Tuesday, June 26, 2007

My Solo Trek up Mt. Massive

Mt. Massive
June 25, 2007

What a great hike! The summit of Mt. Massive was my 8th 14er...only 36 to go, haha! Here's a picture of Mt. Massive from the road. The summit is the second peak from the left. The trail I took led me to the saddle between those two peaks to the left, South Massive and Mt. Massive, and then I climbed the ridge north (to the right) to the summit!
Finally on the trail at 8:30 am, I started my ascent. Here I am with a beautiful mountain stream flowing. We've had a lot of snow this winter so there is a lot of melting this time of year in the mountains. I started on the Colorado Trail, but here I go, connecting with the main Mt. Massive Trail.Just above treeline, a great view.
Most of the snow had melted, but there were a couple snow fields I had to trek through. Lucky for me, I wasn't the first to go through : ) There was one snow field closer to the summit that I tried to go through, until I realized that the snow that had been packed down had melted too much and I was falling even further through to my waist. Not a big deal, except for the fact that I was in shorts!! Brrr!

Almost to the summit, this is a picture to the west. And finally, the summit! Check out my crazy hair! It was pretty windy, so I didn't stay at the top for too long. I met a couple who had hiked up the back side and had an adventure of their own, after losing the trail and hitting North Massive before making their way over to the summit. Losing the trail? I have no idea what that's like ; )Mt. Massive's neighbor, Mt. Elbert, the tallest 14er in Colorado.A little mountain goat! Believe it or not, the first one I've ever seen on a mountain!
He was cute : )
This is the trail...flooded from all the snow melting!Some pretty flowers : )
All in all, it was a great day! Unfortunately I neglected to put sunscreen on my legs and incidently, they got fried and I'm paying for it now! But it was worth it! There were some great views, great pictures and a great experience : )

3 comments:

TAV said...

Is it safe to solo hike? You are so brave! Oh- just as a note, the link to my blog is actually thatbananaisstillgood (not thatbananaisstillripe) :)

TAV said...

oops, nevermind, you have it right!

Anonymous said...

Safety first! Please don't hike alone!!!
You are inspiring me - I need to catch up on blogging!