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Peaks: (in order of appearance) - Point 12,381
- South South Massive - 13,630
- South Massive - 14,132
- Mount Massive - 14,421
- Massive Green - 14,300
- North Massive - 14,340
- Point 14,169 Date: June 30, 2012 Route: Ascent - SE Ridge from Massive TH, Descent - West Slopes Participants: solo mission Distance: ~ 14 miles Elevation Gain: ~ 5,500 ft.
First, I would like to say congrats to RJansen77 and BenfromtheEast for completing the Leadeville Marathon on this day. I climb mountains with these people... what am I thinking? Well done guys.
So I woke up and left Denver a little before 4 AM and was on the trail about 6:30. The plan... Mount Massive via the seldom (more like never) used Southeast ridge, hitting 7 of the 9 points, 5 of which are above 14K. The other 2, Point 13,020 and 13,140, are on the North Ridge after descending North Massive. This was a loop hike so they would not be in the cards today. (Thanks Fletch and gregory_fischer for the info on the descent.)
My route in red.
I left the East slopes standard route about a mile up the Colorado trail and headed for the Southeast ridge. After you leave the standard route, there is no trail. Just go up...
Mount Elbert as seen from the Summit of Point 12,381 (about 1.7 miles from where I left the standard route). Once you hit this summit you can get your bearings down.
Looking up at South South Massive - Elevation 13,631. This was the hardest part of the day. After descending 200 ft. from Point 12,381, you climb 1,451 ft in .8 miles to the summit of South South Massive.
A look back at Point 12,381 on the way up South South Massive.
Mount Massive is the far summit in the distance with the small snowfield beneath it.
Summit of South South Massive - Elevation 13,631
David & Michelle are in pre-evac of their home in the Monument area. They decided to pack up their things, load the camper and get the hell out of dodge. They picked a good spot. I hope everything works out!
Summit of South Massive - Elevation 14,132 - Thanks for the picture David & Michelle.
In the middle of the saddle between S. Massive and Massive, I rejoined the standard route from the east slopes.
Not soon after, I hit the intersection with the N. Halfmoon Trail which will take you down (or up) the Southwest slopes.
Summit of Mount Massive - Elevation 14,421
En route to Massive Green (left) and North Massive (right).
A look back at Massive from Massive Green - If you look close enough you can see all of the stick figures on the summit of Massive.
Some of the Class 3 section on the way to North Massive. You get to do a little scrambling to the summit of this one.
Summit of North Massive - Elevation 14,340
At this point, the clouds were getting pretty dark and rolling in fast over the real summit of Massive. This didn't seem to phase most of the stick figures I could see over there, but it freaked me out. I knew the scree route down was going to be tough, so I quickly descended North Massive to the west, ran across the talus, tagged a rock on Point 14,169 (which is really just a pile of rocks), and picked a spot to descend the scree back to the West Slopes route. There is no real trail down the west slopes.
If the SW descent of Columbia is the true definition of scree hell, then this is almost scree hell.
This is my lunch buddy. When you are one on one with them, they will try to eat you. I sat on a rock for what seemed like an hour in the basin after the scree. I think I like scree almost as much as glissading and marmots...
Only one problem, my jeep isn't here...
Road walking with my head phones on I passed this. I like the set up. By the way 3 or 4 vehicles drove past me. I would have taken a ride! bastards... I was pretty dirty though.
THE END
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
this guy knows how to move. Congrats on hitting all 83 points over 14k on Massive, and thanks for stopping by the race! Hope we have some energy for the SJs.
the only number that matters is 2, the number of photos of me.. rob how many beers did you drink today? dan, having never been on anyone's finisher in my short time here in Colorado, do i need to bring anything special, like a tap?
3 beers yesterday. I successfully spent 4 hours unpacking three bags from the marathon. It was something like ”sip beer, unpack shirt, lie down for 15 minutes, groan a little bit, stand up, repeat.”
I descended South South Massive two weeks ago doing Massive Mania. I can only imagine heading up that thing. Looked like quite a slog. Nice work on the hike and good TR!
I completely missed this TR last year. And you did Massive in the most BA possible way.
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