As we approached Mt Elbert, the Sun started to light the Mt Elbert's Summit, moving from summit downward, same on the peak of Mt Massive. We reached Mt Elbert north trail head parking lot at 5:45am. The parking lot was nearly full, our vehicle and the three cars right behind us filled the lot.
We embarked on the ascend of Mt Elbert at 5:50 am after applied sunscreen, took out hiking poles, and put on backpack and camel bag. A few other groups followed shortly after.
Initial mile of the trail, below the treeline, is pretty steep, in fact except some transition portions, the slope of the mountain is pretty constant. Quickly I lagged behind Lily and Nicholas, I could only see their backs. They stopped at a couple of places for me to catch up: the Colorado trail/Mt Elbert trail junction, and right at the tree line.
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| The peak ahead is not the Elbert Summit! |
After a short break at the treeline, Nicholas took my red camel bag from me and marched on. I took a little be more time to enjoy the scenery - wild flowers, snow stream, glacier lakes and surrounding mountains.
The mountain is steep, I could not see the summit on the trail most of the time. Two sections of the trail are more difficult than the rest, the first section is the steeper slop right after the first "false" summit, it is about 60% grade, and the trail is covered with loose rocks, the second section is closer to the summit and leads to the last "false" summit before the Mt Elbert summit.
On this two sections, I hiked at a slower but steady pace. In fact not too many people overtook me on these sections, I was in a much better shape than 1 year ago, when we hiked Quandary Peak. I believe this was in part due to not carrying my camel bag, and in part due to weekly running of 5 miles or longer (10 k).
We reached the summit in 4.5 hours with about 5 miles distance.
The view from the top is beautiful. The feeling of on top of the world was great!
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| The section of the trail to the Summit |
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| Mt Elbert dwarfs the surrounding mountains! in perception and in reality |
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| Mt Elbert north trail |
Side Notes
A few encounters on the trail made it more exciting
Clark's Nutcracker
This is a most common bird just below treeline. They are so used to feed on food from hikers, when there are people stopping on the trail, they will swoop nearby, waiting for left overs or direct feed. On my way up, I saw a guy extending his arm upward with a piece of biscuit in his hand, and with cellphone om his other hand - snapped a few pictures of a nutcracker swoop in to get the biscuit with his beak and flying away. On my way down, I was about as fast as I climbed up, because my knees hurt when I hike down. When I stopped below the tree line, a nutcracker approached me and perched on the tree looking and waiting on me.
Marmot is a common mammal, in fact it is a type of large ground squirrel. They typically live above treeline. They behave the same as the nutcrackers as far as waiting for food from hikers. They make a sharp whistling sound and alter hikers that they are around and waiting for food. When we were taking pictures at the summit, I heard this sharp sound but did not see anything, then I saw a marmot - they are well camouflaged in the rocks.
Adventurous biking girls
On the way down from Mt Elbert, I saw two girls (likely college student age from their looks) pushing their mountain bikes upward, I struck a conversation with them. One girl told me that her bike's brake broke, but they would ride downhill anyway. A while later I saw them coming down, caught up with me, but they were on their bikes. I shot the following video to record their adventure.
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