Pictures in which I'm featured are a courtesy of Tim Best.
I first noticed this stunning 14er when I stood on Mount Elbert last april; it looked stately, I really wanted to climb it. I quizzed my friend Tim about it and that spark of interest turned into its own entity. My "love" for this peak almost grew into an obsession as I learnt more about it. After my departure from Leadville, Colorado, correspondence with Tim about LaPlata Peak and its infamous grade 3 approach via Ellingwood Ridge continued; he sent me pictures of the jagged ridge and references for research. Obviously, a plan was in the works. This loop had been under Tim's radar for quite some time, I could sense that he was also very excited at the prospect of attempting it. He had been up LaPlata's normal route but Ellingwood's intricate ridge still eluded him, he expressed being thrilled at finding a partner that was up for challenge. Of course, I felt a bit anxious; this long committing route is renowned for its route finding problems and technical difficulty if off-route. The thought of being turned around on an otherwise easy ascent didn't appeal to me BUT the reward of successfully ascending LaPlata via the challenging ridge sure outweighed any doubt I had in my mind. During the summer here in the Canadian Rockies, I prepared myself for that climb. I undertook the longest trips I could physically do in a day, often 15-16 hour days and embraced moderately difficult scrambling with mind boggling exposure at times. When the opportunity would arise to try this ascent, I wouldn't be backing down!
THE CLIMB
Ascent: -Ellingwood Ridge grade III, class 3-4
Descent: -North-west ridge class 2
Scramble: RT 16.0; 12.0 up. I spent the whole day (friday) at City on a Hill coffee shop in Leadville relaxing and doing final research for the challenging route Tim and I were about to undertake. This is my favorite place in Leadville, it offers a great variety of food, comfortable seating and free WIFI. There were many trip reports to scrutinize; while some of the information was conflicting, I was getting familiarized with specific features and was gaining confidence that we could "crack" this route. When Tim finished work, he came to get me and we proceeded to go camping at the Mount Elbert trailhead. The following day, we simply drove to the Lake Creek trailhead close by. Tim had also been busy preparing for this trip, he had hiked this trail to scope out the access to Ellingwood Ridge; this was a good thing as several junctions and faint trails confuse hikers before they even reach the ridge. Tim led us in the right direction and we reached the long steep talus slopes that grant access. After a tedious ascent in the shade, we crested on the grassy ridge in the sun; the weather was fabulous. We stopped for a "Tim Best special": a delicious maple-bacon donut accompanied by some hot coffee, mium!
The ridge starts off easy but we knew it wouldn't last, soon we would have to put our "thinking caps on" and find our way around bluffs and pinnacles. The first half would be an introduction for the tougher second half. The initial challenges were fairly easy to negotiate, I felt good and embraced the route finding ahead of me. The terrain offered good scrambling, never too difficult and mostly devoid of scree. I have lots of experience travelling off trail and route finding in the Canadian Rocky Mountains; to me, this was like second nature. As we progressed along the ridge, it seemed a way always revealed itself. When we encountered difficult sections near the ridge crest, we downclimbed on the eastern aspect until we could regain the ridge proper or a saddle. Several possibilities exist, you just have to find the route that works for you; most of the scrambling we did was moderately easy (class 3). We arrived midway after 6.5 hours of hiking at a casual pace, stopping often for pictures, water and so on. The following part of the ridge does look daunting and the summit does indeed still look far away. If I remember well, Gerry Roach (author of Colorado's 14ers guide book) comments on two separate occasions: "The view from here is quite discouraging", now we know why. Tim and I poked fun repeating that throughout the day!! We paused on the grassy knob for lunch before tackling the second half of the ridge; the weather was stable, we felt no haste.
The following part of the traverse was a bit more complicated, it seems like we had to lose more height to circumvent tremendous towers and rockwalls; by then, there was no denying how impressive this complex ridge truly is. Travel on the ridge is never in a straight line to keep it within class 3, countless downclimbs and ascents will test your perseverance. Many ledges lead to blind corners, gullies and cliffs; due to the lack of trail segments and cairns, hiker's must rely on their own ability to find a proper way and avoid consequential exposure. As we moved, I recognized specific key features; I think we faired out really good as we seldom backtracked. I started to smell success when we reached the "catwalk" which is part of the ridge crest that precedes East LaPlata. Walking atop the "catwalk" is delightful and leads to some good scrambling before reaching the very short class 4 notch near the apex of a buttress. Honestly, it is my opinion that the difficulty of this traverse isn't the scrambling (unless you want it to be or you are off-route) but more so being able to negotiate route finding challenges. After the notch, we travelled on the ridge before having to sidehill on a steep slope using ledges; scrambling wasn't quite over yet! This final obstacle led us to easier talus slopes and the top of East LaPlata.
Once on East LaPlata, we started to relax as most of the difficulties were behind us. The final stretch displayed more of the same, this is really the ridge that keeps on giving. We descended to the saddle before circumventing more rock towers on their south side, we had gotten quite familiar with that by now and made short work of it. The last grunt was mercifully short or maybe I was just ecstatic to be on the last uphill of the day and towards the mountain that had occupied my thoughts since last april. The sense of accomplishment was almost overwhelming, I was so bloody thrilled about this non-standard ascent; just writing about it now (3 months later), these intense feelings are resurfacing! We reached the summit after a mentally demanding 12-hour trek, to say we were jubilant is an understatement. I must admit that we took our time, we're not trail runners and stable weather allowed us to amble along. Looking back on Ellingwood Ridge was amazing, it looks so broken and intimidating; hard to believe we had travelled its whole length! The surrounding mountains include Mounts Elbert and Massive, they were gorgeous with the orange hue of the late afternoon sun. This was a magical moment.
We planned to come down the standard route, retracing our way on Ellingwood would defeat common sense. We hiked at a casual pace while enjoying the beautiful sunset, we were in wind down mode. I was starting to feel tired but gravity encouraged forward progress. The good trail helped; I appreciated not having to pay attention to finding my way, it was great to simply focus on the sunset and think back on the incredible feat we had just accomplished. Eventually we pulled out our headlight. At treeline, we had our final pit stop to replenish on food before the last jaunt through the forest. We were happy to reach the trailhead, it had been one hell of a shlep! I will never forget this remarkable loop up LaPlata Peak. I can't begin to thank my friend Tim enough for suggesting this route; thank you, thank you, thank you! This one will remain a tough one to beat. Sad to say, now came the time to drive back to Canada .... but how lucky was I to leave on such a high note.
