Jake and I drove to the Elbert Creek campground Friday after work. I was hoping to avoid using the campground, and drove up the road past the Mount Massive trailhead to look for a suitable spot. We found a large campsite just off the road above the creek, and set up camp. It was a nice night and I didn't bother with the rainfly for the tent. Jake was able to run around and explore the area, we didn't have any neighbors that I could see.

I woke up just before 03:00, and decided to pack up camp and hit the trail. The trailhead had moved across from the campground since we were last here in July, now the parking lot is much larger with a decent outhouse. I was the first to sign the trailhead register when we started up at 03:45. My headlamp batteries ran out while I was packing up camp, and I didn't have any spares. Fortunately, I had a mini-maglite with me - the moon was nearly full and it was bright enough that I rarely needed to use any light. I lost the trail in a few places just below treeline, but it was never hard to get back on track.

Before we left the trees, I heard a noise in front of me, to my left just off the trail. I thought Jake was behind me, so I hit the light and saw a large porcupine scrambling off into the trees. Jake had never seen a porcupine, so of course he was interested. I yelled at Jake a few times to leave it alone, and luckily he listened and came over to me. I held his collar and gave the porky some time to escape, then escorted Jake up the trail a ways before letting him go. Whew! That was close...

Above treeline the trail worked its way up Elbert's northeast ridge. I looked down below me and saw several lights dancing around in the woods, but I never saw anyone behind me the whole way up. I was making good time for me, even though I wanted to lay down and take a nap several times. The summit that is visible at this point is the first of two major false summits. At 06:45, the sun rose - I was at about 13,000' at this point.

The first false summit is skirted on the right side, the trail makes its way up to the ridge again, then the second false summit comes into view. At the second false summit, the ridge curves south and Elbert's summit appears. Jake was pointing at several ptarmigans on the way up - they would fly noisily ahead, land, and the game started over when Jake caught up to them.

This was one of those beautiful Colorado late summer days, with azure skies, no clouds, and golden aspens. Perfect climbing weather. It was a little chilly before the sunrise, but it warmed up to around 50 before too long. We reached the summit at 07:35. My altimeter read 14,130' on the summit, so the barometer must have risen during the climb. I could feel the extra 400' as I pushed harder to reach the summit in less than 4 hours. The summit held 4 or 5 wind shelters, a CMC register, and someone had left two cans of beer on a rock by the register! A little early for beer, nevertheless I helped myself to one and put the empty can in my pack. I signed the register, and soaked in the view. I spent some time trying to identify the Elk 14ers to the west: I could see Castle, the Maroons, Snowmass and Capitol, but I wasn't sure which one was Pyramid. The view of Massive dominated the north, and La Plata and several others in the Sawatch Range to the south. I spent a full hour on the summit before heading back down. An hour on the summit of Mount Elbert, the highest peak in Colorado and the entire Rocky Mountains, with beautiful weather and no other people. Magnificent.

Foto ©2000 by John C. Maki

Just below the summit I met the first climber I would see that day. I met several others below the lower false summit, many of them asked me if that was the top. I was hauling on the way back down, thinking I could finally take a nap in the car when I was done. When we reached the spot where we saw the porcupine, Jake sort of jumped off to the side and sniffed around. We made the trailhead at 10:25. 9 miles round trip, 4400' of vertical gain, 3:50 to go up, 1:50 to go down. We drove straight home, I never did get that nap...

My obligation to climb the highest and lowest 14ers left on my list has been met for 2000, the year I decided to start this tradition. For 2001 I'll have to climb Massive and Holy Cross. My strategy will be to focus on a lot of class 3 peaks and to climb the easier Elk 14ers to prepare for North Maroon, class 4, which will be my low peak by 2003.