fake review spotter amazon sunday, august 30 -- mount massive, 14421'

nine years ago i climbed mount elbert, the highest peak in colorado at 14433', on a saturday, and mount massive, the second highest, the next day. that sure was a tiring two days. well, last weekend i returned to massive to do something "a little different". a ridge-runner at heart, i yearned to traverse the entire, long summit ridge of the well-named multilith, at least the part above fourteen thousand feet.

there are 15 high points above 14000' shown on the 7.5-minute topo map of mount massive at 40' resolution. four are south of the main peak, including the prominent one informally known as south massive. ten are north on the ridge, the most independent of which is unofficially north massive. i visited all of the points, and a number of smaller ones too, just to be sure. they vary from rounded humps to sheer-sided boulders perched on the generally broad ridgeline.

the weekend before last i hoped to join dave grindeland and friend for massive after they climbed elbert on saturday. well they had enough of the monsoon rains and snows, and i elected not to leave home with the crummy weather. last weekend was as marvelous as the previous one was miserable. i had great fall conditions, cool, clear, a little breezy, with only rounded cumulus scud casting living shadows on the landscape.

i left fort collins saturday afternoon and ate dinner in leadville. the road up halfmoon valley between elbert and massive is slow and painful in dark or light. it's 7.7 miles west from col. 91 to the trailheads where the colorado (was main range) trail crosses the road, most of it unpaved and rutted, 20mph optimal. it's another 2.3 miles up and down on even worse gravel to the south and north halfmoon creek road forks, marked 103 and 110. there are several campgrounds and numerous places to pull off to camp in the national forest.

i attempted the north fork road in my datsun. didn't get far before hitting a stretch too steep to take slowly and too rumpled to take quickly. here i found a wide spot by the creek at 10280' and called it a night. (actually, i foolishly listened to the end of a broncos pre-season game on the radio for an hour first...)

sunday morning at 0500 my sleeping bag was covered with dew ice. it didn't feel that cold though. i started up the road by it didn't feel that cold though. i started up the road by flashlight at 0525, an hour before sunrise. having 4wd wouldn't have saved me much walking for i found the mount massive wilderness boundary about 3/4 mile up the road. here there is a register, and soon after the road becomes a narrow trail.

i lost the trail in the dark but wasn't too worried about it. eager to get climbing, i turned right, up the hillside to the north, and started bushwhacking in slowly fading darkness. before long i didn't need the flashlight; just as well, because i used both hands to brachiate through aspen trees up a steep, loose hillside. (this sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but it sure is pretty in virgin forest early in the morning.)

after watching first sun strike mount elbert through gnarled pine branches i continued up to timberline and beyond. i was on the sw ridge of the 13630' south subpeak. it was a good, rocky climb with some scrambling. a couple hundred feet below this double summit i cut left and traversed nw on a rugged-looking but fairly solid hillside, around to the 13360+' saddle. here i started the ridge-run. started the ridge-run.

i trudged up and claimed south massive, 14132', at 0940. it's a rounded, grassy summit from which you can see the main peak. of course, here and all along the rest of the ridge i had a great view east to the upper arkansas valley, leadville, and the mosquito range. holy cross north, elbert south, the rest of the sawatch range, and the elk range to the west complete quite a marvelous panorama.

after a break i dropped down to the next saddle and up to the next subpeak. i'll spare you the list of points and saddles. but if you want to repeat this trip, ask me for a plan i prepared which tabulates the highs, lows, rises, and drops along the ridge. from the saddle onwards i encountered occasional traces of a trail, but mainly followed the ridgetop when possible.

the ridge turns north (right) and is pretty rough for a ways. i couldn't do the last 10' of one of the points. no biggie. before long, at 1052, i collapsed on the main summit, 14421'. i had it all to myself. it isn't very big, but slopes to the east quite gently. for a time i just sat quietly, stared at the scenery, and downed half a lunch. i'd already done about 4600' of total gain, quite a day's work.

i considered aborting the rest of the ridge-run. meanwhile i relaxed, waited, watched the weather, recovered, and chatted with others who arrived on top. after two hours, with the clouds still benign, and feeling well-rested, i continued north at 1254.

i was headed away from my car, and still had to gain about 760', but it went surprisingly quickly and easily. it was more downhill than up, dropping a net of about 460' on the way to the last subpeak. of course the vertical gain was broken into ten short chunks, the longest only 200', and each summit was a little different. again they ranged from very rounded hillocks to steep, exposed boulders. on one of them i again declined to surmount the last 10'. going up is easy, getting down is not...

i reached north massive, 14320+', at 1401. it is a fairly large, flat, sandy summit in virgin condition littered with colorful rocks. the east subpeak nearby, almost as high, has small garnets scattered about.

after a 25 minute break here i dropped and then strolled about another half mile to a 14169' hillock, northernmost point of the journey. then i turned hard ssw to the high end of a tundra meadow that just clears 14000', the last of the 15 massive peaks, at 1454. as i went north and west the view of the ridge changed continuously. i got to see the mountain from a number of unusual perspectives.

five hours and 20 minutes after reaching south massive i left the last subpeak. the trip back was surprisingly easy and enjoyable. i encountered a lot of untracked, steep, soft scree, dirt, and gravel which was easy to descend to grassy meadows, and even crossed one old snow patch. by 1602 i reached a rocky outcrop overlooking north halfmoon lakes and the lovely valley surrounding them west of massive.

a couple of hundred feet below the outcrop i spotted an unexpected and welcome trail, and downclimbed to it. this unimproved but good and direct track led me down the valley under trees, past meadows, and across creeks back to the main road and my car at 1740.

statistics: vertical gain, at least 5300', but hard to be sure with all the ups and downs. at least 8 miles round-trip, maybe 10. 5:27 to reach the main peak due to bushwhacking, traversing, and staying on top of the ridge. 2:02 on top, 4:46 on the long-around return, a total outing lasting 12:15. 24 photos, 1/8" of boot sole, one deer, three quarts of water, and 35 minutes driving out that awful road...