| Peak(s): |
Longs Peak - 14,259 feet |
| Date Posted: | 09/15/2014 |
| Date Climbed: | 09/13/2014 |
| Author: | WestVailCo |
| Peak(s): |
Longs Peak - 14,259 feet |
| Date Posted: | 09/15/2014 |
| Date Climbed: | 09/13/2014 |
| Author: | WestVailCo |
| Loft Couloir |
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We departed the longs peak east trailhead/ranger station at approx. 4:30am. If the weather forecast had not been so perfectly clear of 0% chance of rain we would have left at 3am...maybe a tad earlier for the keyhole route. As we ascended the loft couloir the sun's light creeped over meeker's iron gates and lit the ship's prow from top to bottom finally reaching the ground in front of us and heating the air to above 30F for the first time that day. It was probably nearing 9ish when the sun started to hit the frozen ice and water which hung from the top of the loft couloir just below the loft between the beaver and meeker. If you are planning to ascend directly up this area with crampons etc. i would suggest completing ascension of the loft before 8:30am to avoid any thawing/cracking/falling of ice. As we approached the ramp which takes you up and out of the loft couloir via hikers left we encountered many hikers descending with ice axes saying the route was too frozen and sketchy. As we approached we agreed that the standard route(ramp) out of the loft was a bit sketchy (filled with ice). We decided to attempt a direct route of the face to take us up and out of the loft couloir. This required a few vertical moves using small ledges and cracks to pull yourself up over small faces of rock. In terms of class I'm not sure what you would call it. At all of these moves falling or slipping was NOT an option. It was pretty vertical and we setup one small anchor with webbing to assure a safe lift over the last small crack to ledge. With only webbing and slings (no rack) there are very few places to place a support anchor along this section. If you feel comfortable climbing 10'-15' sections of 60-75 degrees with ledges to rest in between then you should be able to take this route. Once at the loft we ascended the scramble to the right until we were looking down the notch from the top. We did not have time to do clark's arrow--->skyscraper, as it also looked even icier with its northern aspect. We ended up descending the same route we came up. Reaching the trailhead at 4:30-5 ish. To display your photos (uploaded below) in the final trip report, type the image number (i.e., 1, 2, 3), highlight it with your cursor, and click on the Image button on the right. Example:  More image format examples: Float image right: Float image right, width of 300 pixels: Float image left, width of 175 pixels: External image: Float external image right, width of 600 pixels: |
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