San Isabel National Forest - 2012
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
A major challenge about residing in the Midwest is getting to elevated peaks. On a number of occasions, we have driven from Chicago to the Rocky Mountains. On this trip, we left Chicago on Thursday night and drove straight through to the San Isabel National Forest to climb Mt. Elbert. We arrived at the South Mount Elbert Trailhead at around 3:30pm.
We immediately started northwest along the South Mount Elbert Trail, without acclimatizing. Given the late start, we didn't get too far until we stopped for the night. The next day, we moved our camp further up the trail and gained a little acclimatization. On Saturday, we finally made our summit push. The winds were very strong that day, and especially picked up in the steep section prior to the summit. The switchback section which gains you the ridge was fully obscured, and we went straight up the cirque. Once on the ridge, I traveled southwest to summit Mt. Elbert. My climbing partner was still ascending the cirque when I returned. At this point, given the late part of the data (3:30pm), we both elected to head down. Finally, in the dark we returned to camp.
On Sunday, we snowshoed back to the car. After a hearty breakfast, we returned to Chicago.