Mt. Massive Trip Report 08/01/2011

Report Type	Full
Peak(s)	Mt. Massive - 14,427 feet Mt. Oklahoma - 13,843 feet Mt. Parnassus - 13,580 feet Bard Peak - 13,641 feet
Date Posted	08/01/2011
Date Climbed	07/30/2011
Author	FireOnTheMountain

Massive Fun, Massive Goring
Peaks Climbed: Massive's 5 and Mt. Oklahoma (7/30), Mt. Parnassus and Bard Peak (7/31) Peaks Attempted that ended in Complete, Utter and Miserable Failure: Mt. Powell (7/30) Routes: Standards Climbers: me (except for the Complete, Utter and Miserable Failure) As do most of my (and I'm sure most of your) pre-weekend plannings go, I ran through the gamut of things to climb. I have been eyeing many endurance climbs lately such as the Radical Slam and another I will not reveal just yet (don't worry it's probably been done) but settled on Roach's Tour de Massive. Leaving work on Friday I headed for the hills. Arriving at the Halfmoon campground I set out up the trail around 7:30pm with plans to bivy. I found a cozy little spot at 12,200 and hunkered down for the night. Just a side note, the work done by CFI on the North Halfmoon Route is amazing! I promised myself a month or so ago that once I got my degree in peak bagging, I would volunteer to help. Hiking this trail only solidified that goal. Awaking the next morning, I pushed for the summit and then some. There were only a few, brief class 3 sections that reside on your way to North Massive. View from North Massive I then headed over to point 14,129 where I saw something that caught my attention. Ridge connecting Mt. Oklahoma Upon further examination and an odd number of minutes deliberating, I deemed the ridge feasible. Normally I would have said "What am I waiting for?!" but I could not help but remember my failed attempt the weekend prior where I planned to hit Huron and the 3 Apostles. The crux that broke the camel's back on the 3 Apostle's Ridge I totally misread this crux and downclimbed some real sketchy face then ran out of time blah blah blah but thats neither here nor there (just want to say that ridge and I have some unfinished business). Anyways back to this climb... Another view of the Ridge Some really fun downclimbing Initially I thought the climb to the summit was going to be Talus Fest 2011 but that was far from the case. The climb up was actually super fun! Some neat sections I ran into 4 hrs and 45 minutes after waking, I topped Mt. Oklahoma. Following image shows all 5 of my summits plus the ridge. View from the top of Mt. Oklahoma View of Massive with North Halfmoon Lake in the Foreground Enter Jason (aka Mr. Insaneo)... I had made plans to climb with Jason Saturday night and Sunday. Few of you may remember Jason as the recipient of the highly coveted Mountaineer's Oscar in his lead role in my first trip report "Heroically Traversing to the Y(MCA)". Jason had schemed a diabolically elaborate plan to conquer Mt. Powell's north face which involved according to him, "A shit load of bushwacking." Unbeknownst to me (and Jason also!) was his meaning of "a shit load". Mt. Powell is nestled in the unscathed depths of the Gores and I've heard from not only Jason that the Gores were notorious for their true mountaineering experience. Naturally, I am always down for such a challenge so we met up at Silverthorne and hit the trail around 6pm (a less than ideal time to begin this heinous endeavor). Night looming and trees looming higher To make a long story short, we turned around after 5 miles only one of which was the brutal buskwacking and arrived back at our cars at 1 am where we promptly crashed in our respective vehicles (I had been awake 20.5 hours up to this point!). Feeling guilty to not climb on a Sunday, I decided at 7am the next morning to hit 2 13ers in the Herman Gulch area. I saw this helicopter traveling over I-70 and it seemed to be hovering around Pettingell Peak. Hope no one was hurt! On my way to Bard Peak Grays and Torries Look back at Parnassus Peak These two days were jam packed with some great hiking. I would highly recommend the traverse to Mt. Oklahoma and getting whooped by the Gores only makes me want to go back! For those of you wondering, Jason has already hatched another one of his Insaneo plans and has cordially invited me back to hit that face for this weekend...oh boy. Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Massive Fun, Massive Goring

