The 14er climbing season isn't over yet by a long shot. On Sunday August 23, Nicole, Laurie, Laura, Kim and I piled into Nicole's jeep at 3:00 AM to make the 3 hour drive to Leadville to attempt a summit of 14,421 foot Mt. Massive. There are two main routes up this mountain, one that is a gradual incline but 14 miles round trip, and one that is much more direct at just 8 miles round trip but much steeper. After much thought, and considering we had access to a jeep that could handle the 4wd road to the shorter trail head, we opted for the latter route. In the picture above, the route we would take essentially goes right up the middle the southwest slope of Mt. Massive, pictured above (taken from across the valley on Mt. Elbert).
We were a little concerned that the smoke that has made the front range so hazy this week would prevent good views from the top of Massive. While there was still some haze in the air, it wasn't nearly as bad up there as it was in Longmont. The first 1.25 miles of this hike is a very gradual incline on an excellent trail and made for a nice warmup for what we knew was coming up ahead. Early on we could see a layer of fog blanketing the valley below us.
The alpenglow on the surrounding peaks is always one of my favorite parts of these hikes, and it was there again today. This formation was off to the south just beyond the trail head.
And this was 13,852 foot Mt. Oklahoma to our north.
Over a mile in, we came to the trail junction that would begin our trek up much steeper terrain. We climbed up this boulder field first.
It didn't take long to break tree line, and the views that we had heard were quite amazing on this route proved to be just that.
The climb up was a steady one, and we could see above the ridge that was our next goal.
We continued up, and up, and up, and up....
It was above this area that we found a rock formation we called "The Giant Cairn". From the front, it looked like an impressive scramble:
From the back, the "impressive truth" was a little more clear...
And while the cairn below wasn't one to scramble on, its symmetry made it our favorite cairn of the hike (yes, we have things like that on these hikes).
This picture looks back down from most of the way up the slope. It was a relentless elevation gain, but very direct.
Near the summit ridge, we were able to see the view to the north. North Massive, a sub peak of Mt. Massive and the 5th highest point in Colorado, is just right of center in the picture below.
Opposite this view, we had a little further to climb to reach the ridge that would eventually take us to the summit.
Finally we reached that ridge and could finally see the true Mt. Massive summit. The final traverse went across this rocky terrain. The standard route, which we did not take, connects to the route we took in this area.
This view looks back along the summit ridge to the south. South Massive, another sub peak, is on the other side of the saddle to the left of the picture below.
After a 6:30 AM start, we summited about 10:45. Mt. Massive was my 21st 14er.
Though it was a little hazy in the distance, we could still see quite a bit, especially to the west and north.
Massive Green is the nearer peak, and North Massive is in the distance.
North Halfmoon Lakes were below to our southwest. Had we continued on the trail junction at 1.3 miles and not gone up toward Massive, we would have ended up at these lakes.
The town of Leadville to the east, with Turquoise Lake to the north (left) of the picture.
It took about 3 hours to descend, and we all agreed that this was an infinitely better experience than Mt. Princeton a couple weeks ago although the descent seemed to last a really long time (as most of the descents do).
Nicole, Laura, Kim and I have done several 14ers together over the past couple of years (or months in Laura's case), but this is the first 14er I've gotten to do with Laurie, for whom Mt. Massive was her 17th peak. Laurie's passion for 14ers is as strong as my own, and I have swapped hiking stories with her for the past 3 summers but I've never gotten to actually hike one with her, so that made this hike all the more special for me. She posts a picture of her boots in the foreground with the incredible views from every summit, and it was fun to finally get to see "behind the scenes" of her taking that picture from the summit of Massive (I know, it's the little things. :) )
As is always the case on a 14er climb, this was a very challenging hike, but it was a very enjoyable one. Great trail, great views, and as usual, very enjoyable company with whom to experience it. Although the hike was physically challenging, great stories always come as a result of the journey, and this journey was no exception. Here's to more summits and more stories in the near future.
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