Mount Elbert
Sun Aug 19 2018
Nate, coming down from the summit.
Mt. Elbert is the highest point in Colorado and the 2nd highest point in the lower 48 next to Mt. Whitney in California.
Our original plan was to drive out to Leadville and the Halfmoon Creek road on Friday night, camp and then climb Elbert on Saturday. The weather pushed our plans back a day so we left early on Saturday.
After stopping at Periodic Brewing in Leadville, we went to find a campsite. We had no trouble finding a spot, set up camp and it started to rain.
Once the rain stopped we grilled out some burger patties we had picked up at King Soopers. This seemed to go ok for Nate, but not for me. I got out of the tent after we went to bed and unloaded my whole dinner next to the road.
In the morning, I had started to feel somewhat better, so we gave it a try. I felt fine for about the first 3000 feet of elevation gain but after that felt just awful. I did manage to slowly will myself the rest of the way up, but I can't say it was pleasant.
The views at the top were good but not perfect due to wildfire smoke and haze. I was still glad to finish as this was one of my primary hiking objectives for the summer.
Mt. Massive from near the summit of Elbert.
