Peak Condition Update | Mt. Massive

Peak:	Mt. Massive
Route:	North Ridge
Range:	Sawatch
Posted By:	fahixson
Date of Info:	6/18/2016
Date Posted:	6/19/2016

Details
Descended Massive via North Ridge to Windsor Lake. Left Massive Summit about 8:00a and left North Massive about 10:00a. Ridge itself is mostly free of snow or avoidable if desired. The normal easiest route up to North Massive is covered in snow, but there are other Class 3 options to make it up. Getting down the ridge to Windsor Lake and the trailhead was very difficult for us. We had a rough GPS track and general idea of the route from previous trip reports, but it was very difficult to follow until about 400 feet above the TH. The slope coming off the ridge looks too steep to glissade to me, but there is a patch of dirt/rock that has melted out so you can descend to basin below the ridge on dry ground. Once off the ridge, it's nearly constant snow or marsh until finding the Windsor Lake trail about 11,100' or so. Some of the snow was still firm enough to walk on in the afternoon, but most of the time it was knee deep or worse. Snow shoes may have helped, but it was pretty slushy. If we had known conditions would be like this and with no experience on this route before, we would have turned around at North Massive and returned via SW Slopes. In all, it took a little under 12 hours for us to get from N Halfmoon TH to Windsor Lake TH, including breaks on summits and considerable route finding on the second half of the hike. Despite the annoying decent, it was a beautiful day and amazing views from the ridge in all directions.

Details

Descended Massive via North Ridge to Windsor Lake. Left Massive Summit about 8:00a and left North Massive about 10:00a. Ridge itself is mostly free of snow or avoidable if desired. The normal easiest route up to North Massive is covered in snow, but there are other Class 3 options to make it up.

Getting down the ridge to Windsor Lake and the trailhead was very difficult for us. We had a rough GPS track and general idea of the route from previous trip reports, but it was very difficult to follow until about 400 feet above the TH. The slope coming off the ridge looks too steep to glissade to me, but there is a patch of dirt/rock that has melted out so you can descend to basin below the ridge on dry ground. Once off the ridge, it's nearly constant snow or marsh until finding the Windsor Lake trail about 11,100' or so. Some of the snow was still firm enough to walk on in the afternoon, but most of the time it was knee deep or worse. Snow shoes may have helped, but it was pretty slushy.

If we had known conditions would be like this and with no experience on this route before, we would have turned around at North Massive and returned via SW Slopes. In all, it took a little under 12 hours for us to get from N Halfmoon TH to Windsor Lake TH, including breaks on summits and considerable route finding on the second half of the hike. Despite the annoying decent, it was a beautiful day and amazing views from the ridge in all directions.

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