It’s been two+ weeks since my last post and that time has flown by. In the last week the weather here in the Leadville area has improved. What I mean by this is, it’s now noon and the morning was sunny and during the time that has passed as I wrote this post it has gone from snowing to sunny. The pack-in is complete and the base-camp is setup. Pack-in took longer than we expected. As many of you who are in the Rocky Mountain Region know, we have had an extraordinary wet spring. The last two weeks it felt like Monsoon season in the San Juan’s. The days would always be cloudy and threatening from morning. The weather would degrade quickly and by noon it would be either raining or snowing. This meant 1 load Tuesday, 1 load Wednesday and 2 loads on Thursday.
We originally were going to pack-in on Saturday the second of June. This was postponed by the delayed pack-in of the forest services crew up Yale then postponed by weather till we got our first of four loads in Monday the fourth of June. The last load went up long after our base camp tent on Thursday. The camp was all set up by Friday afternoon. The process went well and there were no other major mishaps let a mule (Rory) got sick. The many little things that went on I will not bore you with.
While the weather was rough there were many things that went well. The Leadville rodeo grounds allowed Glen to house his mules in their corrals. This allowed him to stay in town. We had the pleasure of going to a mule packing training with Glen a couple of weeks previous. This helped prepare us for the pack-in.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Pre-season thoughts and pictures
It's Monday, Memorial day and I'm here in Leadville Colorado at Provin Grounds coffee shop. This will be my base of internet operations away from the mountain. For those of you who don't know Leadville Colorado, it is at the elevation of 10,152 feet (almost 2 miles). It is the highest incorperated town in the United states and the second highest municipality (well at least according to wikipedia and a couple other sites). It is a mere 2 hours south west of Denver on I70 and then to RT91, then RT24.
Leadville is known for being a historic mining town/superfund site. It is home of the wild race the 'Leadville 100'. Leadville is a place many go to train, for aclimitization. It is also known nationally for it's Boom days event in Augest. Yes, it is a tourist destination.
You may be wondering why I'm talking about Leadville. Well, I'm writing about Leadville because it is at the base of MT Massive; the place where I will be spending my summer.
MT Massive (elevation 14,421 feet) is the second highest peak in Colorado; only to MT Elbert (14,440 feet). It's name comes from it's shape. MT Massive is a long mountain with five individual peaks over 14,000 feet. It is one of CFI's (Colorado Fourteeners Initiative) longest running projects. This summer's goal is to finish the trail up "Main Massive" or the east side of Massive. Previous to the work on the Main Massive, CFI built the trail up the back (west side) or Half Moon trail.
As I look outside the window of the cafe. I can see the snowy peak protruding into the dark clouds. Massive is covered in snow on this late day in May. Come the 30th when we pack in, we will do some shoveling to allow the mule team to pass safely through.
I will be posting throughout the summer as more happens. Look forward to photos and more narratives.
Some links:
Mapping:
http://stable.toolserver.org/geohack/geohack.php?pagename=Mount_Massive¶ms=39_11_14.87_N_106_28_32.52_W_type:mountain_region:US
Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Massive
CFI:
http://14ers.org/peaks_Sawatch_Massive.php
Leadville is known for being a historic mining town/superfund site. It is home of the wild race the 'Leadville 100'. Leadville is a place many go to train, for aclimitization. It is also known nationally for it's Boom days event in Augest. Yes, it is a tourist destination.
You may be wondering why I'm talking about Leadville. Well, I'm writing about Leadville because it is at the base of MT Massive; the place where I will be spending my summer.
MT Massive (elevation 14,421 feet) is the second highest peak in Colorado; only to MT Elbert (14,440 feet). It's name comes from it's shape. MT Massive is a long mountain with five individual peaks over 14,000 feet. It is one of CFI's (Colorado Fourteeners Initiative) longest running projects. This summer's goal is to finish the trail up "Main Massive" or the east side of Massive. Previous to the work on the Main Massive, CFI built the trail up the back (west side) or Half Moon trail.
As I look outside the window of the cafe. I can see the snowy peak protruding into the dark clouds. Massive is covered in snow on this late day in May. Come the 30th when we pack in, we will do some shoveling to allow the mule team to pass safely through.
I will be posting throughout the summer as more happens. Look forward to photos and more narratives.
Some links:
Mapping:
http://stable.toolserver.org/geohack/geohack.php?pagename=Mount_Massive¶ms=39_11_14.87_N_106_28_32.52_W_type:mountain_region:US
Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Massive
CFI:
http://14ers.org/peaks_Sawatch_Massive.php
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