passed us driving up to the summer TH, not sure why we didn't drive up?!* Anywho, it only took 40 minutes to reach the summer TH & we were surprised by the # of cars & people. Ran into Kevin Baker with his group just pulling in & said howdy then moved on. We quickly reached the turnoff & headed steeply up the slopes quickly realizing we wouldn't need snowshoes as the trail was pretty well trampled down. We ditched our snowshoes in some trees right below treeline & I left an extra bottle of water here for later. It felt like we hit treeline really fast. It was a bluebird sunny super warm day, lucky us! Up we went chit chatting away gaining the saddle at 13k where it got a little windy & chilly. We glanced down on the line of people coming up from below. The switchbacks disappeared and we made our own way up the slope now out of the wind & enjoying the warmth once again. We reached the summit where some guys from Indiana were hanging out with their buddy from Co Spgs & another guy by himself from Co Spgs. Woot! Woot! We were standing on the roof of Colorado! Gotta love it! Took about 4.5 hrs to summit. We got our obligatory group photo & had a quick bite enjoying the views & chatting up with these guys for about 30 minutes then decided to head down. We stayed on as many snow slopes as possible to make the descent go quickly. Said hello again to Kevin Baker & his buddies on their way up the final slopes. Down down down sliding effortlessly down. Ran into a dude from Michigan hoping to reach the summit before dark to camp on top. Reached our snowshoes, took another long break here for some snacks, water & to strip some layers as it was feeling very Florida like!! Started off again, ran into Hoot's group on their way up backpacking in to climb the peak the next day. From there we literally jogged & slid our way down laughing the whole way back to the summer TH. Then it was a 20 min slog on the road back to the cars. Only 2.5 hours down making it a 7.5 hour day finishing at 2:30!! Not too shabby. It was a good day!!

Comments or Questions

Crestoner	snowshoe lost? 1/22/2013 12:13am Did anyone in your group lose a MSR snowshoe?
Bethie	not us 1/22/2013 1:16am lol, that's kinda funny. but no one in our group lost a snowshoe. there were a lot of people up there this past weekend though.
Crestoner	OK 1/22/2013 5:24am OK, just checking with you. I posted a FOUND in the Forum. Hopefully, the owner is someone on this website, and they'll see the post and recover their shoe! Kind of ironic...someone hauled snowshoe up the mountain, didn't need it (or the other one...) at all, and then it dropped off their pack on the descent.
kgurvin	Planning on heading up for Easter 3/17/2013 3:46am Hi Beth, Ken here, have you heard any recent beta on the climb? I am planning to do it as an overnight Easter weekend with some of my WCS students. Any beta would be appreciated.

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