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"I saw you beat that man like I never saw no man before and the man kept coming after you!.....Now we don't need that kind of man in our life. I know what you're feeling. Let it go. Let it go. You're the champ........" Rocky 2
looking back
All good things must come to a end. Or so I've been told. In the summer of 2020 I was out hiking constantly. After four successful summits on Capitol Peak, I looked for a way to end the season with a bang. The answer was Ellingwood Ridge on La Plata Peak.
the start
Making my way up the ridge was actually one of the harder parts.It was easy to follow the trail up to treeline, then it became a huge talus hoping trek to gain the ridge, and was quite steep. I took a longer break once I topped out around sunrise.
plane buzzing the ridge
Shortly after making my way through the first set of obstacles along the ridge I heard something. I looked up and around, then spotted a small plane. It proceeded to buzz the ridge and I was lucky to get a picture of it. While not a F-22 or anything, it was still pretty cool.
the exposed west side, early on
There soon became a theme of the ridge, going up, and then going down. Then again, and again.
from the start of the ridgelooking back, farther on
It seemed like down climbing was also the theme of the day, along with route finding. Many times the correct way was either to the left, or sometimes up and over the towers. There were quite a few towers to bypass....
along the ridge
Early on I slowed my pace and focused on route finding. I did have to back climb a few times after thinking the right side looked good, then climbing into very sketchy terrain that was obviously not good. At one of these times I saw a person. The only person I ended up seeing all day. I went right and he went left. As I cliff-ed out I heard him say "come back and go this way, this way goes."
going left
He climbed ahead of me, and helped me out because I saw him navigate another obstacle farther ahead, then he was gone. The rest of the day I was out alone, but the weather was great this day. (as it seemed many of the 2020 hiking days that summer)
getting closer
Some wildfire smoke rolled in later in the day, but it was very light.
route finding
The middle to the last part of the ridge had the most challenging terrain to route find. The towers there were very deceiving.
the climber ahead
Just as one tower was navigated, another one would be next. In between some of these towers there was some loose rock, mixed with various gullies full of slippery dirt. Overall though, climbing on the ridge was solid. Even with all the back tracking I ended up doing.
tower to tower
I tried to stay along the top of the ridge the farther along I went, and eventually this long long ridge began to end and I got closer to the final climb to the peak. About this time I ran out of water, but was very committed so I just kept going.
atop the ridge
Route finding turned out to be very important. I believe that had I not done so many hikes, Capitol in particular before Ellingwood ridge, it would have been much harder.
Catwalk to finish off the ridge
I'm not totally sure how much of the ridge you are supposed to stay on top of...that is I think I did extra scrambling. I think the "standard way" is to once again drop down to the left. As mentioned, at this point I was quite tired of going down and up so I stayed high along the ridge.
off the ridge
There was still some scrambling off of the ridge on the main mountain part, but it was not too bad. I remember it being a steep climb to the summit.
looking back, nearing the summit
Finally, and I do mean finally, I spotted the summit.
the summit from east la plata
I topped out around 5 pm. I probably could have gone faster, but I wanted to be safe in my route finding. The weather was perfect and I could see to the west, so I was not worried about a late summit. Going down the standard way would be much easier too. When I got back to the th everyone was gone! I was the last person off the mountain that day. Ellingwood Ridge was everything I expected it to be, and more.
sunset going down
"You know, they say that people don't believe in Heroes anymore..... well damn them! You and me Max, we're going to give the world back its heroes!"
"Fifi, do you really expect me to go for that crap?"
"No, but you have to admit I sounded good didn't I?"....
"I'm not going to change my mind."
"Get out of here before I decide to come with you. You're hooked Max and you know it!" ----Mad Max
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
Been there, tried that, no summit but still epic! 10/12/2023 9:57am
Congrats! That's awesome, I'm always impressed by folks who complete this route, and love hearing such stories of personal perseverance and mountaineering success.
I made an attempt on Ellingwood with my then-19-year old son some 6 years ago (September 2017). We did not reach the summit due to many factors. Early on my brand-new camelback bladder sprung a pinhole leak as soon as we started, costing us 1/3-1/2 our water, and the challenging route-finding was relentless and slow. At 12:20, approximately 2/3 of the way along the ridge we decided to turn back due to physical/mental/emotional exhaustion, dehydration and lack of water, and gathering potential weather. It had taken us almost 7 hours to get to that point, it took us almost 7 hours to get back to the car, a 14-hour day. Although we didn't reach the summit we learned a lot about the mountain, ourselves and each other. I am very proud of how my son conducted himself on this challenging adventure, he became my full and equal partner in route-finding, decision-making, and partner support, and we went on to many further 14er adventures together. Eventually I climber La Plata via the SW Ridge route. One day I may return to Ellingwood Ridge...or not. Either way it was an epic day that I (and he) will never forget!
God how I hated this route. By the time I got to the summit--like 12 hours after I started--I was literally bloodied, battered, and near my red-line for energy exertion. The standard route looked like a freakin' rainbow road on the way down.. Never have I ever wanted more on a mountain than to crawl into a ball and just teleport somewhere else. No part of this route was fun. Tedious, nearly impossible route-finding, with endless second-guessing and up and down. It was an epic adventure, but never again will you see me on that ridge. To this day, I have nightmares about this climb *shudder*
(I am sure it wasn't that bad and I was just having an off-day. I had more than 65 14er summits by this point and was well-versed in route-finding and difficult scrambles. This thing just did me in, though).
After a few years of other hikes and thinking I've thought this route could be labeled as a "extreme " in the commitment rating. I expected it to be hard, but the ridge just seemed to go on forever.
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