MT. MASSIVE
14,421 ft.
June 19, 1989
By Tim Briese
(Note: For another trip report on a climb I have done of Mt. Massive, describing a ridge hike from North Massive to South Massive, see the More Climbs page.)
For several months my good friend Tim Detweiler and I tossed around the idea of climbing a 14er together. He had not climbed one before, and I had done only a couple of them, so we were virtual newcomers to such an undertaking. A few years before I had climbed Mt. Elbert, the highest mountain in the state, so I suggested that we climb the second highest, Mt. Massive, and Tim agreed. Besides being attracted by its lofty elevation, we were intrigued by the name of this mighty mountain.
I picked Tim up on a clear morning in June at 5:30 a.m. and we headed into the mountains. Just south of Leadville we turned onto the Halfmoon Creek road and drove southwest toward the trailhead. The vast bulk of Massive dominated the view to the west, and we were surprised that so much snow still remained on its slopes. Back at home the snow was virtually gone from the slopes of Pikes Peak.
Soon we reached the trailhead and struck off to the north up the Colorado Trail at about 9 a.m. The trail carried us along through an enchanting forest with crossings of several small creeks that were swollen with cold, clear water from melting snow on the higher reaches above. After about three miles we reached a junction at 11,200 feet where the Mt. Massive trail broke off to the left and headed sharply uphill. Up to this point we had gradually ascended about a thousand feet, which was a mere warmup for the serious climbing that now began. We soon reached timberline and were greeted by views of the vast east slopes of Massive which lay above us. We began to understand how the mountain got its name.
There were a few patches of snow here and there, and up higher we could see solid fields of white. The tundra surrounding us that was free of snow was rapidly greening up under the warm rays of the June sun, and there were colorful patches of blue and purple flowers, watered by the melting snow. Tim spontaneously exclaimed, “It’s great to be alive!”, and those words rang through my mind for quite some time. Our days of walking on the flowery green fields of the earth are not without end.
Little rivulets of water were flowing downhill everywhere around us as the snow rapidly melted in the sunshine. Tim, who has a great appreciation for the grandeur of Nature, made repeated comments about the beauty of the rocks, tundra, and flowers around us, echoing what was going through my mind. At about 13,000 feet we encountered a nearly continuous field of snow and began to hike through the soft, slushy stuff. We tried to step on bare rocks where we could but inevitably had to wade through the snow for a little ways, following a trail that had been broken by others. Fortunately it was not too deep, rarely exceeding a foot or so in depth.
At 13,900 feet we reached the high saddle between Massive and its noble subpeak to the south, South Massive (14,132 ft.), and turned to the right and began following Massive’s lofty ridge toward our goal. The half mile traverse along this rocky ridge seemed quite airy to inexperienced climbers like us, with a precipitous 2000 foot drop to the west and a steep snow slope dropping away to the east. Mt. Massive consists of a tremendous ridge several miles long, that rises almost continuosly above 14,000 feet for nearly three miles, with the summit being the highest point along this ridge. It is certainly an impressive mountain! It was an exhilarating moment for us when we neared our goal and scrambled over the last few rocks and reached the summit about 1:30.
From the top we reveled in the magnificent views all around, from the Maroon Bells to the San Juans to Longs Peak. It seemed as if we could see half of our beautiful state from this lofty perch. It was very good to be there. A great sense of peace, inspiration, and inner strength can be derived from the experience of being on a mountaintop.
Although we saw other climbers along the trail, there was no one else on top while we were there, which was a good thing because there didn’t seem to be much room to spare on the summit. As we sat and rested we ate our lunch under the watchful eye of a couple of well-fed marmots. They seemed nearly as tame as household pets. It was pleasantly cool on the summit, with a bit of a breeze blowing from the west. Some rain clouds were building in the distance but the weather was not yet threatening in our vicinity.
While gazing off to the south I observed Mt. Elbert about five miles away, and Mt. Harvard about fifteen miles beyond that. These summits, along with the one on which we stood, are the three highest in Colorado, and all are nearly identical in height. They also happen to lie in a nearly straight line, and one might suppose that their elevations would appear nearly identical from the summit of Massive, but Harvard appeared significantly lower beyond Elbert, bolstering Columbus’ theory that the earth is round.
A little after 2 p.m. we began our descent, and worked our way back along the ridge and down the east slopes of the mountain. The going was rapid and quite easy, but nevertheless it was about all that our tired bodies could handle. Our legs felt tired and rubbery as we tramped back down the trail through the woods, and the trailhead was a most welcome sight when we reached it about 5 p.m.
We stopped for food in Leadville, and as we walked across the parking lot to my truck we paused to look at the dramatic view of the mountain we had climbed stretching across the horizon to the southwest, and knew from firsthand experience that it was, indeed, massive!
