Elbert, Massive

Climbed Mount Elbert via the northeast ridge from the (North) Mount Elbert TH. Started out easy, just hiking until the Colorado Trail crests, where I jogged easy for a bit down to the Mount Elbert trail junction. Jogged the flat section of the Mount Elbert trail, but otherwise just hiked to the summit. Managed to just dip under 2 hours for the climb with a little hustling over the last hundred yards or so. Had the summit all to myself. Stayed for 15 minutes (nobody else arrived in that time), then jogged down at an easy pace.

Back at the trailhead, refueled a bit and picked up more food and water and headed out. Jogged the road to the Mount Massive TH (probably under a half mile) and headed up. Managed to run a fair bit of the Colorado Trail, still maintaining an easy effort. Seemed to take forever to reach the Mount Massive trail. Mostly hiked from there to the summit. A little bit of snow to deal with but didn't really slow me much. Wind really picked up above the saddle so had to make a quick stop for a long sleeve shirt and hat. Wasn't looking at my watch as I thought I was easily going to get under 2:30 for the climb. A few minutes from the summit, I finally glanced at it and saw that I was already over 2:30. Oh well. Might've pushed a bit if I had known where I was, but there were a lot of people on the narrow, snowy ridge, so I probably wouldn't have bothered.

Hung out on top for maybe 10 minutes. Pulled on my windbreaker as it was cold and windy up there. Got up to start over to North Massive, and the wind was even colder, so I pulled on some long pants before heading out. Went over Massive Green, then heard voices as I dropped to the saddle. Finally noticed two people sitting in the saddle. When I arrived, this mother and her teenage son asked if I knew where we were. They had come up from the west, weren't too thrilled with their route, and just wanted the best way back down to the trailhead. I explained where we were and then suggested that the best option was to continue over the summit of Massive and down to the southwest slopes trail/route. I told them I'd be coming back over the summit of Massive after heading over to North Massive and could help them find their way if necessary.

I continued over to North Massive, looking back a couple of times to see them heading up toward Massive. Returned to Massive and then down to the southwest slopes trail junction and was quite surprised to not see any other folks on the summit or on the ridge. Curious if the mother and son were headed down the southwest slopes, I decided to go that way and jog the Halfmoon road back to the Elbert TH. I slowly jogged down this rocky, technical trail, occasionally scanning for the mother and son. I never saw them. Not sure what they did, but I suspect they went over the summit of Massive and then didn't follow the ridge far enough to intersect the trail, instead heading down some steep, loose gully on the west face. Hope things went alright for them.

Got down to the North Halfmoon TH and jogged on. I felt quite good jogging down this road, which seemed to go up more than down. At one point I caught up to a Westfalia, and he pulled over to let me go by. Jogged most of the road but eventually walked near the top of a small hill. At the crest of this hill, I saw the Mount Massive TH just down the road so kicked it in for the final half mile back to the Elbert TH.

Good day with maybe 10,000' of climbing and 25-ish (?) miles. More importantly, finally got up high and felt decent. Kept the effort easy for the most part on the day.

Ate a package of Clif Shot Bloks and a few mixed nuts and drank two 20 oz bottles on Elbert. Ate a cup of applesauce and drank maybe 16 oz of water at the TH. Ate a package of Clif Shot Bloks and a few mixed nuts and drank two 20 oz bottles and an Ensure on Massive. Maybe a half dozen S-Caps on the day, probably fewer. Pretty light on fuel on the day, but I felt good with it. Perhaps because I'd eaten a ton of pasta/bread on Friday.

Elbert (started at 6:04 am):

0:00 - Mount Elbert TH
19:40 - Colorado Trail/Mount Elbert trail
1:59:43 - Mount Elbert summit
2:14:54 - started down
3:14:00 - Mount Elbert TH

Massive (started at 9:33 am):

0:00 - Mount Elbert TH
4:29 - Mount Massive TH
49:20 - Colorado Trail/Mount Massive trail
2:34:02 - Mount Massive summit
3:31:56 - North Massive summit (taken 1-2 minutes late)
6:02:56 - Mount Elbert TH

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