Yesterday started early! 3am alarm went off & by 3:30am we left Aspen & drove towards Leadville (almost 2 hours) to the trailhead for Mt. Massive. Bob, Dana & I were hiking at 5:45am. At sunrise we were treated to a view of Mt. Elbert (above). Surprised to see snow on the top of this peak! BTW: Mt. Elbert is the highest 14er in Colorado (14,433 ft; hiked in 2013). Mt. Massive is the 2nd highest CO peak at 14,421' & today we intended to reach it's summit.
The sky was blue, wildflowers were plentiful, we saw 4 mountain goats & 1 rare white furred marmot. All of which distracted us from a very steep climb.
Grass + wildflowers on a mountainside = pretty
Rocks + snow on a mountainside = pretty.
And what a cool contrast to the earlier flowers.
Bob & Dana on the home stretch to the top.
Nice work, Dana!! Looks like you're on top of the world!
So fun to summit Mt. Massive with our niece.
Wahoo!!!!!! The 3 Marmot-eers!
Mt. Massive
14,421 ft
August 18, 2016
14er #26 for me.
8.5 miles round trip. Took us 3 hours to reach the summit. 3,900 ft of climbing.
Taking in the view before the down hike.
We had good weather all the way to the car but on our drive back to Aspen a rainstorm came over Mt. Elbert making it's way towards Mt. Massive. It pays to get up at 3am!
CO. is so beautiful...you really came into a lot of snow...3am is a really early morning, but I can tell it was worth it!
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