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&params=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