Hiking

A Massive Day

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Mt. Massive from the east

Mt. Massive is the second highest mountain in Colorado, only 11 feet shorter than its neighbor across the valley, Mt. Elbert.  It makes up for those 11 feet by being the mountain with the most area over 14,000 feet in the contiguous 48 states.  With a summit and four sub-summits over 14,000 feet and a three-mile-long summit ridge Mt. Massive is truly massive.  If you’ve been to Leadville, you’ve seen Mt. Massive and you may have mistaken it for a whole mountain range.  Massive doesn’t so much dominate Leadville’s western skyline as it IS Leadville’s western skyline.

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Humble Humboldt

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Humbolt Peak during the approach

Most of our mountain climbing to this point has been in our local range, the Sawatch, or near Fairplay in the Mosquitoes.  Looking for a change of scenery I wanted to try something in the Sangre de Cristos south of Salida.  The problem is, most of the Sangre peaks are above my pay grade in terms of climbability.  

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Respect the General

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Mt. Sherman on the drive in

On my continuing road to recovery, it was time to try my first 14er of 2022.  While none of the 14ers are genuinely easy – you’re climbing up to 14,000 feet, after all – some are easier than others.  The one generally considered the easiest is Mt. Sherman, in the Mosquito range between Leadville and Fairplay.  From the upper 4wd trailhead the round-trip climb is listed as under five miles with just over 2,000 feet of vertical. A perfect re-introduction to mountain climbing.

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The road less travelled

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I generally like to start these mountain climbing posts with a picture of the subject mountain, just to give you, dear reader, an overview more or less, of what I’m talking about.  I usually snap these pictures in the morning during the approach or after the climb on the way out, depending on where I can get the best shot of the entire mountain.  For this post, a climb of Mt. Antero, the best photo I have was taken a couple of weeks ago when I was standing next door on Mt. Princeton.  It’s a nice shot and I’m not too proud to recycle, so I present to you, once again, Mt. Antero. 

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Ivy League

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Way back in the 1860’s and 1870’s, back before Colorado even became a state, survey crews from what is now called the U.S. Geological Survey fanned out across the Rocky Mountains to catalogue, measure, map and name the mountains.  Imagine that, being given the authority to name mountains!  Most of the names we use to this day came from those 19th century surveys.  

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Decalibron

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I don’t consider myself a particularly obsessive person but if I’m interested in something I do have a tendency to lock onto it like a dog on a bone.  From the very first 14er we climbed years ago I’ve found a definite attraction to their challenges.  And now that we’ve climbed several of them, I find my interest has only grown.  I don’t know if I’ll ever climb them all.  Due to their difficulty or remoteness, there are several that are probably out of my reach at this point in life.  I’m not 20 years old anymore.  But for the time being I’m really interested in pushing myself to climb as many as I can.   

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Club Huron

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Next up on our 14er climb list was Huron Peak.  At 14,003 feet Huron just makes the list of Colorado 14ers but what it lacks in altitude list-topping, it makes up for in remoteness and rugged beauty.  Huron has the distinction of being the Sawatch 14er farthest from a paved road. What that means is that when you approach it from the lovely Lake Ann basin you are surrounded by nothing but wilderness for miles in every direction.  No towns, highways or civilization of any kind are visible from Huron’s slopes.  A perfect place for quiet seclusion.  

Or so we thought.

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