Sun, 16 June - Mt Elbert, 14,433 feet

My nephew David, his roommate and I attempted a climb of Mt Elbert today.  Near the summit cone the weather turned to snow with heavy winds and thunder.  Still almost a mile and about an hour and a half still to go we decided it was unsafe to summit.  We down climbed to a spot that I thought was safe and I said goodbye to David and planned to camp and wait out the storm.

It did clear and I made the long trek to the summit of the tallest peak in the US Rocky Mountains, high point of Colorado, and second highest peak in the lower 48 states. Met a couple on top that just got engaged! Nice views but then the thunder storms came back and I headed down.  The whole trail today was filled with marmots, especially at the summit.  We also saw tons of them on the road to Twin Lakes as well as seeing a coyote and some deer.

The rain got heavy as I hiked over toward Mt Massive so I am camping about a mile short of the trail that leads to the summit.  Hoping for good weather for my side hike attempt on Mt Massive, second highest peak in CO, in the morning.