Link to map

The attached Google map shows my path, with points along the way to show the events of the night.

I set a goal to hike all 58 of the 14ers in Colorado this year. Since I work a full-time job, this means I’ll have to do a few of them in the winter to have time to conquer them all. I decided to start the year with one of the closest ones I haven’t hiked yet, Mount Elbert.

I packed my gear bag the night before, having a nice peaceful hike in mind with my dog. Below is my gear list:

• a heavy insulated jacket
• a set of crampons
• extra set of socks
• hood / scarf
• minimal first aid kit
• duct tape
• hiking poles
• 2 liters of water
• 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
• 2 sets of gloves
• pair of mittens
• wool hat
• 3 hot hands
• Cell phone
• Dog bowl
• Bag of dog treats

I started my hike around 9:30am at the northeast trailhead of Mt Elbert. The beginning of the trail had a little snow on it, but nothing too heavy. I was wishing I would have brought snowshoes with me, as from time to time my foot would slip or I’d bury my ankle in the snow.

The trail was beautiful. The views were spectacular, and my dog Snoogans and I had the trail mostly to ourselves. We saw 3 others on the trail on our way up, all of them coming back while we were going up. It was quiet and peaceful, and the weather was great. There were a few snow flurries, but overall not much precipitation below 12,500 feet.

By the time we got to around 13k, it was time to put the crampons on. The ground was icy and very slippery, enough to make me slip a few times. By then I had already drunk one of the liter bottles of water and eaten a sandwich for energy.

The trip from 13k to summit at 14.4k was slow and tough. I lost the trail many times, and was just scrambling to get to summit through loose icy rock and snow. When we finally made it to summit, it started snowing pretty heavily and the wind was gusting pretty strong. I ate the other sandwich and drank a bit more water, and was anxious to get back. I checked my phone and saw that it was dead. Fantastic. We got to summit pretty late, and from the position of the sun, it must have been around 1 or 2 o’clock, a bit later than I wanted or had planned.

When I started making my way back, the snow was heavy and visibility was low. My footprints had already been blown over with wind and snow, and I just started heading in a general direction of a series of switchbacks that looked like the correct path to go. Eventually I saw a set of footsteps, so I started following them.

By the time visibility was higher, I knew that I was on a different path than where I had come up, but since I didn’t really follow a path to summit, and the sun was setting, I decided to follow the path. At this point, I didn’t realize there were multiple paths set up to get to the summit, and thought the path would bring me right back to where I needed to be. I was almost at a running pace, knowing that sunlight would be gone soon, and the clouds were heavy enough that moonlight wouldn’t be much of an option. By this point, I was out of water, and the temperatures were too cold to melt snow to make more. Excellent…

I ended up following a set of cross-country ski tracks, knowing it would lead me back to either a parking lot or house of some sort. After a point, the sun was gone, it was very dark out, and I was fumbling through clearings in trees following the ski tracks. Eventually they did lead me to a trailhead. It was the southern trailhead of Mt Elbert, which is the opposite side of the mountain than I needed to be. My saving grace was that I saw headlights, so ran to them. There were a few guys packing their gear into their car and leaving. They didn’t really know their way around, so weren’t able to help me with directions. Near the parking lot was an area map. I didn’t have a working headlamp, and my phone had no power, so I took my lighter (which was not working to create a flame) and flicked the flint rapidly to cause enough bursts of light to get an idea of what the map showed. From the looks of the map, I saw that I was on the opposite side of the mountain and no clear path to get to the other side without hiking up Elbert again.

The guys wished me luck, and I started on a path that the area map made seem like I could get to the northeast trailhead. It was the Colorado trail, and definitely did not take me into the direction I needed to be going. I stumbled through the dark, following the small clearing of snow that made up the trail. There were several points that were one large sheet of ice, and at one point I slipped and started sliding down a hill, dropping a hiking pole I ended up having to climb down to retrieve.

After following this trail for what seemed like miles, I lost all signs of a trail when trees were thinning out. I wandered aimlessly for a while until I saw a hill, which I climbed to get a look around to try and get a feeling for where I was. In the distance, I saw a set of headlights on a forest road running perpendicular to the “trail” I was on, so I ran toward them to ask for help. Wouldn’t you know it? It was the same guys I had run into about an hour prior. I still don’t really know what they were doing out there at night, but was glad I at least ran into them so that someone knew I was out there. They told me the general direction to hike to get back toward the freeway, wished me luck, and continued on their way.

Slowly but surely I hiked down the forest road and ran into these guys again. This was the last I saw of them, as they were heading on their way and didn’t have room for me and the dog to get a lift to the highway. They took off, and I followed the county road back to where I thought I could hike up and start making my way back to my truck the long route around the perimeter of the bottom of Mt Elbert. By now, it was about 9 or 10pm, and it was getting colder and starting to snow. Sure enough, the road that I thought would bring me back was closed. This was a good thing, as this road would not have led me back to my car at all.

Frustrated, I turned around and started walking down the county road toward the highway. The snow was getting a little heavier, and I scoured the side of the road for downed trees so that I could make a shelter to stay the night. I had no source of fire, no real insulation beyond my jacket, and not much hope for surviving the night as a snowstorm was forecasted for the night. At this point, I was going to just make a shelter and hang a handkerchief on the outside so that someone would be able to find my dog’s and my body the next time someone drove down the road. I got my wallet out of my backpack and put my ID in my pocket so that I would be easier to identify. My feet were blistered, legs were shaking and sore, I had run out of water several hours prior, and eating snow off the ground near the road wasn’t helping my thirst much.

However, I had only gotten 2 downed trees together and was scouting a third when I saw another set of headlights coming up the road. I flagged the car down, and sure enough, it was a county sheriff. Apparently the guys that I had run into called the sheriff when they got cell reception and reported a lost hiker. He found us and picked us up, and started driving me to my car. I confessed to him that I was already prepared to not make it through the night, and he agreed, there was really little chance of survival with the lack of equipment I had with me.

From talking with the sheriff, I found out he is also a skydiver, avid hiker and skier, and had not been skydiving in Colorado since he moved here. He was excited that I knew of places to jump, and I offered to buy him a jump. I hope he takes me up on it, as I don’t really think I can thank him enough for saving my life last night.

After such a rough night leading to blisters on my feet, I woke up this morning to see that Beaver Creek received 9 inches of snow in the last 24 hours. I stood up, found that my legs still had a bit of power to them, and decided to go for it and go snowboarding today. I put some duct tape over the blisters and enjoyed a beautiful blue bird day today on the mountain. I think the rest of the week will be spent relaxing on the couch after work.

Anyway, 1 14′er down, 57 more to go!

Mount Elbert