A good trip to Longs Neníisótoyóú’u on Columbus Indigenous Peoples Day. Left around 3:30am feeling fairly languid, but psyched enough to push up James Canyon/Overland Rd. (St. Vrain is essentially closed to bikes for construction). It’s a steeper route with more elevation gain, but it’s also actually shorter by a few miles. It’s also quieter – and there’s a few miles of well-sealed gravel at the top, what’s not to like?
It’s that time again, where I’m looking for weather windows between systems to try to summit Longs Peak! I’ve summited Longs Peak in every month of the year by many different routes – usually with an approach by bike!
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Elbert/Bull Hill/Casco/Frasco/French/Champion/13736/Deer/Oklahoma/Massive Mania
Summiting both Mt. Elbert and Mount Massive – the highest and second highest peak in Colorado, in the same day is usually a big but doable day out. Trailheads for the easiest routes up are practically across the road; the trails are both rated as an easy Class 1.
I’ve done it a few times myself by making it a loop by taking the SE Slopes up Massive, down the SW Sloops down and link Elbert’s steep West Ridge route up to finally descend it’s standard NE ridge. A righteous day out. This is mostly on smooth Class 1 trail – the only time off trail is the mile you’ll be on the west ridge of Elbert for a mile.
I’ve even gone up the route to Massive from the Fish Hatchery, down SW slopes, up the West Ridge, then kept going south to Indy Pass Road and taken the Colorado Trail back to the Fish Hatchery from Twin Lakes! This adds a ton of trail miles on the Colorado trail, but just a little bit more off-trail time getting from Elbert to Bull Hill and down the road at the Golden Fleece mine.
Since I’m wild for ridgelines these days, I’m always looking to see if I can’t link disparate peaks via one – and wouldn’t you know, you can with Elbert and Massive. This route would have the majority of travel be off-trail with a ton of loose, Class 3 traverses to cross. Lots of unknowns, including a bunch of new peaks for me. It would come to around 27 miles of terrain to cross – perfect! As I’ve got a 50km race coming up, and I haven’t done one of those in about five years, so I need some long days on my feet!
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This covers around 3 weeks! Lots of fun projects happening, so I at least wanted to put these trips in note-form, to make recall a little easier. I’ll miss a lot of gym time, since – hey: it’s just gym time.
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A challenging week to get in a good workout! I signed up to work the Boulder Half-Ironman and cater a wedding – a lot of 8+ hour days, mostly standing up and moving awkward + heavy things. With the smoke engulfing the entire western part of the country, it was a struggle to even want to get out:
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