From: ajs@hpfcdt.HP.COM (Alan Silverstein)
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 87 10:40:50 MDT
Subject: Re: Trip report: Snowmass Mountain
Newsgroups: hpnc.general

Tuesday, September 8 -- South Elbert (14134'), Mount Elbert (14433')

The weather looked so crummy I nearly gave up on climbing. But it ended up an enjoyable, mellow day hiking through beautiful scenery, one of the best vacation days I ever spent.

Late the afternoon before I split up with the others at Marble (see previous report) and drove down to Colorado 133, then north to Carbondale. After futzing around a while buying needed supplies and having dinner I decided to turn east towards Aspen, the long way home. I abandoned the notion of spending time at Glenwood Springs and going home on I70, or for that matter just passing through Glenwood and reaching home late that night. ("I took the road less travelled, and it made all the difference.")

When I reached Aspen at nearly 8pm I was so tired I crashed for the night at the Christiania Motel. You know, the place with the hot tub (yum). It sure beat another two hours of driving followed by a cold night camping in the national forest.

The alarm went off at 0400 Tuesday morning. Nice try. No way. I finally got rolling at 0540 and left Aspen in cold, wet, overcast pre-dawn darkness. Independence Pass, 12095', was deserted and gloomy, quite a contrast from usual. As over the last several days, thanks to the haze from California fires, sunrise was "late and slow". By the time I passed Twin Lakes it was pretty light but still mostly cloudy and gloomy.

I'd planned to drive almost to Leadville, then west up SR300 to the Halfmoon Creek road and SW around the back side of Mount Elbert to about 11400'. This would put me as close and high as possible to both summits, but would require a lot of extra driving and then steep, rotten climbing. Combined with the late start and the bad weather I was unexcited about the idea. So, at County Road 24 just past Twin Lakes, I got wanderlust and turned left to go exploring. The paved road leads uphill to Lakeview Campground, a nice spot high above the reservoirs.

Beyond the campground and just past a marked vista point there is an unsigned dirt road that turns left. I knew from the forest and topo maps that it probably led west to about 10500'. Sure enough, 1.9 miles later along the road, it more or less ended at the Bartlett Gulch creek crossing deep in trees. It's 4WD most of the way and rough at the end, but is a pretty drive through tall aspens, especially this golden time of year. The Colorado Trail (was "Main Range Trail") runs along the road and continues beyond its end. There are a number of side roads; take the main one all the way.

So there I was at 0720, in the right place to start a climb, and the weather looked better as the sky brightened. I thought "what the heck" and slowly got everything ready. By 0815 it had stabilized at partly cloudy and I settled on taking the whole day off work. I didn't expect to make the peaks, but figured it would be fun to explore.

In retrospect I can see this is just about the very best trailhead for Mount Elbert or South Elbert. Perhaps a quarter mile up the Colorado Trail there is a left fork which leads rather directly to the main summit. I wasn't sure it was there and, before reaching it, when the trail began to drop more than I liked just beyond a small lake, I cut left into thick aspen trees and cross-countried towards my goal. I did a lot of bushwhacking and boghopping before entering an open pine forest on a ridge (just south of the trail, it turned out).

Here I had an unusual encounter with a little brown bunny rabbit, less than a year old. I almost stepped on it. Apparently it thinks it's pretty invisible and freezes if detected, and when it hops away it doesn't go far. I took some pictures, followed it around a while, and finally caught it gently. It didn't like that one bit, so I let it go and left it a couple of nuts to say thanks.

Just beyond this point I stumbled across the Mount Elbert trail. I immediately realized I had simply short-cut it, and followed it west through thinning trees to above timberline. Heavy but scattered clouds continually blew from the NW. I stopped several times to gaze across a magnificent alpine bowl east of and between the two peaks, lush with fall-colored vegetation and alive with running water.

At about 11900' I cut off the trail again to traverse directly towards the base of South Elbert across the upper part of the lovely bowl. All the while I watched the weather warily and told myself not to be disappointed at having to turn back at any moment. And I kept an eye out for shelter from possible lightning, which never materialized due to the cold wintry weather. I made more and longer stops than usual. Funny how you can slow down 20% and enjoy a hike 100% more. Already I was exhilarated by the scenery and certain the day was not wasted, no matter the outcome.

Well, I kept going, to the base of the peak, past an ice-cold and ice-rimed spring, beyond the last shallow shelter, and up steep grassy slopes. It was apparent that there were no thunderstorms building. High on the east ridge of South Elbert I encountered a young guy from California carrying a heavy pack, heading much the same way. It was a pleasant surprise running into another person.

I reached the broad, bouldery top of South Elbert at 1240 (3630' in 4:25). The larger weather pattern was scattered cumulonimbus blowing through with areas of snow falling in the distance, quite marvelous to behold as long as it posed no threat. The main peak loomed bare and barren 550' higher and almost a mile north. After a 25 minute break I continued toward it, a gentle NW drop down the massive rounded ridge to the wide double saddle at 13880+'. Going up (north) is a bit steeper, but there is something of a trail on the ridge.

At 1350 I reached the highest point in Colorado, more than nine years after my first visit but just one week after returning to Mount Massive. The first time I came from the north, this time from the south. It was smaller than I remembered, a fairly narrow ridge with a number of rock semi-circle shelter walls. Being late on a September afternoon it wasn't very crowded. Soon after I arrived it started to corn-snow heavily and blow hard and cold, off and on. I wished that last time I'd stashed the remaining half of the bottle of wine I'd brought up, rather than carrying it down again.

The rocks on the summit are very worn and roughed up from all the visitors. You can tell how long a rock has sat exposed by its lichen coverage. It takes perhaps a hundred years to form. Mount Elbert is far from virgin, with hardly a patch of original and unaltered stone surface.

The snow wasn't a white-out, but the distant scenery was largely obscured. I stayed for 53 minutes, mostly out of the wind and snow behind a wall, and departed at 1443. Following the ridge down on a well-worn trail led me too far north on the NE ridge. I traversed back SE to the east ridge just above the intervening valley. Here I found the same trail as earlier -- which must fade out before the very top -- and took it quickly down.

The east trail is reasonably wide and direct, and not very eroded. It was a great way to return. I followed it all the way to the Colorado Trail this time, then took the latter south back to the trailhead. From the top of the mountain to my Jeep at 1612, a drop of almost 4000', took an amazingly short time of 1:29. On the whole round trip, including 1:18 on two summits and a gain of 4180', I spent only 7:57. My total gain this summer on Fourteeners alone climbed to nearly 44,000'.

If all that wasn't enough, rather than going home by Leadville, I cut through the Mosquito Range via Weston Pass (11921') an hour before sunset. The road is two-wheel-drivable, 20-30mph on the west side, 11.1 miles from US24, and faster on the east side, 30-50mph, another 16.2 miles down to US285. It doesn't get that high, but does go well above timberline, and passes a lot of pretty, open scenery and old mining sites. I didn't see another vehicle during the whole one-hour crossing!

From the east side I returned to Fort Collins through Fairplay and Evergreen. I called ahead and stopped in to visit Walter Borneman, co-author of "A Climbing Guide to Colorado's Fourteeners" (the "Blue Bible"). I got him to autograph my copy of his first edition, purchased in 1978 just two months after it came out. That was a real treat, icing on the cake for a great four-day Labor Day weekend.