Good snow-free trails in Colorado

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#1 
									Hello,

My wife and I had planned to hike up Longs Peak for our first 14er in early August. We’ve been hitting lots of trails in RMNP for prep; however, the extreme snow coverage on all the high-altitude trails has really burned her out on snow hiking and we will not want to attempt anything elser that is snow-covered. I was wondering if folks could recommend some reasonable 13er or 14er hikes or even some lower elevation hikes (around 15 miles round trip) that we could shoot for in August that won’t be snow-covered. We have considered trying to do Blanca but it is such a long trail and 4hrs from where we live-- not sure if it would be a good choice for our first summit climb or not.

Thanks!

									_Jason_
#2 
									I climbed the standard route on Belford a couple of weekends ago and it was snow free bar a couple of easy to cross patches. No snowshoes, ice axe or micro spikes required. I continued along the ridge to Oxford and that did have a dodgy snow patch at the start of the ridge that will likely be easier or gone by August. TH was 2wd and snow free.

I climbed to the shoulder of Electric Peak (13er) near Aspen from Cathedral Lake TH and that had little snow till the shoulder plateau (at the lake). The ridge to the summit looked good but I only allowed time to reach the lake that day.

I’ve read recent trail reports that say Elbert is snow free now on the standard route too, and I’ll be climbing it in mid July. It’ll be the first 14er for 2 of my friends and while it’s the highest in CO it’s a pretty easy route and has good access to the trail head.

You can get recent trail reports and ask for specific 14er advice at 14ers.com

Have fun and stay safe!

									_Simon_
#3 
									Here's a trip report on Elbert with a picture of how much snow is still on Longs.

http://14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=10152&parmpeak=Mt.+Elbert&cpgm=tripmain&ski=Include

									_Simon_