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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Home Mountain

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Methodist Mountain

One of the things I love most about where we live is you can literally look out the window and see unlimited opportunities for adventure.  What’s that mountain?  Where does that drainage go?  I wonder if there’s a trail up that?  Everywhere you look there’s something new to explore and enjoy.  I’m tremendously grateful.

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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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