East Slopes. 14.5 miles RT. 4,500′ gain. 6 hours. 20 minutes.
High above the iconic Colorado mountain town of Leadville stands Mt. Massive—an aptly named wall of a mountain and several of its constituent sub-summits. It is the third highest peak in the contiguous United States, which is certainly not hard to believe when gazing upon its stature from Leadville.
The mountain met my gaze as I made my way to the trailhead and I knew immediately that my ungodly 3:00am wakeup was going to be well worth it.
Of course, to my dismay, there were already dozens of cars and occupied campsites all along the dirt road towards Halfmoon Creek. The Mt. Elbert parking lot was already packed and I ground my teeth when I saw there were cars in the Mt. Massive overflow parking lot. I drove up the last quarter mile to the trailhead and was pleased to find that the Mt. Massive parking lot was only about half full. I started hauling ass down the trail at 6:05am. The day was forecast to be beautiful with a minimal chance of storms in the afternoon, but I still thought it would be good practice to be off the summit before noon.
After a switchback or two up the Colorado trail, the towery Mt. Elbert poked its nose through the trees, basked in alpenglow—a reminder of achievement from a month prior and I smiled as I continued.
Intermittent shade and rolling hills through lush verdant pine forests constituted the difficulty to reach timberline.
I traveled quickly along this lower portion of the trip in a hypnotic daze until I reached S. Willow Creek and then Willow Creek proper over three miles in, where I then focused on locating the turnoff to the Mt. Massive trail.
The turnoff wasn’t difficult to locate, and I continued my way through the trees. I passed another hiker and soon found myself in the familiar krummholz. It was here that the summit, still thousands of feet above, finally reared its scabrous head (although you should note that the true summit in the picture below is directly behind the tree slightly center-right) .
I took pause to take pictures, hydrate, ravenously devour an orange, and sunscreen up. Refreshed after these luxuries, I continued.
The trees soon disappeared entirely, leaving me to waltz forth in the campestral alpine.
I bypassed point 12,466 and could see almost the entirety of the remaining route.
Blueberry hues overwhelmed the sky and it was hard not to notice the foison of wildflowers—fireworks among the alpine grasses.
Notably, I believe I identified a queen’s crown (Clementsia rhodantha) and little red elephants (Pedicularis groenlandica) – correct me if I’m wrong!
Still over a thousand feet below the summit, I could hear the yells and cheers of those on top. A bit annoyed at the distant din, I allowed myself to continue. Ahead, I could see two very large groups of people nearing the saddle. It was an arduous slog to reach this saddle that connected Mt. Massive and “South Massive”. I passed one of the groups here. I knew only a skerrick of the route remained, though now steeper and slightly more difficult.
The false summit was not emotionally devastating like some; by the time I was on the false summit I knew I was less than a minute away from making the summit proper—the following photo shows the false summit from near the true summit.
As I topped out at 9:30am, I felt like an old curmudgeon in my distaste in sharing the summit with twenty others—the majority of which were from a single party. I took some pictures, and in an attempt to avoid the crowds, started heading down.
La Plata Peak, another beacon of achievement that carries an accompanying prior blog post, overtopped the south.
I cruised back to the saddle to take a lengthier break. Despite knowing hours of hiking remained to get back to the trailhead, I allowed myself to feel a dwindling sense of accomplishment. The way down further was uneventful and I jogged the steeper sections, allowing me to reach the trailhead again at 12:25pm—a little over six hours after I had started. It had been a beautiful day in the Sawatch and the views within Mt. Massive wilderness served as a reminder of why I love Colorado as I do.
Until next time my friends, stay adventurous!
The Overcast Adventurers 