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North
Mt. Massive Colorado 14er 14,340 feet |
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Mt. Massive is the 2nd highest peak in Colorado. It is part of the Sawatch Range. It's claim to fame is that it has five summits above 14,000 feet along a 3-mile-long ridge. Massive has more area above 14,000 feet than any other mountain in the lower 48, just winning over Rainier. I climbed to the North Massive, 14,340, summit on June 18, 2004 with my friends Robert and Pam. We intended to do all five but the weather stopped us from going past the North. This was one of a series of "easy" 14'ers for my conditioning work as I was training for a Rainier climb in July. I climbed to the main summit of Massive in 2006. main ![]() Massive is considered one of the "easy" 14'ers by the normal route since it is relatively short with a manageable altitude gain. We found the Halfmoon lakes route slightly more challenging. ![]() Soon the trail climbs gradually but at a steady rate until you are looking down on the creek and up to the Massive ridge. Finally, after a couple more miles you reach the "end of the trail" at halfmoon lakes. Impressive spires and the south face of North Massive loom directly ahead. ![]() Even though this was late June, there was considerable snow on the slopes leading to N. Massive. Most of the books and reports talk about frustrating scree but we found deep mushy snow. We choose a route that followed the firmest snow we could find but constantly post-holed on our way to the ridge line. There were several alternatives: straight ahead which was steeper and snow covered, to the right (East) which was more scree and very steep or to the West (right) which was a combination of snow and scree. This was a good choice as we made good time. However just before the saddle snow squalls hit us as the wind picked up. ![]() ![]() We checked out the ridge line to Mt. Massive proper. It was straight forward except for the spires that required downclimbing twenty feet or so on a somewhat exposed ridge. We estimated it would take us at least two hours to complete the ridge line before we returned to tree line. Given that it was 12:30, that would put us on the ridges or summits in mid -afternoon on a Colorado summer afternoon. Not a good place with lightening a very common occurrence. After a quick discussion of the alternatives, it was clear that the best decision was to backtrack our route up and abandon our Grand Slam. Before we left, we took in the spectacular view only found on the summit of a Colorado 14'er. Click on the summit picture for a 360 degree video from the top. All in all, Mt. Massive is an easy 14'er. Relatively easy to get to and easy to climb, depending on the route. The Halfmoon Lakes route is a Class 2 climb. Massive, any Massive, is a winter training climb or a challenging first 14'er. The Halfmoon lake routes adds a little more difficulty with the incremental distance. However, no matter your reason or experience always take the 10 essentials in your pack and lot's of food and water. |
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