| Peak: | Longs Peak |
| Route: | Keyhole Route |
| Range: | Front |
| Posted By: | hlawrence |
| Date of Info: | 8/2/2014 |
| Date Posted: | 8/3/2014 |
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Longs Peak has been one of those Peaks that i've always wanted to summit. Growing up going to the National Park with my family, and seeing it towering over everything in site made the desire increase even more. August 2nd my brother and I got to the Longs Peak Trailhead at 2:30am, the parking lot was stacked full but we managed to find one open spot at the end of the lot. Hiking with headlamps made the trek through the tree line and initial tundra section fly by. By 5:40 (sunrise) we were at the Keyhole, made some coffee and ate a simple breakfast. Watching the Sun rise over Mt. Lady Washington was by far on the most memorable experiences i've ever had in my years hiking. By 6:30am we were energized and ready to make the rest of the ascent to Longs summit. Trekking through the ledges was an easy task. Follow the bullseye's exactly as their marked and you'll have no problem (a few slick slabs of granite, so watch your step.) Next was the Trough, it was definitely a bit more steep than I had envisioned it being, but it honestly wasn't as hard as it looks. It takes time, and their were quite a few patches of snow and ice that had formed, but they were easily avoidable. The Narrows section was next, and this is where things for us got a bit sketchy. Water from the previous days melt, had frozen that night along the left side, and their were patches of snow throughout this section. We took it extra slow, found solid hand holds before making our next move, and eventually made it to the home stretch section at 8:00am. So this is the section that I must give much warning too. As of yesterday, August 2nd, the homestretch was dangerously covered in patches of black ice. No snow, but lots of ice throughout this part. I don't think we would have even attempted this part had not so many people already been doing so. It seemed like every other person was turning back, but at the same time, there seemed to be plenty of people going up. We followed a crack up the right side of the home stretch, as it provided plenty of hand holds. About half way up, a girl descending began to slide down the granite face. She made it about 15 feet, before she finally grabbed a rock. Everyone around us, including ourselves felt the weight of what we were really doing. By 8:30 we reached the Summit, and marveled at the incredible view of the Front Range, Longs Provides. Knowing that we had to descend what we just went up. By 9:00am we decided to head back down, as the sun had finally made it way over the summit and was heating up the homestretch. Inch by inch was crawled down the homestretch, carefully finding adequate foot holds. There was an Exodus of climbers heading down with us, and thus we relayed information to each other of where ice was, where to put our feet and so on. I will add that some, not all of the ice was beginning to melt by 9:15 or so... It took us a good 2 hours to make it back to the Keyhole, partly because of the amount of people heading down, but majorly because of the conditions that we were all working with. One climber behind us remarked "this is more dangerous than winter hiking right now, at least in the winter you have the appropriate gear and are prepared for those conditions, here we are all prepared for summer hiking and just have hiking boots on." The Trough down to the Trailhead was easy, but we felt fortunate to be safe, okay and to have summited it. I'm only writing this because the most current report that we got before heading out, was that there was not signs of snow or ice along the hike. We prepared accordingly for those conditions, and experienced quite the opposite. Its a hike worth doing for sure, just make sure your prepared for a variety of conditions. |
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