I hiked up Mt. Elbert today with a couple of new friends, and believe me, when the book says it's an easy hike, it lies. It took us 4.5 hours to get up and then 2 hours down, but only because I pulled up my reserve and practically ran down the mountain. I was DONE. The hike starts out almost immediately uphill and there are about five switchbacks in the woods before it continues straight up. There are two small straight stretches. After that it gets steep. After it gets steep, it gets steeper and then so on. There are two false summits, so once you think you are at the top you see in despair that you are not. It was definitely more along the lines of mountain climbing though, rather than a hike. We had some pretty clouds below the mountains today so the views were spectacular and once we were at the top it cleared up long enough to get some good photos. Here is the
Everytrail link for the hike. Mt. Elbert was named after a Colorado governor in the 1850's and it's the highest peak in the Rockies, and second highest in the continental US. The highest is Mt. Whitney in California and then Alaskan mountains blow both of these out of the water.
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| Just coming out of the treeline with clouds still below the summit. |
In other news I got my bike fixed and am back to riding to work and home, so all in all I am kicking my own ass lately.
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| View from the top. |
I hiked up Mt. Elbert today with a couple of new friends, and believe me, when the book says it's an easy hike, it lies. It took us 4.5 hours to get up and then 2 hours down, but only because I pulled up my reserve and practically ran down the mountain. I was DONE. The hike starts out almost immediately uphill and there are about five switchbacks in the woods before it continues straight up. There are two small straight stretches. After that it gets steep. After it gets steep, it gets steeper and then so on. There are two false summits, so once you think you are at the top you see in despair that you are not. It was definitely more along the lines of mountain climbing though, rather than a hike. We had some pretty clouds below the mountains today so the views were spectacular and once we were at the top it cleared up long enough to get some good photos. Here is the Everytrail link for the hike. Mt. Elbert was named after a Colorado governor in the 1850's and it's the highest peak in the Rockies, and second highest in the continental US. The highest is Mt. Whitney in California and then Alaskan mountains blow both of these out of the water.
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