Started out on Black Cloud trail at 4:30am. Staying at the Mt. Elbert Lodge made this very convenient. The trailhead is only 100 yards from the lodge. The hike along the Black Cloud Creek is beautiful and the rushing water sounds adds to the adventure. There are two creek crossings with log bridges that are fun. This hike was very challenging for us, especially coming from the Midwest the day before. Direct flight into Aspen and then crossing Independence Pass made this trip very convenient. I thought we would round trip the hike in 10-12 hours but it ended up taking 13 hours with plenty of stops to rest (I blame altitude acclimation). The trail is nearly a non stop solid incline...not a bad thing, just challenging. Lots of scree along the way, with that and the incline make descending not as easy as you would think. Several slips. I used the GPX file from 14ers synced to Garmin watch and Explore app, was very useful and accurate.

Hiking through the pines and then the Aspen trees is beautiful. The morning sun this time of year hits the mountains to the south (great photos) and not you directly until you get past the treeline and near the switchbacks to the ridge. The switchbacks are steep as well.

The ridge was by far the most challenging for us. I read comments about the long ascent to the summit which is certainly true but not as many comments about the other challenges...we experienced significant wind, a fair bit of scrambling (probably some because of snow patches covering the trail) and some unavoidable snow (which was easier to walk on, today at least, versus scrambling on the rocks). A little bit of postholing but otherwise the snow stretches were still solid. The final ascent to the summit was hard and surprising with quite a bit of rock scrambling, but great way to get to the top. We may have missed the trail in a few spots but otherwise you can spot worn out patches to follow. We did not use microspikes, the snow was not slippery just a tad soft.

Following the trail on the ridge descent was a little challenging in one spot as there are two trails at one point, one to the "left" and one to the "right". Approaching we were on the trail to the "left"...when descending (so east). Descending we took the trail to the right as it looked to avoid some scrambling sections. This was a bad idea, this trail kind of disappeared and we unfortunately stayed to the right too long (which would be more to the west) and ended up off trail/side of the mountain trying to find the switchbacks. We eventually ran into them but traversing along the side was not fun.

Very challenging climb for us. Partly because of the lack of time for altitude acclimation and the significant wind at and near the top. It was so windy my son's sunglasses blew off his face. But we made it. Only two other hikers on this trail today which was nice. At the summit there were many others coming from the other trailheads. I could not find a survey marker at the summit but did look too hard. There is a marker around 100' from the summit on Black Cloud but I did not spend the time to read it. Great adventure on Black Cloud!