Mt. Elbert

Route: Via Bull Hill
Posted On: 7/4/2025, By: brian4328937
Info: Incredible route for Elbert. Some snow on the traverse from Bull Hill to Elbert, but you can avoid all of it. Didn't see a single person all hike outside of Elbert's summit 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/30/2025, By: Caspc
Info: Started the hike at 4:30 AM and arrived at the summit around 8:00 AM. I suggest starting early as possible and there is no snow on the trail. It took around a hour and a half to hike down the mountain and get back to the trailhead. Conditions were perfect. Take plenty of water and snacks. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/30/2025, By: nmal14
Info: Conditions were great! Dry and clear route finding. Started around 6a and summited just after 11a. Beautiful day, good crowd up top. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 6/23/2025, By: glodder
Info: East Ridge route is pretty much summer conditions! One short snow crossing way up high above 13,500', and no need for additional equipment. One more thing I will post here is that the 4WD TH is totally changed up from the last time I was up there a few years ago. The parking at the 4WD TH has been reduced and the beginning of the hiking route has changed. From the 4WD TH, you hike about 100 feet up the 125.1C Road and turn RIGHT on to the Colorado Trail (signage not very good here), and after hiking a short distance you will reach the foot bridge at the beginning of the East Ridge route description. 

Route: Northeast Ridge to N face of S Elbert
Posted On: 6/14/2025, By: slawrence2011
Info: Left from Halfmoon TH at 4:30 Am with the intention of taking the trail up Elbert, following the ridge to S Elbert, and skiing the N face, which is what I did but there is barely enough snow to make it worth it. NE ridge trail felt like 99 percent snow free, you could probably avoid it all on talus if you wanted to. Box creek looked like maybe you could ski 1K, the lookers right couloirs look questionable and the apron is mostly out. Summited at 8:40. The ridge to S Elbert had more snowfields than the trail to Elbert, but mostly supportive. I had to down climb about 100 ft of easy talus to get to the snow on the N face of Elbert, and the line ended exactly 1K ft down (13,9 to 12,9). Dropped in around 10. By taking skis off and walking skiers right, I was able to get to 12,4 on skis. Took S Elbert trail back, which is mostly snow free, but not as much as the N Ridge. CFI is out working on drainage logs around 11,7 - thanks! Back to TH at 4:30. It is shocking how little snow there is on Elbert, Massive and La Plata look a little better. 

Route: Black Cloud Trail
Posted On: 6/8/2025, By: Chicago Transplant
Info: Black Cloud Trail is basically dry all the way to the ridge crest, the two very small patches on trail pose no problems. Some patchy snow from there to South Elbert and then drier again to the saddle below the final ridge up Elbert. Cross a snowfield in the saddle, then a dry start before consistently snowy on the ridge to the summit. Snow was generally supportive but had a few landmines. Sorry no route pics, I only took summit views. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 6/8/2025, By: pthomps17
Info: Close to full summer conditions! Ran into a few small and easily navigable snow patches right around 12,000 feet, then a large snowfield on the upper ridge, somewhere over 13,000. We stayed right of the large snowfield on the ascent, but we traversed it on the way down because going around it didn’t really save much time or effort, and we weren’t sure where the trail went under the snow anyways. Snow was getting very soft on our way down (around 10am), but I didn’t bring snowshoes or spikes and I wouldn’t have used them if I did. Trail runners were just fine. This is a much better way to do Elbert than the standard route! 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/11/2025, By: swarrier
Info: Summited Mt. Elbert as out first 14er! Picture perfect day, we started at 3:30am at 30 degrees from the trailhead. We were a slow moving group and summited at around 10:10am. Very windy and cold conditions along the way, but not at the top. We did not need micro spikes or snowshoes. Thank you so much to everyone on this forum for all the priceless info and advice! You're ana amazing group! 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 6/7/2025, By: Rampaging Baloths
Info: Brought snowshoes and spikes and didn’t use them. Some snow banks between between 11400-800 that are likely to be slow. Also some up high that obscure the trail. The new snow has mixed and drifted to not be supportive. Otherwise did in trail runners. Budding green aspens down low. Go get it!! 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/6/2025, By: lowland_missourian
Info: Summited 1st 14er today 6/5/25! We took the Northeast Ridge. My 17 year old daughter and I, 45 year old average fitness level reached the summit in 4 hours 53 minutes including snack, bathroom break, and rest stops. Those false summits are ball busters so just don't ever think you are close. We started at 6 am, should've started earlier but I was being a baby about driving the Forrest Rd. to the trailhead in the dark. With the slightly later start the 4-5 snowfields above the tree line were slightly slushy and post holed a little. We were just in our hiking boots, but had poles and micro spikes but ended up not using. The last stretch to the summit was really the only spot wear spike would have been usable. Weather/Clouds were moving in quickly so we didn't get to stay at the summit too long. This was my first 14er and I was proud of both of us for gutting it out! Thanks to all previous reports that got me ready for this hike! 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/14/2025, By: CalebJeu
Info: Conditions are great. Theres a little snow at the top, but I hiked in with hiking boots and no polls and was fine 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 5/31/2025, By: Pwrfghtr08
Info: Mostly dry, but some small snowfields from 11.5K to treeline, then from 13K to the summit. Most had packed down steps from others through them, but we were postholing through the ones that didn't when we went through them at ~8 AM. Ok glissading conditions in the Box Creek Couloirs, but returning back to the ridge we were postholing up to our waists. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 5/30/2025, By: Heathertutor
Info: Left Elbert creek campground around 5:15. Easy trip to top of tree line. Some snow on trail but easy to get through. Had poles and microspikes…Some deeper snow up the mountain, but it was fresh powder. Super windy!! Got to the summit around 10:30. Trip down was a little slushy and muddy but no big problems. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 5/28/2025, By: katberberian
Info: Started around 5:20ish am from the lower trailhead with three other hikers. We summitted around 1 pm. If you are an experienced hiker/have experience hiking in snow before, you will most likely summit earlier. Two of us had snowshoes, and the other two had microspikes. All of us had trekking poles. The snowshoes were helpful for a section of the ascent, but I believe it would be doable without them— just prepare to posthole. It was hailing a bit on our ascent and descent, and it started raining intermittently. There was a decent amount of postholing on the way down due to timing/rain. 

Route: Northwestern Gullies
Posted On: 5/24/2025, By: jtfoss1
Info: Leave your skins at home! Road clear of snow to the trailhead. Only the far southern side of the southern of the two gullies had snow mostly to the top. Short hike to the summit ridge. We waited for a few hours and dropped around 130 - hard pack up top and corn everywhere else.