Mount Elbert from East Lakeview Campground
Photo by Alan Ellis

I never planned on climbing Mt. Elbert again. I had done it twice via the northeast ridge in the 70s and 80s, and once via the southeast ridge from Halfmoon Trailhead in the 70s. That was certainly enough. While beautiful, Mt. Elbert is just a liesurely stroll.

I have since met the climbing partner of my dreams, Ellen. We met during my fourth climb of Democrat Peak, a favorite fourteener. After having climbed many of the fourteeners, and many of those fourteeners many times over, climbing them yet again was not an aspiration. For Ms. Ellen, this was a driving force. At first I resisted the thought of returning to the fourteeners, let alone completing them all. But with Ms. Ellen, I knew I could really enjoy the fourteeners again, particularly when showing them to her, knowing that she really would appreciate them and love them, perhaps more than me.

As our relationship grew and we continued to climb, I agreed to climb most of the fourteeners again, IF they were done either by a favorite or new route. A few of them I could not bring myself to climb again, and for this reason, Ellen joined the CMC, took their Wilderness Trekking Course and passed with flying colors. She can now climb a fourteener with the CMC without dragging me along.

Mt. Elbert was in this category until the fateful day that SP member Alan Ellis proposed and organized the SP Members Rendezvous at Mt. Elbert. Keen on this fantastic idea, I brought it up to Ms. Ellen, who was all too happy to say yes to participating. Our original notion was to climb the west rib from the South Halfmoon Creek drainage in a direct ascent to the summit. This was a short 1.2 mile climb that would allow us to save energy to climb Mount Massive the following day. Unfortunately, high water prevented using the jeep road to get to the beginning of this climb. So it was either the north ridge, which I had not done, and meeting the SP group on top, or being social-like and climbing the Mt. Elbert trail with the SP group.

Jackie Ellis on top of Mnt Elbert
Photo by Alan Ellis

We decided to meet up with Alan and the gang Friday (the 13th!) night and make our decision then. We arrived at camp where Eileen (Peak Freak) and her friend Syd were finishing setting up camp. Alan and his wife Jackie (Cruzit) were there with kids Kate and Andrew. They had their mobile home and had just arrived from Oklahoma. Grant Siders arrived a bit later. We got acquainted and the group seemed to bond immediately. It was a great feeling to be part of a very special group-all members of the greatest mountaineering site on the web-SummitPost! Having met through the site, and now preparing to climb Mt. Elbert together, was a unique blessing indeed. Ellen and I just love all of these folks, and what wonderful folks they are! Even over the long distances, great and long lasting friendships have been forged, thanks to the fate of meeting one another over the internet!

Eileen, Syd and Ellen pause during the SP member's climb of Mount Elbert
Photo by Alan Ellis

We climbed Mount Elbert with the group via the Mount Elbert trail. Despite altitude problems suffered initially by the Oklahoma contingent, the problems were overcome quite impressively. Kate, who was suffering the most, was the third person to reach the summit! Jackie pressed onward like the Ever-Ready Bunny and made the summit just twenty minutes behind her husband Alan. Andrew stuck with her most of the way up. Eileen’s friend, Syd, being a marathon runner, flew up the mountain and was the first to summit. This being her first fourteener, she was immediately jazzed and has already planned more hikes with the groups I’m involved with, along with her son, Tim. Eileen was the second to arrive. Eileen hails from Vancouver and has climbed lots of different places. Given her relatively short time on mountains, she was nonetheless in amazing shape and had impressive experience behind her on glaciated mountains such as Mount Baker. Aspiring to climb Rainier in two weeks, Eileen picked a good mountain to altitude train on.

SP Gathering participants on the summit of Mount Elbert
Photo by Peak Freak

I arrived on the summit behind Kate, with Ellen right behind me. We all celebrated on top, ate as much as we could stand and shot lots of summit pictures. The weather was gorgeous if a bit cool. There was no threat of weather, which was nice. The evening we arrived had been doused in rain and snow showers above timberline.

Elbert still sported some large patches of snow left over from our late spring snows. Our descent was highlighted by some slides down these patches, which had grown soft in the afternoon sun, but at least saved us some steps. The snow had no bottom this year, so it wasn’t ideal, but we made the most of it.

Back below tree line, I stopped to do some business in the woods. Just as I was preparing to wipe, a strange odor permeated the area. No, it wasn’t my deposit on the forest floor. I’ve never produced anything as pungent as this! Then, I heard a creaking, then a crash about 50 feet from me. A tree had toppled over. I had heard that bears, exhibiting authority over their territory, would knock trees over as a sign of strength. I decided that I might be encroaching on a bear’s domain and promptly lit off through the trees, not interested in testing my theory.

Running into Jackie, Alan and Ellen, waiting for me on the trail, I explained my breathless state and that I needed to finish my business. Ms. Ellen found this humorous and chuckled while Alan kept an eye on things. Jackie was content to skee-daddle, but they waited for me to finish. We kept an eye on our backs as we descended to catch up with the younger folks of our group.

Back at camp, the kids and Alan took a nap while me and the ladies sat at the table and talked of many subjects. Grant soon returned from his successful climb of Mount Columbia via the west slopes. He reported he had a great time and spent 90 minutes on the summit, which he reached at the same instant we reached Elbert’s top—10:40AM. He was planning on climbing La Plata Peak, Colorado’s 5th highest, the following day. With that climb under his belt, he will have completed all of the Sawatch fourteeners.

Alan’s parents arrived from Chicago later that afternoon. We then engaged in a feast, mostly supplied by Alan and Jackie (thanks so much you two!), and Ellen supplied desert. We ate VERY WELL, and talked about the mountains. What a great time!

Alan Ellis organized the first Colorado SP Gathering
Photo by Aaron Johnson

This event turned out to be a huge success. There has already been talk of another gathering for next year. Kudos to Alan Ellis for dreaming it up. Ellen and I are looking forward to it already!

Eileen and Syd were intent on climbing Mount Massive the next day. I told her that Ellen and I were hoping to ascend the west face. Visible from Elbert, the route looked fairly clear of snow, but we would likely encounter it somewhere along the way. This thrilled Eileen, who is used to climbing on snow and prefers glaciated mountains anyway. Having climbed the route about nine years ago, I assured her the route would be much more interesting than Elbert. Syd had a time constraint but was willing to give it a try, and turn around if time ran short. So it was decided to meet at the turn off for the Halfmoon Trailhead on Highway 24 at 5:30 the following morning. From there, we would attempt Colorado’s second highest mountain, Mount Massive. But to find out what happens, you must go to here.

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