After hiding from the rain we made the short move to the Mount Massive trailhead (possibly the shortest 14er move that was actually a move). It was still raining so we strung up a tarp to cook and eat under. We had the usual tortillas and beans with avocado, arugula, and some leftover chicken and cheese (for those that wanted that).
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August 19. We really got an early start since this was a long day with more forecast thunderstorms. We were hiking in the dark at 5:30. It was pretty cold until we started uphill, then we warmed up quickly. As we neared treeline Sam got lost when he went for a bathroom break. We heard him yelling off in the distance in a different direction but couldn't tell what he was saying. Luckily he found us or vice versa. this was a pretty long day and we could see that we were still far from the top even after we were well above tree line. No wonder I was so tired back in 2000 when I hiked up both Elbert and Massive in one long exhausting day. Mount Massive really lives up to its name with numerous sub-peaks over 14,000 feet and the largest area over 14,000 ft in the contiguous US. We continued on up to the ridge where we were met with a cold biting wind. With a few more layers we traversed up to the 14,428 ft summit. There we ate summit cookies in the lee of rocks as well as the usual pics etc.
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The hike back down seemed to take forever but even with a 45 minute "lunch break" we made it back down at 1:35. Sadly Nalumon had gone in search of cell reception and then decided to continue on to civilization and to join Carrie for one more 14er before heading off to Burning Man.
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Summary of August 19th, one 14er, about 14.5 miles, 4,500 feet of elevation gain to Colorado's second highest peak, one Sam lost but found, one Nalumon lost (she left, so was only lost to us).