Peaks Climbed: Massive's 5 and Mt. Oklahoma (7/30), Mt. Parnassus and Bard Peak (7/31)
Peaks Attempted that ended in Complete, Utter and Miserable Failure: Mt. Powell (7/30)
Routes: Standards
Climbers: me (except for the Complete, Utter and Miserable Failure)

As do most of my (and I'm sure most of your) pre-weekend plannings go, I ran through the gamut of things to climb. I have been eyeing many endurance climbs lately such as the Radical Slam and another I will not reveal just yet (don't worry it's probably been done) but settled on Roach's Tour de Massive.

Leaving work on Friday I headed for the hills. Arriving at the Halfmoon campground I set out up the trail around 7:30pm with plans to bivy. I found a cozy little spot at 12,200 and hunkered down for the night. Just a side note, the work done by CFI on the North Halfmoon Route is amazing! I promised myself a month or so ago that once I got my degree in peak bagging, I would volunteer to help. Hiking this trail only solidified that goal.

Awaking the next morning, I pushed for the summit and then some. There were only a few, brief class 3 sections that reside on your way to North Massive.

I then headed over to point 14,129 where I saw something that caught my attention.

Upon further examination and an odd number of minutes deliberating, I deemed the ridge feasible. Normally I would have said "What am I waiting for?!" but I could not help but remember my failed attempt the weekend prior where I planned to hit Huron and the 3 Apostles.

The crux that broke the camel's back on the 3 Apostle's Ridge

I totally misread this crux and downclimbed some real sketchy face then ran out of time blah blah blah but thats neither here nor there (just want to say that ridge and I have some unfinished business).

Anyways back to this climb...

Initially I thought the climb to the summit was going to be Talus Fest 2011 but that was far from the case. The climb up was actually super fun!

4 hrs and 45 minutes after waking, I topped Mt. Oklahoma. Following image shows all 5 of my summits plus the ridge.

View of Massive with North Halfmoon Lake in the Foreground

Enter Jason (aka Mr. Insaneo)...
I had made plans to climb with Jason Saturday night and Sunday. Few of you may remember Jason as the recipient of the highly coveted Mountaineer's Oscar in his lead role in my first trip report "Heroically Traversing to the Y(MCA)".

Jason had schemed a diabolically elaborate plan to conquer Mt. Powell's north face which involved according to him, "A shit load of bushwacking." Unbeknownst to me (and Jason also!) was his meaning of "a shit load".

Mt. Powell is nestled in the unscathed depths of the Gores and I've heard from not only Jason that the Gores were notorious for their true mountaineering experience. Naturally, I am always down for such a challenge so we met up at Silverthorne and hit the trail around 6pm (a less than ideal time to begin this heinous endeavor).

To make a long story short, we turned around after 5 miles only one of which was the brutal buskwacking and arrived back at our cars at 1 am where we promptly crashed in our respective vehicles (I had been awake 20.5 hours up to this point!).

Feeling guilty to not climb on a Sunday, I decided at 7am the next morning to hit 2 13ers in the Herman Gulch area.

I saw this helicopter traveling over I-70 and it seemed to be hovering around Pettingell Peak. Hope no one was hurt!

These two days were jam packed with some great hiking. I would highly recommend the traverse to Mt. Oklahoma and getting whooped by the Gores only makes me want to go back! For those of you wondering, Jason has already hatched another one of his Insaneo plans and has cordially invited me back to hit that face for this weekend...oh boy.

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

mattpayne11	Thanks man 6/13/2012 2:18am Looks like fun - I think I'll give this route a go.
I Man	Nice Report Dude! 9/10/2012 3:59am I hit this route today on a whim, didn't know anything about the ridge...it was great!

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