Mt. Elbert - March 6th, 2004
After our first winter ascent of Quandary Peak thre weeks earlier, Angi and I decided it was time for something bigger. In fact, in Colorado, there is nothing bigger (taller) than Mt. Elbert. We had planned on ascending Mt. Elbert Trail, camping, and summiting and returning on day 2.
This trip was fraught with logistical problems. Firstly, I had just purchased a new tent, which in fact is my first actual winter tent. Secondly, Angi had been quite sick with a chest cold all week. Thirdly, the weather did not look good for Saturday, but looked like it would clear for summit day.
Weather wise, our main concern was the wind. There was a high wind advisory in effect for all day saturday, and when we were doing our last minute shopping before leaving Boulder, a large gust of wind tore the car door from Angi's hand and broke it! Needless to say, it was a bad omen!
Next, as we left town we came across what we could see was a large accident on Colo. 93. We could see quite a few firefighters struggling against strong winds and blowing snow, working on an overturned semi, obviously by the wind. We were told the road to Golden was closed. The National Wind Technology Center, between Boulder and Golden recorded sustained winds of 55 mph, and a few gusts at 100 mph!
We had to drive quite a while in the wrong direction to reach I-70, and even then, near golden we waited in a traffic jam due to four overturned semi trailers within a single mile. Fortunately, winds decreased as we headed west. By the time we had reached Leadville, it was snowing, cold, and breezy, but it seemed like we would be OK.
Now, further troubles. Gerry Roach has never failed me, until now. Call it nit-picking, but it was a pain to figure out. He states South Mount Elbert Trailhead is "at the northwest end of Lakeview Campground" The campground is closed in winter, and it is difficult to access the actual trailhead at the NW end of the campground. You can, however, park 200 yards beyond the campground entrance at the turnout on the left side of the road. From this turnout, you can see the trailhead described by Roach below you to the south. The trail from here is the 4x4 road which starts a few yards to the north.
After quite a bit of confused wandering, both in the car, and on foot, we finally headed off up the 4x4 road. Some people had driven on the snow packed and muddy road, but you could only drive about half a mile before it quickly became impassible. This road follows some of the most impressive groves of aspen trees I have ever seen. It was wonderful to see them. I could only imagine what it would look like at high season. I may have to come back to see them.
We made pretty good time, not wearing snowshoes, and found ourselves at the 4x4 summer parking in a little over an hour. The trail steepens quite a bit at this point. Angi was getting pretty tired, and since it is so much work hauling overnight gear up a steep trail, we stopped at an obvious campsite at 10,900'. We had not needed our snowshoes on the ascent thus far. As we had setup the new tent a few times indoors, it went up pretty easily.
After a comfortable night, we slept in a bit. I had figured we were reasonably close to the summit (3000' vertical), and we did not need an early start, especially since the wind was forecast lessen as the day progressed. We put our snowshoes on and left the tent at 9am.
Soon after we had left, we crested a small ridge (11,000'), and snow conditions changed dramatically. While before we had been ascending next to a steep gully, we were now traversing along a ridge in the bottom of a wide expanse of willows. The blowing snow from the previous few days had piled up in the gap in the trees where the trail went. Initially, we would sink about a foot or so in our snowshoes. Breaking trail at this point was slow, but not too bad.
The snow continued to get worse as thick trees block sunlight, and prevented formation of any sort of sun crust. We were now sinking knee deep in 4' snow, and moving very slowly. Soon, it became apparent that this was not going to work, and we stopped a few times to look at the map, and consider our options. At one of our stops, were were met from behind by another, solo, climber. He had been on the trail before in summer, and broke trail for a while. After another half hour, now sinking thigh deep in snow so soft my poles would sink beyond the surface of the snow, we came to the realization it was futile to continue.
At one of the stops to consider our fate, I had seen a grassy outcropping up the ridge to the north. I had hoped this meant shallow snow cover. This ridge is continuous, and meets the trail which leads to the summit. In fact, the snow cover on the section was bearable, but there were still a few sections in which we sank considerably. I was getting frustrated with our predicament, and questioned, out loud, Angi's route choice while leading. Needless to say, our combined frustration combined with my criticism did not lead to a good mood as we continued up the ridge.
The aspen forest continued to thicken, and we were now really bushwhacking up teh ridge, which was steepening, but the snow cover continued to be adequate. After almost an hour, we were within sight of the ridge, and had to remove our snowshoes to continue to the top of the ridge. We sat down for a break.
I checked the GPS, and chatted with Angi. She was still very angry about my earlier comments, and wanted to go home. I noted we had ascended only 600' in almost three hours of hard effort. At 11:40 we made the decision to head home. The summit was probably four hours away, if things went well from there on out. While the possibility still existed, we were not in the condition to continue.
We arrived back in camp in 45 minutes. After resisting the urge to nap in the warm, dry tent, we at lunch and broke camp. Our hike out was made pleasant by the good weather, and we got to get a good look at the surrounding area, since it was obscured by clouds on our trip up. After a few hours of Sunday traffic on I-70, we found ourselves at home. We stuffed our faces, and fell asleep.

GPS Data:

Waypoints Text File