In addition to documenting my day for personal reflection, I am writing to emphasize the strenuousness of this route. The rock quality was poor, the exposure is considerable and the technical moves are complicated by loose dirt and rock. These difficulties are exacerbated by the tedious and unintuitive route finding.
Before Ellingwood Ridge, I had completed the CO 14ers and three of the four great 14er to 14er traverses. I believe that La Plata Peak via Ellingwood ridge is the most "stressful" day hike that I have encountered. The most general advice I would give anyone is to not do this route unless you have a bee in your bonnet about it AND you have plenty of experience with route finding.
The route begins with some bush whacking on a social trail. Once you break tree line, there are 2,000 vertical feet of bouldering and talus ahead of you. This section is very steep and loose. I recommend putting on a helmet before climbing. The fun begins after gaining the ridge. The exposure begins immediately and does not let up until you summit "East La Plata". There is no reprieve from the exposure and there are no escape routes. Most of the route is off of the east side (hikers left) when not on the ridge direct. There are a couple exceptions. Be mentally prepared to cliff out and double back. I experienced this more than a handful of times.
There are too many decisions that need to be made along this route in order to build a fully encompassing description. The phrase "There's more than one way to skin a cat" accurately describes my experience. I opted to make a technical move in order to avoid loose dirt and exposure more than once. Keeping this ridge to class 3 and below is possible... Taking a class 4 or 5 option over a less safe alternative may be the right decision for you.
Total time: 14:11 hours
Elevation gain: 5,800'
Mileage: 12 miles (We missed the initial turnoff and added some distance)
Download GPX file used in this map
