State: Colorado

Peak Name: Mt Elbert

The great state of Colorado, my home for ~6 years. Mt Elbert is second tallest mountain in the continental US and the tallest in the state of Colorado. The trip began on Friday with Jacob, Garrett and myself driving up to the Halfmoon Campground. After defeating a headache on the way up I-70, the Friday traffic disappeared and a Colorado summer storm swept in. A wet evening with a tame campfire, we got an early start Saturday morning. Clear skies in the morning slowly gave way to cloudy skies, with the sun peaking through intermittently.

The northeast ridge ascent is usually only 9.5 miles roundtrip, but construction on the road in added an extra mile each way. Out west, the goal is to be down in the trees by noon, but on the way up a sleet shower forced us to stop with just a mile left. We sat down and waited it out, hoping the ice would stop soon. A long 20 minutes later, the sleet lifted, and we made it to the summit. Our view was completely obscured by the clouds, the only way we knew we reached the peak was the USGS marker and a small US flag someone had left at the top.