2003.02.25 - I had been planning an ascent of Colorado's Mt. Elbert for about a month when I finally realized that it probably wasn't in the cards. My departure date was rapidly approaching, and Leadville had been getting tons of snowfall. Since I was planning on going solo, I didn't want to take any excessive chances with avalanche danger, so I prepared a contingency highpointing plan for Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota in case the danger on Elbert was too great. Since this is a Kansas trip report, you can probably tell that I had to go with Plan B.

The night my plane was scheduled to leave for Denver, we had our yearly snowstorm in Fort Worth; this year, though, it was much more severe. I usually go skiing on a hill near my house when it snows (yes, skiing in Texas), but I wasn't willing to postpone my highpointing trip for some slushy turns. I left for DFW about 3 hours before the plane was supposed to leave, but due to the icy roads and stupid Texas drivers, the 45-minute drive developed into a much longer affair. I finally arrived at the airport 45 minutes before the departure time only to find out that curbside check-in could only be done with more than 1 hour before departure. I hauled my bag upstairs and with the few minutes that it took me to get to the luggage check counter, they had closed off the flight. I spoke with the person working the counter and she put me on the next flight which was scheduled to leave just two hours later. To make a long story short, my initial flight had been completely cancelled, so I didn't really miss out, and the flight that I got on sat on the tarmac for 8 hours being de-iced, re-freezing and de-iced again. Whereas I had planned to spend the night acclimatizing at 7000' in Idaho Springs, I didn't even get out of DIA until 5:00 AM.

Still determined, I drove out toward Lake County and checked in with the Rangers at the Leadville Ranger Station. Apparently, a group of backcountry skiers had been buried on another Sawatch Fourteener on a similar aspect and angle as the route that I would be taking on Elbert. At that point, I realized that I probably wouldn't even be able to try to climb Elbert, but I still went out to the trailhead and dug a snowpit anyway. This definitely confirmed my decision to abort as there was about 3 feet of mostly fresh snow on top of a weak layer of facets. I barely had to nudge the block I had cut on the slope before it rocketed to the bottom of the pit. Point taken. To Kansas I would go...

The drive from Leadville to Kanorado took much lees time than I thought it would, or perhaps I just got lost in the lull of all that flat farmland streaming as far as the eye could see. Regardless, I got to the area around Mt. Sunflower with no problem in the 2wd rental car. I didn't make the drive right up to the summit, though, as I was determined to get some hiking in that day. I parked just over half-a-mile away from the summit off of a dip in the road at the lowest possible spot that I could find. I checked later and I was a mere 18m (59ft) below the summit.

The hike was short both in distance and duration. I wasn't wearing my full out cold-weather gear, so the 15mph wind combined with the -8°C (18°F) temps ripped straight through the layers that I did have on. I hightailed it to the summit and then got my pictures and got out of there as I was hoping to make another highpoint that same day. The view was about what I expected: snowcovered farmland. Onward to Nebraska!