Aug 10
26
Distance: 10 Miles
Elevation Gain: 5400″
Starting Elevation: 10,450′
Rating: Difficult
This hike is one of Colorado’s 54 official fourteeners and also the second highest peak in the lower 48 states behind Mt. Whitney which is only about 35 feet taller. Elbert has several different approaches and we chose to hike the Black Cloud Trail from the south to reach the summit. This trail started just outside the cabin where we stayed at Mt Elbert Lodge.
View from Mt Elbert
The weather was a little iffy from the beginning but we know how fickle it can be this time of year so we decided to try and see how far we could get. We made sure to bring all the appropriate rain gear just in case. As you can imagine the trail started climbing right off the bat and gained altitude quickly.
We reached a saddle where we would turn more westerly and head to South Mt. Elbert which is also above 14,000 feet but isn’t counted as an official 14er because there has to be a drop in elevation of at least 500′ between the two peaks to be included.
At the saddle we took a little break to consider the clouds and whether or not we should continue. Clouds had been building but were moving off to the north rapidly and didn’t appear to be an immediate threat. In hindsight, we probably should have turned back but we got summit fever. The hike over South Elbert was pretty mild and the views from this high reach as far as the eye can see.
The climb starting up to Elbert was over large talus and slow going with not much of a trail from here… just keep going up, up, up. It started to sleet a little bit and temps were dropping but it’s not noticeable when your heart rate is up. By the time we reached the top, clouds had blanketed the ridge and summit so you couldn’t see anything! After all that work, no views from the top and it was starting to snow/ice. The sandwiches we brought were eaten in haste so we could start our descent.
This was a little tricky since there is no clear trail on this side and we were enveloped in clouds. No worries. Just take it slow and go down. Once back to the saddle, the trail was obscured and we were a little lost. After searching around for awhile, Jon decided he recognized the place where we took a short break so we knew we were in the right vicinity but still no luck finding the trail down.
I have to say, this was probably the most nervous I have been about being seriously lost and was not looking forward to calling search and rescue. Almost at that moment, the clouds started breaking! Yea!! Looking down the mountain way below us was a trail. It required some bushwacking over fairly steep grassy, rocky terrain but doable.
We found the trail and it was the right one and I was so relieved. By this time we had added a good mile and a few hundred extra feet in elevation so I was pretty tired but so happy and we made it the rest of the way without incident. One thing that struck me on this hike and others as well is that we encountered other hikers that were heading up as we were on our way down and they were going into the cloud abyss.
I explained to them what we had run into on the top and how it was extremely difficult to find the trail but they pushed on. All in all it was a great hike. Nothing technical or extreme just good steady elevation gain and it was so nice to be back to our cabin at the end of the hike.
