Blanca & Ellingwood Point with the Class 3 Traverse // BABs Backpack to Lake Como to Bag 14ers

BABs do Backpacking! The BABs decided to pack as much as possible into a 3 day weekend: Blanca, Ellingwood, Challenger and Kit Carson. The big mistake was not putting in a rest day. These peaks have looooong hikes to get in and are best accomplished if backpacking to avoid weather, fatigue and injury.

Friday - we hiked into Lake Como. The road is rough as seen in the video. Only jeeps and tacomas at the upper trailhead. It's about a 5.5 mile hike in with more than 4k feet of gain on a crappy road. It's hot, little to no shade, steep with lots of baby heads throwing you off balance. We knew this part was going to suck. We weren't prepared for how pretty Lake Como was going to be, nor the prevalence of mosquitos.

Saturday - we woke up to get Ellingwood first even though it's lower but most people do Blanca. This proved to be true so we were glad we started with Ellingwood. The scramble up wasn't bad at all nor was the traverse though we did miss a turn and go a little too far down. Stick higher and you'll be ok. Blanca was a bit more exposure and a tiny slab to get up. We may have been off track but I don't think so. It's not as easy - hence why it is classified as a difficult class 2.

Don't forget to hit subscribe and watch our next day's hike into Willow Lake (the prettiest hike we've ever been on in Colorado), Challenger and attempt of Kit Carson once finished editing! It was rough but highly recommended.

0:00 - 1:05 Drive into Lake Como
1:06 - 4:03 Hike up Lake Como Road
4:04 - 4:51 Around Camp
4:52 - 6:05 Hike to Blue Lake
6:06 - 9:02 Hike to Ellingwood Point
9:03 - 10:34 Class 3 Traverse from Ellingwood to Blanca
10:35 - 11:58 Hike to Blanca Peak
11:59 - 13:14 Hike back to Camp at Lake Como
13:15 - 14:21 Backpack to Car and Trail Angels

GPX Files:

Backpack in to Lake Como:   / strava  
Lake Como to Ellingwood and Blanca back to Lake Como:   / strava  
Lake Como to Car:   / strava