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MT Massive
Trailhead: Leadville Fish Hatchery
Climb time: 4:45 AM to 4:45 PM 12 HRS
Gear: Snowshoes, IceAxe, Micospikes, headlamps
weather: -2 degrees at start, sunshine and calm conditions, highs 30s-40s
Distance 13-14 miles appox (I forgot to start my tracking app on my phone opps...)
Well nobody else did a trip report on this climb, I have a few photos so I'll do my best. Sorry it is so late. Andyouseeme organized the trip, we started out with 9 people I believe. We had some guys from Boulder, Golden, Pueblo, and Colo Spgs. The road to the hatchery is paved no problems getting there. Left at 4:45 AM from the parking lot at the Leadville Fish Hatchery of off CO -300. Started hiking on the service road, you can also start hiking on the nature trail, they lead to the same place - the Highline trail. Started with headlamps and the temp was -2. The sky was clear so after a bit we turned out lamps off and hiked by moonlight. No snowshoes at this point, just packed snow. Followed the highline trail across the Colorado trail. Around here the trail gets a little less defined. After a bit we had to put on the snowshoes. Andyouseeme was kind enough to do the trenching, as there was no more trail at this point. Aaron leading the way up to east ridge, steep and deep
I offered to relive him after a bit and we took turns, picking the best route we could. We headed Southwest picking a route to take us out of the trees and up onto the east ridge. Waist deep snow at this point. out of the trees looking back sun coming up
Finally on the ridge Aaron throws out a carrot to me and says when I get up to him I take off my snowshoes. I almost cried a tear of joy, but I was afraid it would freeze on my face.
We stopped here to regroup, fuel up and take of layers as it was much warmer now and the work of snowshoeing had me sweating pretty hard. We realized our group has gotten smaller from here 5 of us headed to the summit. Alpinedude, Andyouseeme, Wisco14er, grcr0941, and me. I'm not sure what happened to everybody, but we missed them and were glad to share some of the journey with them. I know some guys slept in their cars the night before at the trailhead and I heard rumblings that the night sleep may not have been so good. I should mention that Wisco14er did the trail without snowshoes as his snowshoes and his boots had a disagreement that could not be settled amicably so Wisco especially was glad to see the deep snow go away. Where we dropped the snowshoes on the ridge looking back at Grant and Wisco
This is not the preferred route but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Better to go more east over the top of the rocky outcropping
little scramble that could be avoided if we would have crossed further east
From here we can see the final big push, and it looks really big.... it really is a Massive Mountain Alpine Dude coming up
The summit was great we took a quick hike over to South Massive and came back for a group summit photo.
There were some Glissading opportunities on the way down. Here is a link to the Utube Video
This is definitely my favorite picture when Wisco get's reunited with his snowshoes, or should I call them a training tools since all they did was add weight to his pack. Wisco get's an extra punch in his MAN card for doing this hike without snowshoes. Big thanks to Aaron for putting it together and Alpine Dude for the cool gear! Back with his old friend
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
it was a great day guys, thanks again and hope to see you all on the mountain soon!
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