This is a collection of info/pics from a 1 night (planned 2 nights) trip in the Elks. Maybe somebody will find it helpful or inspiring for planning a trip to some of the Elks beautiful, and perhaps oft ignored unnamed 13ers.

The Elks are my favorite CO mountain range by far. They have unparelleled colors, ruggedness, and the terrain feels unique among anything I've seen in the whole world. Every time I'm here it feels like contrast is turned up a notch compared to everywhere else. Plus, they of course have their reputation for adventure, and I'm a sucker for choss. It's really a special place.

I hadn't been to the Elks all year and was itching to get my once-a-year minimum of loose Elk ridge scrambling, so I drove over with the intent of spending two nights camped at the base of Willoughby Mountain, since that area doesn't require reservation and was surrounded by 13ers I hadn't climbed yet. I tagged UN 13,541 off Indy pass for sunset on the way over and slept in my car there.

After breakfast in Aspen, I rolled up to the parking area for East Snowmass Creek and hiked up to my planned campsite. There were some wonderful camp spots in the trees with a nearby creek, so I was quite happy with my guess. After setting up and dumping unecessary gear, I crossed East Snowmass Creek (feet sunk deep into some bogwater) and started a gully up to Baldy Mtn. I had spotted a grassy ledge that looked like a reasonable way to gain the ridge on the right side of the gully, but unfortunately I traversed somewhat too early and ended up doing some loose 3rd/4th class scrambling across a cliff face, which did eventually get me to the ridge, but not without raining many projectiles. This is possibly the most technical climb of Baldy Mtn ever done :). Once on the ridge, it was steep but simple hiking to the unranked summit.

The traverse from Baldy to UN 13,255 is simple, and getting from there to the point marked 13,080 further south is also pretty easy, with a few 3rd class moves here and there.

Getting from this point to UN 13,350 is quite a daunting challenge however. Despite this ridge being less than half a mile, it throws endless, exposed rock towers at you. I dubbed this section in my mind as "Jawbone Ridge" upon seeing it from the basin when coming down, due to its likeness to the jawbone of a small animal. Even though it looked scary, I knew it went because Joseph Thompson put up a gpx. It's easy to get in your head when spending substantial time in terrain like this by yourself, so knowing others have been there before can really be a relief. Also eating food probably helps (oop). I believe this section took me somewhere on the order of 1.5 hours (unfortunarly my garmin watch was stolen out of my car earlier that week so I don't know exactly, but this alligns roughly with my photo timestamps). Whether to go around or over the towers is a constant choice here. I ended up going either left (east) or straight up most of the towers, but towards the end there are a few that are best done on the right (west) side. It's tough making these calls when you might have to do some sketchy climbing down the back side, but the face is steep rubble on small ledges with intense exposure. I'm not going to say what the best ways around any of the towers were, because I don't remember, nor do I think I took the best way every time. If you get up there, good luck! Expect lots of 4th class climbing at best.

The descent back to the pass (which is visually stunning, being red on one side and grey on the other. I'm sure it has a local name but I call it half-and-half pass) was a little annoying but not that difficult. I returned to base camp and prepped for my next day with no issues.

When it was time to leave camp it was dark and raining, so I slept another 30 minutes. Still dark and still raining, but if I wanted to get anything done today I had to get up and out... The rain quickly turned to snow/fog flurries which made it impossible to see more than 5 feet ahead of me with my headlamp, and soaked/chilled me pretty good. Upon reaching "half-and-half pass", there was also a fairly strong wind. I dropped over the other side and hiked along the base of the cliffs until I found a small cave accessable by a ledge where I could wait out the storm as the sun rose. I thought about turning around, knowing my feet and pants were going to be soaked for a long time, but after seeing the fog clear out and having a serene moment sitting on my pack in my idyllic little cliff dwelling, I decided to push on. Unfortunately though my predictions were correct and the brush going down towards Willow lake was wet, which makes my feet and legs very cold. I feel like I had wet feet more in 2025 than any other year in my life for some reason, sucks.

Eventually I got up Willow Pass, and by now the skies were clear and fresh snow was visible on the Bells and Pyramid, which increased the motivation substantially. I scrambled directly up the ridge to Buckskin BM, which had some steep class 3 mud, and hiked through a small amount of fresh snow along the mellow summit ridge. From there, I hiked south over Buckskin Pass and up to UN 13,048. This ascent proved a little challenging when slippery. I honestly hadn't researched this peak at all and had no idea it was going to have any scrambling difficulties, but those few steeper sections were coated in water, snow, and ice. I didn't really find, or look for, an easy way up the summit block, I took some short 4th/low 5th chimney that was apparent from where I was looking both up and down. Upon getting a close-up view from the summit, I decided to give up my goal of hitting Sleeping Sexton, which was one of the peaks I was really hoping to get to. One day I'll get back for it.

I hiked back to the saddle that's between Buckskin Pass and Buckskin BM and dropped towards the trail to Willow Pass from there, which honestly worked out great. I didn't have to regain a bunch of elevation on the trail, nor did I have to downclimb the steep mud. I hiked on trail back over to "half-and-half pass".

At this point I was feeling okay so I climbed the demoted UN 13,015 in a dense fog, just for the sake of the tag. Like before, everything was slippery and going a little slowly, but it went without much trouble aside from sliding my ankle into a rock once or twice. Upon descending the ridge things started to clear up. Originally I was going to spend another night and tag Willoughby in the morning of the third day, but bailing on Sleeping Sexton gave me some extra time, so I calculated the milage on the ridge and made the decision to keep going instead. The traverse to Willoughby ended up perhaps being the highlight of the trip, with epic clouds rolling off the ridgeline, crazy colors and views popping out in all directions, and fairly pleasant grassy ridge strolling.

Descending Willoughby's NE ridge was really tedious and made me glad I didn't climb up that way from camp, especially with the steep wet grass and scree. It ended in a super steep section of soppy deadfall that would've made for a much better ski run.

Upon returning to camp, I hung around soaking up the sun when it came out, put on some Beethoven and sat around for a few hours. I realized I still had a fair bit of time sitting around by myself before sleep would come, so I eventually decided to pack up and hike out. I don't really recall where I ended up sleeping in my car that night, but it gave me the time to do a little hike the next day I've been wanting to do for a long time, Midland Hill outside of BV. I've spent a LOT of time in the BV/Salida area over the years. I had a brief stint working at Monarch Mountain a few years ago on the weekends, and had a friend who would often let me stay at his place in BV, so it would've made me sad to not eventually find the time to get up the local hill. Give some love to your local 9ers!