The Colorado School of Mines "M"
Posted by: 
Deweyz
N 39° 44.734 W 105° 14.396
13S E 479443 N 4399545
The Great Colorado School of Mines "M", on Mount Zion above Golden Colorado.
Waymark Code: WME9T
Location: Colorado, United States
Date Posted: 06/05/2006
Views: 213
I'm sure that my "M" is so much cooler than your "M". Actually...it looks amazingly similar.
Ask a local "M" is for "Mountain". =-] No, actually, it's for "Mines" the Colorado School of Mines. Visible from Denver, lit up at night, the "M" on the side of Mount Zion is BIG. How did it get there, you may wonder. Funny you should ask...
Every year the freshmen at the Colorado School of Mines embark on a voluntary torture test called the "M" Climb. You are required to go out the couple days before and find yourself a 10 lb rock. If you are built like a football player and come with only a 7 lb rock, a 20 lb rock will be assigned to you. I (silly me) found myself a 20lb rock. Oops.
You take your rock and climb up the hill carrying it (no backpacks allowed) singing the school fight song, repeatedly, and wearing the hard hat you were given the day before (corresponds to your class color), and being painted and mocked by upperclassmen all the way. Upon reaching the "M" (a 940' change in elevation, if you stop at the bottom), you place your rock on the M with those already present. But alas! Your rock is rock colored and the M rocks are white! So, the freshmen must whitewash each other...I mean the rocks...
Graduating seniors may DRIVE up the hill (learned their lesson by then) and retrieve a rock (I found my original, but left it...that thing was HUGE...took a smaller one) and whitewash the M one last time.
You Denver-area-peeps have probably seen the M before, but I bet you didn't know that (well...Mines students should).
The M is fenced in, but you can get close by car and a little hike. A pic of it from the road or outside the fence will suffice.
Letter/Word on Hill: M
Trail to Letter: yes
Parking or nearest viewing point: N 39° 44.769 W 105° 14.382
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Visit Instructions:
Please include a photograph that you took showing the letters from some vantage point.