Mt. Elbert East Ridge Ski

Date: January 18, 2010
Partner: Carl Dowdy
Route: East ridge ascent, ski descent of ascent route
Time: 8 hours

Carl and I left Golden early to try for a winter ski of Mt. Elbert, the tallest peak in the lower-48.  Despite being the tallest it’s one of the easiest 14ers to climb and ski via its trade route, the East Ridge. We were pretty set on skiing the ridge rather than going for the more adventurous Box Creek Chutes due to the thin snow and avalanche danger which was likely present on steeper slopes. We pulled into the South Elbert TH around 6am, geared up, and started skinning the 2.5 miles to the summer TH.

We made good time up this section and past the summer TH we had a trench to follow.

After 90 minutes of skinning, we broke treeline

Above treeline the wind picked up but it was still fairly warm out for mid-January. Elbert’s East Ridge goes for a long time, so knowing this I tried to keep in mind the summit was still a ways off despite looking relatively close. Eventually we took the skis off and began booting through a talus band around 13,000′. From there we elected to keep the skis on our packs for the remainder of the ascent.

The East Ridge in its entirety

Around 13,500′ the weather took a dive as temps dropped and the wind picked up even more. Huge snow plumes were blowing south off the summit, occasionally blasting us with ice crystals to the face. Fun stuff.

On the East Ridge above 14,000′

Above 14,000′ we continued to be battered by wind and cold, there was nothing that was really gonna stop us though at this point. Elbert isn’t really about climbing to 14,000′, but rather more like climbing to 14,500′. And the difference is noticeable.

Carl on the summit

Looking west off the summit

Neither of us wanted to stay on the summit longer than we had to. After putting on some more clothes we switched our boots over to ski mode, locked down the Dynafits and skied off the summit at noon. Once on the East Ridge proper we were able to pick our way through the talus without removing the skis. Coverage was decent for this time of year although the snow quality certainly left something to be desired. Styrofoam and windboard.

Carl making turns high on the ridge

After a traverse along the top of the South Face chutes we skied down the lower ridge and enjoyed a short section of powder down through the trees. After crossing the bridge the road ski was one of the fastest I’ve ever done as we skied roughly 2 miles in 5 minutes. Back to the car at 2pm we were both happy to head home with another ski descent checked off our lists.