Southwest Slopes Mt Massive Roundtrip accuracy?
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CmisterlegsHiker
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Southwest Slopes Mt Massive Roundtrip accuracy?
My girlfriend and I were in the Colorado for the 4th straight year as photographers covering the USA Pro Challenge, this past late August. Afterwards we always go hiking for a week and try to do a least 1 14er among our hikes. We chose Mt Massive for our challenging hike this year. The day before we were in the Leadville area taking photos and decided to try and gather more info on this hike. The Southwest Slopes according to 14er.com is a 8 mile roundtrip hike, so we were ready for an all day affair kind of deal. Upon stopping at the Visitors Center in Leadville for un-related info, we were told by several people there that it was NOT a 8 mile roundtrip hike, but more like 13.6? We noticed other trails are longer. So, is this true? Is the hike longer than 8 miles roundtrip? Is this a mistake? If so, it needs to be changed as to not confuse out of state hikers. I would like a clarification if anyone knows. I searched this topic and found no info. If I missed something I apologize ahead of time. We did Mt Sherman instead on Saturday(Labor Day Weekend). That didn't work out well as we knew that it would have too many people. We had no choice. But if you don't want to hike with a lot of people who are mostly into just being seen and not really hiking...then don't go on Labor Day Weekend. We wont make that choice again.Thanks.
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Tortoise1
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Re: Southwest Slopes Mt Massive Roundtrip accuracy?
It sounds like there was some confusion between the 2 trailheads, which are on the same road.
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bonehead
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Re: Southwest Slopes Mt Massive Roundtrip accuracy?
You should have trusted the route description from this site.
It is very accurate.
And it is a great hike.
You got bad info from those in town.
It is very accurate.
And it is a great hike.
You got bad info from those in town.
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ameristrat
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Re: Southwest Slopes Mt Massive Roundtrip accuracy?
Yep - the standard route on the East side is indeed 13.6 miles long. The route you mentioned however - the SW slopes, is 8 miles and a nice hike. The information contained in the official route descriptions written by Bill Middlebrook are very accurate.
You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know. - Rene Daumal
