Well, in my current out-of-shape state, I probably would not have tried this hike if I had known the real stats in advance. The Middle Route or Fuller Ridge approach to the peak is clearly beyond my abilities, but I figured that doing it from the tramway station should be pretty doable. AllTrails has that trail listed as 10.5 miles with 2600′ elevation gain, so I figured that should be no problem for me, as I had done similar hikes before.

When I showed up at the ranger station around 8:30am to get my permit, the ranger told me that it was more like a 12-mile round-trip. A little more than I intended to take on, but I had plenty of water and figured it should still be fine. Based on the signage along the trail it became pretty clear that the actual distance to the peak was more like 6.5 miles; not great news, but I still wanted to give it a shot.

I haven't done a lot of altitude hiking, and the thin air started to get to me pretty early on. My progress up the mountain was extremely slow, and dozens of hikers passed me along the way. As a result, I reached Wellman Divide at 11am and the peak at 2pm (at that point, I was really glad that I got onto the first tram in the morning; any later, and I would have fumbled part of my way back in complete darkness). The visible trail ends about 50 to 100′ from the summit, and you just have to rock scramble in the general direction. Luckily, there were quite a few people already on the peak, so I could just follow the direction of the voices.

At the summit, I took the obligatory photo with the sign and had a quick lunch. I didn't want to linger too long, because I figured it would take me a while to get back to the tram station. And it did indeed take me a while… In addition to the high altitude I was now also pretty exhausted and head a pretty bad headache (probably from the altitude), so I crawled down the mountain at snail's pace.

Temperatures ranged from the mid 40s to the high 50s that day, and I regretted not bringing a warm hat and gloves.

I finally made it back to the tram station at 6:15pm, after almost ten hours on the trail. I was among the first people to go up, and I'm pretty sure that I was the last one to come down, just a few minutes before it got dark. Instead of the advertised 10.5 miles, my AllTrails recording showed 14.8 miles and 2749′ elevation gain. I was completely beat and could barely hobble back to my car. Still, in the end, it was all worth it. It's a beautiful and diverse trail, and the views from Wellman Divide and from the summit are fantastic.