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Peak(s):  Mt. Massive  -  14,427 feet
Date Posted:  02/18/2014
Date Climbed:   02/16/2014
Author:  Rocky_Mtn_Bryon
Additional Members:   IkeB
 A Massive Snowflake   

IkeB and I successfully summited Mount Massive using the East Ridge with access from the Leadville National Fish Hatchery on February 16th 2014. This trip report focuses on the route details and conditions, and is intended to help future hikers interested in a winter ascent of Massive.

The Leadville National Fish Hatchery provides a nice starting point for a winter ascent of Massive because the road is paved all the way to TH, and the East Ridge is a reasonable winter route for Massive. We arrived at the Hatchery off of Colorado 300 at about 5:15 am and began the journey. There was substantial amounts of snow for the entire trip which made route finding difficult. The approach to the East Ridge from the Hatchery is best done following the Highline Trail. One can either take the Colorado Trail south and then take the Highline Trail west, or just follow the Highline Trail all the way from the Hatchery.

To help navigate to the Highline Trail, we took one of the free maps from the Hatchery's welcome sign. We made our way south and east of the Hatchery's ponds and then headed due west until we ran into the Highline Trail (about a mile of total hiking). Fortunately, the Highline Trail had a good trench all the way up to the East Ridge.

The trail is well marked with signs and before long we entered the Mount Massive Forest area. Another mile or so had us to the intersection with the Colorado Trail. Interestingly, there was no visible trench on the Colorado Trail, however, the Highline Trail's trench continued nicely on all the way up to the bottom of the ridge.

Once we reached the ridge we were no longer able to follow any visible trail and we picked the best route we could find. By this time the conditions were windy and there was light snowfall. Fortunately visibility remained high enough that we could see basic features to help guide the ascent.

Based on our experience, we suggest that the North edge of the East Ridge is the best winter approach. There are a series of three or four towers that we had to scramble up and around (each time, we either went directly over the top, or swung out to the right and went around).
Image
Climbing around a tower

Image
Climbing over a tower

By sticking to the North edge of the ridge, we were able to avoid steep sections of snow fields. The snow fields would present a serious risk of sliding many hundreds of feet if we slipped, and may also have had avalanche risk. In the summer, it would probably have been more direct to go straight up the slope and avoid the towers on the North edge of the ridge.

After about a mile of scrambling we finally reached the final summit push. It was a few hundred vertical feet of relatively smooth terrain. The conditions were windy and snowy at this point, and we were concerned about a possible whiteout, but the visibility held out long enough for us to reach the summit and sign the register. It took about 7.5 hours to reach the summit.
Image
On the summit


We descended back to tree line but were unable to find the original trench. We zigzagged back and forth trying to find the trench but eventually resorted to using compass and map to navigate back to the Hatchery. The return trip also took about 7.5 hours, for about a 15 hour total round trip. We arrived back at the car at about 8 pm. We think it would have been closer to about 11 hours total time if we had found the original trail. GPS would have been very useful for this trip. All in all, this was a great day and we had a great time.



Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
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Comments or Questions
michaelgrundy
User
Trench
2/18/2014 6:23pm
Glad you could use the trench! Sam and I meant to put up a thread saying that it was in place but we must have been to tired to remember. HAHA! Great job and way to get after it!


SurfNTurf
User
Long Day
2/18/2014 6:35pm
Congrats on earning a tough winter summit, especially in less than perfect conditions.


Rocky_Mtn_Bryon
User
trench gratitude
2/18/2014 6:37pm
Thanks! It was very helpful to have the trench Out of curiosity, did you follow Highline all the way up to the ridge, or veer south? It seemed like the trench move a bit south of where the Highline trail would have gone, which was actually better since was more direct.


IkeB
great trip
2/18/2014 6:45pm
A long but fun day in the mountains.


wrxpilot
User
Interesting
2/19/2014 10:50pm
Wow! Thanks for the trip report, that sounds brutal... What a great reminder to always be prepared to navigate on the way back, and that summitting really does mean you're only halfway done (at best). I bet you slept well that night!



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