Colorado 14ers: La Plata Peak via Ellingwood Ridge Virtual Trail Guide

Woof, what a long day. I headed up the "9.5 mile" Ellingwood Ridge of 14er La Plata Peak during an extremely smoky day. This ridge is deemed a classic by many with class 3, 4 and 5 scrambling. I will be the first to admit that the insane levels of smoke heavily contributed to the overall bad time that I had on this hike.

GEAR USED on this Hike

Filming Equipment

Affiliate links to these popular outdoor retailers.

DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you. Thank you for supporting The Virtual Sherpa so I can continue to provide you with free content!

Want content early? FOLLOW Me!

[tomland]

What a ball buster, I’ll never try that route. Watching your video from my recliner will be sufficient.

[danieldbattin]

This was your most entertaining video yet! Thank you for sharing! I can relate to some sufferfest hikes that I have done in the Adirondacks and New England and Tourist Creek, Wind River Range, Wyoming. We are all human and the mountains can make us feel really small at times, which helps keep us humble. Glad you made it safely!

[Bob-mt]

By far, the best climbing coverage of CO climbing I have seen in almost 20 years! I got my A$$ kicked on this mountain too. :) Thanks so much for great detailed enjoyable picturesque coverage of Colorado 14ers.

[jonathanmather]

Hell yeah! I’ve been on a mission to be the first one to barefoot climb all of Colorado’s 14ers. Nice to see some coverage of this route! This was my first ridge last year on the journey (really regretted not taking the standard route.) I had no idea it would remain to this day the most difficult, and grueling route I would attempt, including the traverses. The level of route finding on this ridge is insane. My feet were sore for a week after all of the backtracking. Never have I been so happy to reach the summit as I was on this route.

[sladesmith]

Never ever ever. My scared ass about hit its limit on the little steep section on Uncompahgre near the top and the lil downclimb on the ridge to Missouri. That looks like 8 hours of terror. I admire you badasses who do this kind of stuff!

[TheVirtualsherpa]

I know this is a long one but I truly try to show future hikers all of the challenges this route has and am very realistic with how long this hike will probably take you. Realistically, there is no true "trail guide" for this hike as there are SO many different variations to take. Unlike some in the comments believe, this route will likely take you into class 3+ terrain, so you should be very comfortable route finding and scrambling in higher class terrain. You could stay lower on the ridge to avoid many of these towers but it would likely result in hiking in VERY loose terrain which in my opinion is more dangerous than staying up high. We do summit both East La Plata and La Plata Peak in this video.

[hordboy]

I hiked up La Plata via the standard route with my son in August. It was fun but maybe slightly tedious. (From Ohio, no acclimation, yada) Took a look at Ellingwood and was like yeah, FTS.

[stephensmith]

Thank you for sharing. Was just on the standard route ... and Ellingwood Ridge looked wicked. Nice work.

[roybje]

Great videos! I always get good recon from them. Suffer fest is right! I have done Ellingwood Ridge twice and both times it was brutal! first time was 8 hrs to summit and second was 10 hrs to summit. I think this is a good video of what not to do on the ridge. The best advice I can give is when in doubt go LEFT. Not over and not to the right. Always go left. I believe there is only one time you go to the right and it is pretty obvious when standing on a small saddle to see that right option. The only other advice I could give for someone looking to climb this route is make sure your weather window is really good. Bailing on this route really isn't an option. Thanks again for the videos.

[jameshoffman]

I'd call that the Dante's Inferno hike. Breathe toxic smoke while continuously avoiding death by lose gully.

[amateurhouradventures]

That looked grueling! Great to watch though, keep it up!

[jasonthomas]

Great video. There’s really no videos of this route at all on YouTube Thanks for doing the hike and putting the video out. Hiking with all that smoke looked absolutely brutal along with the amount of Route finding you had to do.

[funtobuild]

Makes all of your other hikes look like a piece of cake, thanks for sharing!

[mehul]

This is grueling, painful but I get it. Sometimes you just have to do it. Just because. Keep it up man. Been following your content for over year now and it’s been awesome through and through. Inspired me to visit Colorado which I did last year and now planning for a week long trip early summer next year. Thanks a lot for your great videos!!

[papajon]

Wow what a beat down! That ridge was a time eater. It was impressive how fast you made it back down after the summit.

[tonooros]

I did this route as my first 14er last weekend, its good to hear it's a sufferfest for someone who's done many peaks.. I still loved it though and am excited to knock out more peaks :)

[robc.]

I hiked the standard route up la plata earlier in the summer. We met these younger guys the night before & it rained off & on through the night. They did ellingwood in the clouds & were coming down before we reached the summit. They were crazy & they enjoy scrambles. They were insane.

[mickeybrumfield]

Thanks for showing us this ridge hike cause I know I will never do it.

[kristenoliveira]

Hats off to you!!! I was nauseous watching this. Super gnarly ridge, congrats on getting it.

[marcump]

You are exactly right, that climb was brutal.. neverending it seemed. The hike up to timberline was long as well i recall.