Mt. Elbert - highest point in Colorado

Yeah, I know the Colorado Rockies are not exactly a part of the High Plains, but hey - it is another state high point, and I've been there, and it just so happens that I have a photo. Where else am I gonna put it?

This was taken in August 1997. That's me on the left, followed by my cousin, my father, my brother-in-law, and my cousin's friend. I'm proud of my Dad for making the hike - he was 56 at the time.

Anyway, this is what the world looks like from the top of the highest peak in Colorado, which also happens to be the second-highest point in the 48 states: Mt. Elbert. Part of the Sawatch Range, Elbert's summit is 14,440 feet above sea level (revised in 2002 from 14,433'). Compared to climbing other 14ers, they say Elbert is one of the easier ones. But let me tell you, it's all relative. You'd have to be in really good shape if you wanted to just zip right up to the top. There's just no oxygen up there - all your breathing is so inefficient! For the last half-mile or so, I had to will myself just to take ten steps at a time - and then I would let myself try to catch my breath for another minute or so before doing it again! It's strange how you can get sunburned so easily up there, being above much of the atmospheric haze - yet in the middle of summer, with all that sun, it is still surprisingly cold!

It's pretty incredible once you're up there - or on top of any 14er, for that matter. At first I marvelled at how far I could see, and I felt so powerful. But then I realized, I still couldn't even see beyond the borders of my own state. And I thought about how small my state is in comparison to the world. And then I thought about how the whole Earth is nothing but a speck of dust in the universe... and I felt small again, and privileged to even be alive.

They say that if you were to take the earth and scale it down proportionally until its diameter measured that of a billiard ball - the earth would be even smoother than the billiard ball! Hard to believe isn't it? But it makes sense if you've ever looked at a photo of the Earth from space. And we little humans think that our canyons are so deep, and that it takes so much effort for us to climb our mountains...

Incidentally, this was the hike that prompted me to do some more thinking about mountains: how do we choose which ones to climb, and are there any criteria (other than being above 14K feet) that could be used to identify other interesting mountains to climb? This whole thought process led to my interest in triple divides; to my discovery of the existence of an unnamed major triple divide in Colorado; and eventually to the official naming of Headwaters Hill. You can find out more about all that here.

Page created in 1998; last updated 11 September 2003.