Mount Elbert

On a beautiful August day, Julia, Yeti and I decided to hike a bit longer more difficult route up the tallest mountain in the Rockies, Mount Elbert (14,443'). We choose the Black Cloud trailhead. This trail has the most vertical gain at over 5,300' of any routes of the mountain. Depending on who you talk to, this route also covers two 14ers. We didn't see another person on the trail until the summit.

This isn't the longest 14er that I've climbed, but it was certainly one of the hardest. The round trip time on the trail was a little over 10 hours. The trail wasn't well maintained and non-existent for many stretches, probably due to it's lack of popularity. The way up the steep, dirt sections wasn't bad, but the way down was rough! It was good fun, but I'm not yet sure if I would recommend that route to anyone else. There are several other routes that are surely more enjoyable. Another one down....

-Erich