OUTDOOR AWARENESS

Our trip started with a morning flight from Chicago to Denver on Saturday morning. After picking up our rental vehicle and fuel at Walmart, we arrived in Leadville around lunchtime. Lastly, we picked up some water to fill our bottles, and had lunch at Subway. At 2:30 pm, we loaded up at the Winter trailhead and started for the Mt. Elbert Campsite. Close to dusk, we arrived at the campsite. Sunset occurs at 4:30 pm, so after setting up camp and preparing dinner and drinks, the night was quickly over. Saturday night the temperature dropped to the low single digits. Sunday morning was a logistical and acclimatization day. We fixed our stove issues and dried out the tent. Given the warm, pleasant temperatures, we struck out toward Mt. Elbert. After ascending to 11,000 feet, we returned to camp.

Monday morning was summit day. We awoke at 4:30 am, and started toward the Mt. Massive trailhead at 5:15 am. Quite a bit of travel occurred until sunrise at 8:30 am. There was very little evidence of the trail, but route finding wasn't too difficult. However, the GPS trail was nice to refer to when questions arose. Having watched the weather, we reasoned that the existing snow pack was very well compressed. As a result, we elected to leave our snowshoes in camp. Later when we started to ascend the long snowfield, this decision appeared to be a mistake. The previous snowfall was very significant, and but remained unconsolidated weeks after its disposition. Ascending through miles of deep snowfield, continuously post holing, greatly exhausted us. Despite the exceedingly slow pace traveling this way, we continued to make progress. At 2:15 pm, we reached the main Mt. Massive ridge line at about 13,800 ft. Unfortunately, the afternoon weather and characteristic high winds stopped our progress. Hoping to make a summit attempt, we waited 15 minutes hunched down in the 60 mph winds. Considering the near instant frostbite if I chose to take out my camera, led me to keep my body hunched over. With the deep snow pack, our return to camp was slowed down with the continued post holing. Finally, at 8 pm we returned back to camp. Somehow we had the remaining energy to boil water and prepare dinner. We even used our remaining fuel to light the wood in the fire ring for a short while. The next morning, Tuesday we slept in and then prepared our departure. Without eating breakfast, we packed up and headed out. Although the hike out seemed longer than the hike in, we eventually reached the vehicle. We ate lunch in Leadville, obtained a quick shower en route, and then obtained a flight back to Chicago.