Monday, April 10, 2006

MOUNT MASSIVE 8/1/83

MOUNT MASSIVE 14,421'

Mountain........Mount Massive
Elevation.........14,421
Rank...............2nd
Range..............Sawatch Range
Trail length......7 miles
Elevation gain..3,900'
Difficulty..........*
Comments........One huge mountain


TRIP REPORT

8/1/83

Thirteen years after our third fourteener, Richard and I finally had enough vacation time to leave our wives behind for a week or so and do some more climbing. Being somewhat older and wiser (mostly older), we planned this climbing expedition a little more carefully than our previous excursions.
We decided to forego camping and instead stay in cheap motels. We took topo maps. We both had real climbing boots, ice axes, and Gore-tex parkas. We packed better food (no Twinkies!), dressed more appropriately, and set our goals a little higher - it was our intention to climb 4 fourteeners in one week and then take a relaxing vacation hiking in the Tetons of Wyoming.

We also decided to fly out and rent a car to save time (with the national speed limit of 55 it would have taken 2 days to drive to Denver). Once we arrived in Colorado, we spent a day getting acclimated by doing some hiking up at Independence Pass.

Our first goal was Mt. Massive (this being where we had cut our previous trip short). We stayed in the Super 8 in Leadville and had breakfast at the Black Rose Cafe (which may not be there anymore) at 5 a.m. Then we drove to the Halfmoon trailhead and hiked up in beautiful weather. We followed Halfmoon Creek about 1 1/3 miles to a right on the Main Range Trail, then turned left on the Mt. Massive trail after about two miles. It was just uphill walking (but a long uphill walk) except for a little easy rock scrambling near the top. The summit views, particularly toward Holy Cross and Leadville, were excellent, but it was starting to cloud up so we headed back down (seemed like an even longer downhill walk) in the 'traditional' descent rainstorm.

We felt so good after this climb (if we ignored the blisters, tiredness, aches, soreness, etc.) that we decided not to rest the next day, but rather to attack Mt. Yale immediately.

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