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| Hiking | 9.00 Miles |
4,700 AEG |
| | Hiking | 9.00 Miles | 5 Hrs 44 Mns | | 1.91 mph |
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| 4,700 ft AEG | 1 Hour 1 Min Break | | |
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| no partners | | I couldn't leave Colorado without trying one of its 14ers! We thought we might as well do Elbert because it's the tallest (let the state highpoint bagging begin!  ) and relatively "easy" (read: less technical) compared to other 14ers. That said, it still took a little bit of willpower to get to the top.
We started out around 8:00 AM, a little later than I would have liked, but the weather said it was going to be pretty clear the entire day, so we decided some extra sleep was a better idea. Plus, Leadville is freak'n cold in the morning, even in July.
Funny side story. I saw my first black bear! After nearly 3 weeks of being in the backcountry of Colorado, I saw my first black bear right outside our room at the Super 8 Hotel in Leadville, go figure. He high tailed it as soon as I opened the window to take a picture (we were on the 3rd floor).
Not a whole lot to say about this trip, put simply its exhausting going up and hurts coming down. We felt like we made pretty good time because after a ~30 minute break on the summit we past several groups of people just about to reach the summit on the way back down that we had passed on the way up.
It may be one of the easier 14ers, but it definitely wasn't an easy hike. Around 13,500 ft it becomes a crawl to get up the mountain because it feels like there is no air. There was one particularly steep section (relative to what I've hiked before) where the trail gains a considerable amount of elevation in a short distance up to the first false summit.
This was my first 14er  , but definitely not my last! |
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