Longs Conditions Report

[TomPierce]

All: slynn4_13run and I went up to attempt a rather obscure linkage of a couple of short technical routes (alpine class 2 ice and 5.4 rock) in the Longs/Loft area and I thought I'd post the observed conditions. No doubt these will change with today's storm but nonetheless here's what we saw:

1) Longs East (Main) Trail: Really well packed, no snowshoes needed. Oddly, the hikers over the last set of weeks have reset the track to exactly follow the summer trail. IMO that's a mistake, in any heavy wind that track will be quickly obliterated and tough to find on the descent. When we came down another track had already been laid for the (IMHO) safer winter cut-off/Jim's Grove. Anyway, snow conditions were pretty hardpack. Above treeline extended sections of dirt until below Chasm Junction.

2) Chasm Junction/Meadows Trail: Pretty icy/very hardpack after a few hundred yards. I'd recommend crampons/ice creepers. There's a decent track cut across the snow field.

3) Martha: We didn't climb the route, but spoke to 3 parties who were on the route yesterday. All reported it's essentially a rock climb, very little ice. I looked it over with my mini-spotting scope (5x, half the size of a cigar and about an ounce in weight, pretty cool toy for scoping routes) and I saw no ice at all from a distance.

4) Dreamweaver: Seemed to show more ice, although it's tough to get detail from that distance. It had snow almost continuously from the base up, and the thin tech section at the top, which is very steep (and thus shouldn't hold much snow) was gray/white all the way up. Ice?

5) Broadway/East Face: Looked fairly typical, not heavily loaded but of course snowy. Keiners Chimney looked pretty snow-free.

6) Ramp (up to the Loft): Snow comes pretty far down now, not too much rock scrambling all the way up to the Loft headwall. The snowpack is a base of hard snow with a recent deposit of spindrift off the Loft higher up. Stable but deeper than we expected.

7) Loft Ice/Ramp: The ramp is in good shape, snowy but it looked to be easily passable from what we could see. The main Loft ice flow was sort of in, but barely so IMO. Looked so ratty that I personally wouldn't want to lead it. Thin overall, patchy.

OK, that's it. Naturally the new storm will change things, but Longs' notorious winds will no doubt scour off a lot of the snow into the trees.

-Tom

[JohnWilliams]

Tom, you forgot to say how the two of you did! How was the climbing? what route(s) where you on? Did you have fun?!

john

[TomPierce]

We had fun, got a great workout, and any day in the mountains (barring an accident) is a good day. I wanted to ultimately climb Ships Prow Tower (5.4), which is one of Colorado's 5th class summits (easiest route to the top is 5th class). It's not in any climbing guides I know of, but there's a brief reference in a hiking guide. I thought it would be cool to link that with the right hand exit of the Loft ice, which I peg at AI 2 or so. Took us longer to get there than expected (deep snow in spots), and when I led the ice it was in so-so condition, but both screws were bomber. But a chockstone barred an easy exit from the ice chute, and the ice just below wouldn't take a screw, kept shattering/fracturing. So I climbed right up to the chockstone and looked at the exit options. Exit Right would've been 5.9-ish in boots/gloves/pack. No pro. Exit Left was 5-easy, maybe, but also no pro. I was 20' above my pro, a good ice screw clipped with a Screamer. Getting pissed and dreading a downclimb, I fished around and cleared some hardened snow in a deep, rotten crack. Managed to get a crappy placement of a #2 cam. Rock quality was suspect, and only 2 good lobes in. Per the Bard, my kingdom for a #3! I tried Exit Left twice, but the holds were mostly covered in spindrift and I kept looking at the crappy cam, knowing if I popped I was looking at a 40-footer on ice. Low angle but the headwall below could've done real damage on impact. Not to mention the weather was going downhill, both of our hoods were filling with spindrift. So I wimped out, downclimbed, called it a day. Doubly frustrating because I had soloed this same section last year with only a mountain axe. But that was a warm day in March, the rock was warm and snow-free, my pack was light, etc. etc. More detail than you wanted but I'm still doing the day after post-mortem to piece together lessons learned, which I regularly do. Honestly, a great day. The Tower will always be there.

An adventure! By the way, Stephanie is a great partner and an aerobic animal!
-Tom

[JohnWilliams]

Awesome Tom! Sounds like a fun route. Now you've got me interested in it! I'll have to do some research to get a better idea of where the route is. BTW Stephanie is an amazing climb/hiker!

Allways feels good to make wise decisions, eh? Thanks for the details! Almost like I was there! haha

john

[JB99]

Thanks for the detailed conditions report Tom. Great info for anyone heading that way.

[Ridge runner]

It was a good day up there despite not getting our target, but I'm glad we decided to not pay attention to the weather forecast and go for it anyway! Here are a few visuals from Tom's report:

From Chasm Junction


Looking down towards Chasm Junction from Loft route


Just below icefall


Ramp


Tom's alternative route

[centrifuge]

thanks for the updates guys! So I want to make sure I am reading this right, the snow up the loft route was stable? That is awesome news!

[JohnWilliams]

thanks for the updates guys! So I want to make sure I am reading this right, the snow up the loft route was stable? That is awesome news!

You know, thats what I had wondered too Trevor. I always thought the apron below the loft was avy territory this time O' year. What's the slope in your estimation Tom?

[TomPierce]

Well of course I'd say you should assess the conditions on your day, time and location and proceed at your own risk. That's the recovering lawyer in me speaking, gotta say that. That said, I thought the conditions were stable yesterday given the slope angle (just barely into slide gradient), no signs of any slide activity, and a recent history of generally warm day temps and freezing night temps, with minimal prior snowfall. We saw and felt nothing that gave me pause. But yesterday evening through the next 2 days will lay down some snow and a lot of the snow from the Loft is blown down the Ramp, loading it even more. Everything I just wrote above is now somewhat stale, so be cautious.

Just to make sure we're all speaking of the same thing, the Apron is above the ice flow/headwall, but slightly below the Loft. We never set foot near the Apron, it was above us on top of the headwall, we were below it. The Apron is primo slide terrain, and the run out is over the headwall cliff, almost certainly fatal if you took a slide/spill on top. Climb in there in the winter and you court death, IMO. We noted that on our ascent as the standard Loft route was a fallback option. You can skirt the Apron by going farther to climber's left than ordinary in the summer, sticking to the rocks.

Don't mean to sound so heavy (hey, the Saints won! ) but I'd hate anyone to get hurt based on my advice. So be safe out there!
-Tom