The Route...

(Map from 14ers.com)

9500'

This was our first glimpse of Elbert the morning of the climb. Shot from US-24 just north of Leadville...

9500'

Mt. Massive (14,428'), Mt Elbert's slightly lower, yet more visually imposing, neighbor to the north...from US-24 north of Leadville...

9700'

An old shack sitting under the gaze of Elbert along the access road...

9900'

Passing Halfmoon Creek Campground on the way to the trailhead...

10,040' - Mt. Elbert Trailhead

The northeast ridge, the one we'd be climbing, rises above the trees...

10,040' - Mt. Elbert Trailhead

We got the feeling we had arrived a bit late, the parking lot was nearly full...

10,040' - Mt. Elbert Trailhead

Only 4,700' of vertical to go!!

10,100'

The forest near the trailhead was a mix of Fir and Pine and would remain that way until treeline...

10,200'

A small stream crossing and the last reliable water along the trail...

10,600'

The trail passed the remains of an old mining shack about 3/4 of a mile from the trailhead...

10,650'

The trail continued to climb relentlessly...

10,650'

The thick forest even restricted views behind us...

10,700'

The trail tops out at this curious pile of rocks before descending slightly to the upper junction with the Colorado Trail...

10,560'

At the junction with the Colorado Trail this sign pointed us toward the ridge...

10,700'

The sun in the trees above was pleasant...

10,900'

It wasn't until nearly a mile and a half in that we started getting any views...

11,200'

The trail got increasingly steep as it tried to gain the ridge...

11,400'

The relative flatness of the lower ridge was a welcome change after two previous grinding miles...

11,600'

A nice little clearing atop the ridge, about a quarter mile before treeline, treated us to some views ahead...

11,600'

The clearing also gave us our first views back to the east...

11,700'

As we neared treeline there were some decent size snow drifts still hanging on amongst the pines...

11,750'

I noticed quite a number of dead or dying Douglas Fir trees as we climbed, I'm curious as to the cause...

11,750'

These early morning clouds worried me...afternoon thunderstorms are an every day occurrence in the high peaks...

11,900' - Treeline

The mosquitoes were pretty bad at this point and we were looking for a nice breeze...

12,000'

We got our first up-close look at the ridge ahead..."It doesn't look so bad..."

12,000'

At this point were just over half way along the trail (2.3 miles) but still had around 2,400' of vertical to climb...

12,200'

The trail above treeline continued to climb relentlessly...

12,200' - Mt. Massive

Mt. Massive (14,421') sits in the sun to the north...

12,300'

This shot gives you an idea of the grade we were hiking up much of the time...

12,300'

The trail was wearing on us by this point but the nice thing was there were plenty of nice places to stop for a breather!

12,350'

The smells of the alpine wildflowers combined with the views resulted in an pleasant assault on the senses...

12,350'

Looking the 2,300' down to the parking area...impressed with our progress...and then realizing we'd only made half the climb...

12,400' - Mt. Massive (14,421')

12,400'

The colorful alpine tundra...

12,500'

Despite all the views, for much of the climb this was the view we were concentrating on...a seemingly endless hill...

12,600'

I believe this pretty little flower is Moss Campion that has yet to fully bloom...

12,600'

This little flower, Phlox, is responsible for much of the pleasant smells above treeline...

12,650'

We couldn't help but keep looking back to the beautiful view behind us...

12,650'

Mt. Massive, to the north, is only a few feet shorter the Elbert and offered a good guage as to how far we had climbed...

12,650'

Here, the trail crosses from the north to south side of the ridge allowing the blue-green waters of Twin lakes to come into view...

12,700'

As the trail once again gained the top of the ridge we were quickly reminded there was a lot of climbing yet to go...

12,700'

The beautiful Twin Lakes area to the south...

12,800'

What I believe is Alpine Primrose just blooming out...

12,850'

This ridge, the "crux" of the route, is the toughest section of trail. We'd be climbing around 1,000' in less than a mile...

12,850'

We broke for lunch before the big climb and took in the view across to the south ridge. Can you make out the climbers atop it?

12,850'

The panoramic view to the east from our lunch spot...

13,100'

The "crux" of the climb begins...