Mt. Blanca slash Great Sand Dunes slash Mt. Massive adventure combo

This past weekend, we headed 4 and a half hours south, just outside of Alamosa, to try our luck at climbing the14er mountain, Blanca—the fourth highest in Colorado at 14,345 ft. 

 (Blanca is kind of hidden here. This was where we camped--Blanca is the top right peak in the back... shrouded by clouds)

Twas my first 14er and whoo-nellayyy...I thought I was in pretty decent shape, but when I got above 13,000 ft, it felt like I was breathing through a coffee straw! And then trying to scramble up a boulder field.

We pulled into the trailhead around 12:30am and didn’t set up no tents or nothin, but just flopped onto the sandy ground and crashed until 2:45am when Lewis’s phone sung us awake. Then Josia, Lewis, Connor, and I—the 4 of us Shadowers—and Ben and Ginevra—2 members from the Rawah crew—started up the 7 mile uphill approach to the base of the mountain. There’s something so satisfying about being awake and hiking at 3am. You feel sort of superior to all other human beings; as if you’re part of a rebellion against the norm of night-sleeping by breaking the cycle with a revolutionary night-mountain climb.

We reached Como Lake in the crater between Blanca, Little Bear, and Ellingwood, as the sun was rising. Mountain lakes are literally liquid ice. Let me tell you, that water felt like when you chew a bunch of mint gum and then chug a freezing glass of milk—when I went to test little Como, it inflicted the same zinging chill. Resultantly, no swimming was done, but the lake was so flat in contrast with the mountains towering up on all sides; it created this aesthetic balance of calm and jagged that was extremely beautiful and pleasing. 

Then we hit the true mountain switchbacks, which soon morphed into climbing straight up on a vertical boulder field—Shelby’s oxygen levels becoming more and more depleted as she fell further and further behind.

At some point during this scrambling period, I made the decision that I would undergo red-blood cell doping before attempting any higher peaks. Miraculously, we eventually made it to the top and dined on a gourmet meal of summer sausage and Gouda cheese. Nothing has ever tasted better than that salty combo of deliciousness.

Shadow Crew on the Summit!

 Here are Ben and Ginevra, completely unfazed by the climb, sitting cool as two carefree cucumbers on top of Blanca...nbd.

The trip back down was much nicer and included a long raincoat butt-slide down a very steep portion that took a significant amount of time to scale. The trail was a little exposed, which I realized more fully on the descent, as I was in a slight delirium while desperately clawing my way to the summit. 

On the way back down the approach we discovered that it was easier to just let your feet fly rather than carefully step down the rocks, and spent 2-3ish miles just sprinting at top speed. This might have been my highlight of the hike. It felt like I was a character in a video game, bouncing off boulders and zooming over ravines. I’m surprised nobody split their face open or got concussed. We made it back around 4:30pm and headed to Alamosa to meet up with the rest of the RMCC crews and splurge at a decadent Mexican buffet.

That night, we camped back at the trailhead with all the crews and also nearly ran into a large herd of escaped cows—which, by the way, if mooed at will moo back! The next day, we said goodbye to everyone else and headed over to the Great Sand Dunes national park where we were attacked by a sand storm. Flying sand is wild. It sears off your skin like a little demon. But that didn’t stop our duning adventures.

 I also tackled a REAL LIVE TUMBLEWEED during its flight down the side of a dune.

We then visited the local liquid-ice waterfall and climbed up the river to the falls. It vividly reminded me of a 60 degree colder Kadunce.

Our next plan of shenanigans was to climb Mt. Massive, another 14er, on our way back through Leadville. However, a snowstorm began on the drive and by the time we reached Leaville, the temp had dropped to a balmy 31 degrees. Happy June! After much indecision and wandering around the local grocery store wondering what would be the warmest/fastest food we could cram in our bodies, we decided to purchase 5 toasty rotisserie chickens and go for it anyways. We headed to the trailhead around 11pm, which turned out to be a real offroader and were eventually stopped by the extreme terrain around 12:15. Lewis’s car is a real trooper. We set up tents in the snow wearing sandals and then put on the warmest clothes we’d brought—AKA tights and a thin longsleeve. 

It. Was. Cold— dropping into the 20s, and when we woke up at 3:45am to start Massive, there was some solid snow on the ground.

But it was beautiful. The snow-laced trees glittered in the rising sun like they only do the morning after a snowfall and the mountains bore a frosty white icing among boulder sprinkles.

What we didn’t really anticipate though, was that you can’t really see trail under snow, and about 45 minutes in we were definitely wandering in untraveled territory. We’d find the path and then lose it and then find if for like 20 seconds but then lose it again. Eventually we were tramping through that kind of snow that you can kind of stay on top of but then your foot sinks down up to your hip and you fall on your face and it’s extremely disheartening, so we just started heading straight up the mountain hoping we would stumble upon the trail or at least spot a friendly rock caren.

It was a blast. I love those off-trail adventures. You don’t really know where you’re going or how long it will take, but it feels more real. I’m calling the shots instead of doggedly following an established path.

However, we finally came to a point where the terrain was extremely sketch and the wind was also picking up and toes and fingers were solidly frozen so we reluctantly turned around.

So, Massive turned out to be a massive fail. A massively beautiful fail. But we’re going back…just wait you mountain, you. Shadow’s bringing the heat. 

Photo Cred to Josia and Connor!