Mt. Elbert, though not as tough as many of Colorado's 14'ers, can be difficult for those not properly acclimated. I did not really condition myself very well for this climb and spent the previous night closer to Denver than Leadville.

The hike begins in tree cover and stays so for the first couple hours (at least at my slow pace). Once the hike breaks through the treeline, the trees disappear very suddenly leaving only rock and patches of snow for the remainder of the hike. The false summits are well-documented, but that didn't stop me from falling for them. Perhaps wishful thinking overrides knowledge. For me, this actually worked out well as I was sucking wind but could psych myself into making it to the next "summit". After making it past 2 false summits, I was too mad to turn back. I ended up ascending a good hour past my turnaround time. This helped expose me to some bad weather on the climb down.

I had been warned of possible snow on Elbert, but the patches that were there in early June were easy to circumvent or plod through. The top third of Mt. Elbert was extremely windy as storm after storm blew through starting just after noon. Fortunately, no lightning came with the wind and sleet/snow/rain. In hindsight I should have taken some pictures on the way up since it was much prettier then than later and I didn't want to expose my camera to the downpours.

The hike down went quicker, but not as fast as for some as my knees have issues going downhill. The strong wind turned into sleet which then turned into a blowing snow. The snow wasn't a big issue as it was dry and didn't stick to me. Eventually the snow turned into a driving rain which fell relentlessly for the rest of the day. By the end of the hike, it had gotten darker than I would have liked and I was doubtlessly the last hiker on the mountain this day (of the four total that I saw). Even so, I was prepared but didn't have any problems getting back to the car with time to spare. A quick session of hopping around under the rear hatch of Tammy's Explorer to put on dry pants and shoes, and I was on my way.