Saturday, August 15, 2009

Mt. Massive

Last weekend we camped near Leadville for the weekend and enjoyed a few great hikes. Mt. Massive is the 2nd highest of Colorado's 14ers, just a few feet shy of its neighbor Mt. Elbert. Having done them both I really like the trail up Mt. Massive a lot more. Not nearly as steep and washed out, the trail up Mt. Massive features a lot more flowers. In fact, the photo below is on the ridge at about 14,300 feet and you can see some foliage behind Judy and Darwin.



Marmots, the other white meat:


Below shows the view looking down at Leadville from about 12,500 feet on Mt. Massive. The range behind Leadville is the Mosquito Range.


It was a super clear day but very cold and windy up high. We woke the morning of the hike to crisp 25 degree temps! We timed it just right so we had the summit to ourselves for a few minutes. Just before hitting the summit, a huge group of teenagers with mountaineer helmets was heading down. Turns out they were an Adventure Camp group of some kind visiting from Alabama and I think the temps and view from the top really astounded them.



My parents had done the climb a few days earlier and ran into Tony K. He did the ascent in 1:28. Judy and I also did it in 1:28, but we started our watch much closer to the summit!

3 comments:

Anton said...

Ah yes, gotta love Massive. I prefer it over Elbert because of it's slightly more reasonable grade (but excellent trail), and because, even though it's a mere 19' lower, it doesn't get anywhere near the traffic that Elbert does being the highest point in the state. I enjoyed running into your parents up there--inspiring to see them out there still trouncing up and down mountains.

You gonna be up at Pb this weekend, Paul?

Tony

Unknown said...

That is an incredible shot Paul. I so love the Leadville area, having attempted the 100 in 2006 and 2007. I actually train on occasion with one of your clients from Michigan(Deb/Dusty/Crazyrunnergirl). Your report on the 50M was a fantastic read as well. Train on! -Craig

Paul DeWitt said...

Hi Craig,
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. Dusty is great - looking forward to seeing how she does at the Oil Creek 50M coming up soon.
- PaulD