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Long's Peak, home of the World Billygoating Championship
Climb and ski/rock ski descent of Long's Peak, 4/29/2013
Ascent via North Face, descent via Keplinger's Couloir into Wild Basin
Crew: Jordan (jcwhite), Rob (lodgling), Matt (pioletski)
The moon was a ghostly galleon, toss'd on a stormy sea...
EDIT: That's "upon cloudy seas." Thanks cftbq...
Three o'clock in the morning comes awfully early when the logistics of the previous day have dictated a lot of driving and little sleep. We've all been there before, however, and we all know how much better we feel once we get moving.
Rob, Jordan and I set off up the familiar Long's Peak trail under a clear sky. The waning gibbous moon was so bright that we didn't need our headlamps much of the way, even in the forest. Time and distance seem to go quickly while traveling at night; sunrise found us at the Boulderfield...
... and painted the north face of Long's with a rosy glow.
We expected a clear but breezy day. Breezy by Long's Peak standards, that is. At this point we were probably feeling gusts of about 50 mph. One surprised Jordan and me and knocked both of us right off our feet, much to Rob's amusement.
Note Jordan's broad smile (and the Keyhole in the background)...
... even if, 75% of the time, things looked more like this:
We skinned up to a point perhaps a hundred feet below Chasm View and then paused to don crampons and break out the axes.
In a brief break from the wind, we scrambled up the technical portion of the climb. (Jordan, again, demonstrates his mastery with the camera.)
Did I mention that it was windy? I'm not sure, but I think this is me on the upper face, plastering myself against the snow to avoid being blown off the mountain:
But we kept at it, and attained the summit at 10:00 am. Here Rob's skins flail in the wind:
Jordan, doing one of the things he does best:
After a brief stay on the summit we geared up to ski. We were pleased to find snow at the summit, and the Homestretch was plastered with wind-hammered snow.
Skiing the Homestretch. Matt:
Rob. This guy is an amazing T-marker:
Unfortunately, what we couldn't see from the summit was the big patch below the Homestretch that had been blown clear of snow. Hence the World Billygoating Championship, in which we took the team division. This involved the traverse from the Homestretch to the top of Keplinger's plus a couple of short sections below. Rob's picture shows Jordan standing on bare rock:
The lower 2/3 of the couloir were nicely filled in:
We skied down to Keplinger's Lake and stopped to refuel for the long exit from Wild Basin.
EDIT: Geographical mistake. This isn't actually Keplinger's Lake, it's a small tarn at the foot of the couloir... where, logically, you would expect to find a lake of that name...
Note in Rob's picture that I'm still wearing a hat and windbreaker despite the sun; the wind was still howling around us even down here at timberline. Normally we would be stripping down to T-shirts by now:
Looking back up. Most of the couloir is nicely filled in, but there are prominent bare patches!
Heading down to the Wild Basin TH, we were on snow at first, then deep mashed potatoes, then dirt; we were down at 2:00 pm.
Jordan, great to see you again; Rob, nice to meet you! Thanks for joining me on this adventure. And thank you for reading.
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
Well done gents! Matt said it was windy when we spoke last night but the pics really confirm that. Looks like ya'll really wanted this one. Way to earn it. And the rocky sections look minimal.
Rob - When folks have to describe what is depicted in your photos perhaps it's time to upgrade cameras . Glad to hear you were able to get Longs
Mike - Basically my decision. The Homestretch looked great from above and I was interested in skiing Keplinger's. With better beta we might have skied the North Face instead - let me know when you want to do that...
Caroline - yep, 6 to go.
Elliot - You mean there are people who ski for the sake of the skiing?!
Did you rope up through the cables or would that be more just needed to descend? All in all pretty sweet this line filled in this year. The new snow should keep the dust at bay. Hope you can crush a few more this spring.
Way to knock that one out, in spite of the ground blizzard. GRIT!
Perhaps more impressive is your relatively fast exit through Wild Basin. That place is spectacular country, though not always the most trivial through which to travel
Good work, guys. I was curious as to what you felt snow conditions were like on the ledge traverse from the Homestretch to Keplingers. I was up there on Sat and we turned around below the Notch where the route traverses over to the Homestretch. We ran out of time anyway (came from Meeker), but didn't feel comfortable climbing a wind loaded section to exit the couloir.
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