The day before the climb we set up camp about a half mile east of the North Mount Elbert trailhead. We found a primo spot across the road from Emerald Lake. Unfortunately this site has been closed as of late (2001) due to erosion caused by careless campers but the area still has a large number of quality sites. The road to the trailhead is well maintained and in great condition. Passenger cars will have no problems.

We started early the next morning, We hit the trail at daybreak and were greeted to a very inviting trail and great weather. We hiked southeast along the pine and aspen-laced trail crossing Elbert Creek and continuing on to the fork in the trail. At this point you want to leave the Colorado Trail and take the one that veers off to the west. As you hit the switchbacks the trail steepens slightly but is still quite manageable for the novice hikers/climbers. As you break treeline, the trail levels out briefly than continues to crest Elbert's northeast ridge.

At this point Judy and I had pulled away form Darren and Troy. We waited in a small clearing for about 20 minutes until Darren and Troy were within sight, Then continued past a graveyard of trees killed by past lightning strikes. It's an ominous site that reminds you not not to be on the Mountain during a thunderstorm. As you reach treeline the trail goes through a couple of long switchback before reaching the ridge crest. Here we rested a while, Judy started to complain about her legs cramping up. At this time the others were in sight and I suggested we start moving again. I remember looking up at the sky and noticed the clouds were getting bigger and darker but not to threatening at this point.

The trail leveled out a bit as we followed the ridgeline, Judy's legs were in bad shape at this point. She said she didn't know how much further she could go. I suggested we take a short break. After resting for about 15 minutes, we started along the ridge once again. The first sounds thunder rattled the air around us. I stopped and tried figure out where the storm was coming from and which way it was going. This was not an easy task, a large portion of the storm was sitting on top of Mount Massive but the remainder was hidden by elbert's northwest ridge. We continued for about another mile until Judy stopped again to rest her cramping legs. The storm now seemed to be heading right for us. We looked up at the remainder of the trail and decided not to go. This decision had more to do with fatigue than the storm. We were sitting somewhere around 14,000 feet and about 250 to 300 yards from the summit.

About 35 minutes after we started back down we meet up with Darren and Troy. I voiced my concerns about the storm, but at this time it appeared to be moving away from us and toward Massive. Darren was looking pretty rough but Troy looked like he was going to make it. I told them we were heading down and asked Darren what there plans were. I believe his exact works were "were going to the top". We wished them luck and head back down. I will never live down what happened next......

Judy and I make it down to the car pretty fast. After loading our packs in the car we had a great idea, "lets drive into Leadville and pick up a couple pizza's to celebrate a successful trip". We figured that we were at least and hour ahead of them, even more if they pushed on to the Summit, like they said they would. The weather at this point had cleared up and we thought that the sight of fresh-warm pizza would make their day. Turns out we were way off. As we pulled into Pizza Hut, the storm that was sitting on top of massive was just hitting Leadville. We waited for the brief hailstorm to stop, got the pizza and headed back to the trailhead to wait on Darren and Troy. Unfortunately we passed them on the road back to camp. That's about the time I realized our major lapse in Judgment. I like to blame it on lack of oxygen, but lack of o2 is not excuse for stupidity. Not a word was spoken when we got back to camp. Judy and I were dodging daggers with every look the two gave us. Darren took of his gear, crawled into the tent and crashed. Troy sat down by the river for a while and about two and a half hours later the silence was broken..... "so..... where's the pizza" said Troy. I directed him to the car, and he preceded to devour one of the two pizzas. The other pizza was later found to have been eaten by a couple of red foxes that visited or camp over night. I had none and as far as I know Judy didn't have any either but I think Darren might have grabbed a piece when we weren't looking.

The next day we had a lot of time to talk about the previous day. Apparently, shortly after we passed Darren and Troy on the trail they turned around and headed back down. When they reached the trailhead there was no sign of Judy, myself or the car. They waited a while for us, not quite sure how long, but not knowing where we'd gone or when we'd be back, they decided to walk back to camp.

Looking back at it now it, aside from the pizza incident, I was a great trip....

-Scott Parry