Mt. Elbert

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 2/24/2025, By: jakethesnake_630
Info: Continuous ski line from top to bottom - enjoy :) 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 2/22/2025, By: tothestars
Info: Started at 4:30PM for a mostly night ascent and descent. Lots of animal prints: mountain lions, fox, bunnies, you name it. Just me and the critters. As usual there's a pretty obvious trench until treelike, though it was covered in fresh snow and no one had been up Friday daytime. After treeline I was able to mostly follow an old path and the GPX, so not too much postholing and a fox must have had the same idea because he made it a bit easier to follow as he was also trying not to posthole. The path after treelike was only barely visible if you know what to look for, though I probably left a better one! No path really after 12,000 feet, though was able to follow the route mostly through experience and keeping an eye on the GPX. It's much easier to do in the daylight but at night it all looked the same :) Quite a bit more snow than when I ascended in late December. Cold enough to need ski mask and all layers. Descent was uneventful. Advantage of the night ascent/descent: amazing view of the stars! Used snow shoes the entire way. Was too cold out to bother to take them off for the 12,200-13,000 rock section. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 2/17/2025, By: algryno
Info: No intention to summit today with a noon start from South Elbert TH. Great path along the road to the upper TH and along the Colorado Trail. I was scoping for a trench spur (per Will_E) along the CT but didn't see it. I suppose that i could've gone in a bit further to see if it was along the actual trail... instead, I forged my own path along what was an obvious trail (aspen carvings, cut trees, very subtle depression in snow) and made a trench from the CT to 11,500' where I turned around. It was just below (~120') where i would've met the trail on the map. Most of it was knee-hip deep with at least 2 crust layers. Lightly snowed most of the time with negligible wind. Car had a dusting when i returned. Regardless, it was a great day, and I'm looking forward to better weather for other peaks this week. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 2/15/2025, By: Will_E
Info: Cold and windy theme of this winter continues, but at least I also had no views today. 3-4 inches of fresh snow on the existing trench most of the way through treeline, I put snowshoes on at the trailhead. Existing trench was easy to follow most of the way until the last half mile or so of treeline, got pretty juicy there. A group of three skiers caught up to me at treeline, they did a few laps in the trees, the trench was much better on my way down. I stayed in snowshoes much higher than normal on Elbert, probably 13k or so, the east ridge is really holding a lot of snow. No traction needed today. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 1/22/2025, By: jace_reber
Info: Went up the Northeast ridge and the parking lot is about 3.5 miles from the summer trailhead. I was on a splitboard and was able to skin all the way to the treeline at about 12,000 feet. Flotation definitely needed once i reached the start of the summer trailhead. I was breaking trail on completely untouched snow all the way to the treeline. Above the tree line there is patchy snow, some areas mostly rock, some ice, some new snow. Microspikes or crampons are definitely recommended. Avy danger was never high throughout the climb. In total the climb was about 5700 ft and 16.5 miles with the extra winter road. 

Route: None
Posted On: 1/3/2025, By: backcountrybrodes
Info: **DID NOT CLIMB** Snapped some pictures of Elbert E Ridge/NE Ridge from Hwy 24. Looks like a healthy snow pack up there and current avy danger doesnt bode well either. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 12/28/2024, By: tothestars
Info: Beautiful sunny day with fresh snow that turned stormy/windy. Started close to 10am. About 2 inches snow at trailhead and closer to 6" around 11,000 feet. It looked like 3-4 snowshoers had compacted on the previous trench and path was good until around 3.5 miles in then variable postholing with a few 100meter sections of waist deep post holing until the treeline. This postholing and punching through began at the soft Ridgeline as you can see Twin lakes and first begin emerging from the trees. Most the snowshoers appeared to turn around at about 11k. Staying to the south of mound at 11,500 helps avoid the deeper snow and punching through. Stay to north of second mound just after 11,500. On the way up there is not really any clear path after the two bumps around 11,500 and 12,000 as the heavy wind and blowing snow scoured and covered foot prints and much of the trail indents. Being familiar with the route I was able to follow it visually on the way up by watching for blown snow in patterns but used my Garmin watch track on the way down as the blowing snow as getting more intense. Made the summit without snow shoes, just used trail runners with kahtoola microspikes but probably should have had warmer shoes as the temps with higher winds were definitely sub zero and feet got quite cold. Forecast called for up to 45mph gusts and -15F windchill. I think it was about that, maybe a bit warmer around 2:30p summit. Made it to my car at 5p not needing a headlamp. Fun day! 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 12/8/2024, By: djacobson
Info: The trench was much improved over last weekend! Great path but snowshoes still helpful in many areas. Road was packed. We made it until about 11.8k before putting on snowshoes. You can do the final push without them with less than optimal route finding but I still wouldnt want to hike it without them. Brought spikes but didnt need them. Only saw three others and had the summit to ourselves! Great winter training hike! 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 12/5/2024, By: djacobson
Info: Started at 2WD TH and took the CDT to the 4WD TH then the 4WD road on the way down. Snowshoes were helpful on both options. We trenched up to ~12k and still post-holed with snowshoes. Icy/punchy top layer over powder. Turned back due to time around 12k. Gorgeous blue sky, sunny, warm day! 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 11/9/2024, By: Will_E
Info: Lots of fresh snow on Elbert today, as expected. I was following a shoe track this morning, the snow was deep enough I put snowshoes on about halfway through treeline. Met up with Logan (who I was following) around treeline where he turned around. Wise decision, the wind was pretty nasty above the trees. I kept snowshoes on a pretty good distance past treeline, from there the ridge wasn't as windblown as usual, there were some pretty long sections of postholing. Cold windy day, best views were in the trees. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 10/23/2024, By: bigfoot1
Info: The snow is melting! I used spikes along the ridge just to make going through snowdrifts easier, but you could get away without using them. Some deep postholes along the ridge, but definitely not enough snow in general for snowshoes. Had the summit to myself, and looks like plenty of others have gone up the other two ways to ascend. Easy to stick to the ridge down to Bull Hill, and only a few minor snow patches on the way down from the old mine. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 10/6/2024, By: Cconsidine
Info: As all the other comments say, wonderfully maintained trail. The false summits on this route were a bit demoralizing. FYI the detour to get to the trail is relatively rough road. From being a flatlander with a paved road car only, it wasnt the most fun. Anyone whos local/used to these types of roads are fine. Its not hard, just sketchy for my crappy car. Talked to a few others who tried it in their minivan and were struggling (once again, flatlanders here!) 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 10/4/2024, By: wanderlust073
Info: Smooth sailing. 3 hours up, 2.5 down with stops for snacks and pics. Garmin shows total distance as 11.2 miles and we followed all the new trails. Never seen such a well maintained trail to be honest. Kudos to the folks who work on it. Easy hiking. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 9/30/2024, By: pavelkral
Info: Excellent conditions. The trail is completely without snow cover. The temperature was around 35 F in the morning (7.30 AM) at the trailhead. The temperature at the peak (10 AM) was, I guess, 50+ F with only a light wind. The access road (125.1B) was passable in a mid-size AWD crossover, but I would feel better in a real 4WD offroad (especially in the rough section at 0.5 miles and the stream cross at 1.6 miles). 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 9/26/2024, By: josephsiefers
Info: Spikes were very helpful after ~13,600. I saw others summit without them but they make the descent easier.