My siblings and I hiked the East Ridge for Mt. Elbert. This was our first time on Elbert. I (Gabe) have completed 9 other 14ers and my brother (Jared) has completed 13. Our sisters (Gabrielle & Rachele) had completed 3 and 1 respectively. Having chosen a Class 1 frequently traveled trail, we felt confident in our abilities to succeed.
I slightly underestimated the East Ridge hike. It was long and tiring, but we all four made the summit in about 5 1/2 hours. Younger locals will hike it a bit faster I am sure. We are all from the Midwest at much lower elevations. We gave ourselves a full day to acclimate around Leadville before hiking Elbert. Even so, it was tough on us lowlanders.
Honestly, the Mt. Elbert East Ridge was kind of ho-hum, nothing special. Having hiked La Plata Peak, Humbolt Peak, Mounts Belford and Oxford, all of those other mountains were prettier and more interesting. However, it was all very well-marked path and easy to follow. There were no technically challenging sections or exposure. I would caution that the trail is a bit longer than advertised because there is a rather large section of trail closed for rebuilding. The extra section, although very well-constructed, takes you further north before depositing you back on the original trail about about 1.9 miles in from the 4WD trailhead at about 11,500 feet elevation.
All in all a very good hike and super fun with my siblings.
My GPS Tracks on Google Maps (made from a .GPX file upload):
