Running Longs Peak

[Dan England]

Hi guys. I'm wondering if you have any tips on running Longs Peak here you'd like to share. I plan on going Sunday morning with a bomber trail runner who hasn't done any class 3 climbing but can run 1:20 halves. Before you start...
1. Yes, I've climbed Longs before. 17 times in fact, which is why I want to try this.
2. Yes, I've run mountains before. I have extensive trail running experience, tho I'm no Homie.
3. Yes, I realize running beyond the keyhole ain't gonna happen and is probably stupid for most normal people, including me.

Any tips? I plan on using a small camelback back and carrying a fuel belt. Shorts, three layers, gloves and a shirt for up top. WE will probably be on the trail between 4:30-5 a.m., so we can hike a bit in the dark and get warmed up before we start running. We hope to be at the Boulderfield by 6:45 a.m. That may be optimistic.

Also, did Longs get some snow? That may complicate things.

[martinleroux]

Sounds like you're being quite conservative with your start time. Here's the Strava leaderboard for trailhead to the Boulderfield: http://www.strava.com/segments/1625918 and for the round trip: http://www.strava.com/segments/4700333. Median time to the Boulderfield is a little under 2 hours and for the round trip about 5h 45 mins. If you were to start around 6am or 6:30am and you're able to run most of the way to the Boulderfield that should put you on the summit by around 9 or 10am, which is lot more pleasant than being there two hours earlier.

Of course if conditions are bad then all bets are off. Even if it hasn't snowed I'd be worried about verglas with all the rain and cool nighttime temps. A couple of weekends ago the Homestretch was badly iced up (but it was dry again a week later).

[Jeff Valliere]

Hey Dan, you know the drill. FWIW, for a quick summer lap on Longs via the Keyhole (or Loft), with a good forecast, I start between 6:30 and 7am, carry 10-20 oz of water, wear a long sleeve tech shirt and carry a windbreaker, have a beanie and glove liners, a few gels or shot bloks, sunglasses, ball cap, shorts and a good pair of shoes. I find the shoes to be the most critical, as many sections of the Keyhole route are quite polished, so some sort of Sportiva sticky rubber is ideal. If I were to go tomorrow, I would wear my La Sportiva Bushidos if going fast, or perhaps my Ultra Raptors if going more casual. Since we know one another well and simply for time estimating purposes, it takes me ~1:50 up and ~1:20 down on a good day, a bit more if conditions are not great or I am going a more casual pace, so you would probably want to bring a bit more food and water, maybe another layer.

It is pretty much a straight forward run to the Boulder Field, a really fun rock hop from the Boulder Field to the Keyhole (often runable up and down), then a powerhike/scramble to the summit. I have found that the Ledges, Trough and Narrows to Summit segments are about equally divided time wise into thirds.

I also find the descent from the summit to Keyhole to take about the same time as the ascent, or perhaps even slower if conditions are damp. I am super slow and deliberate where a fall would be of high consequence, then open it up the best I can otherwise. Watch for black ice too.

Good luck and let us know how it goes, wish I could join!

Edit: Forgot to mention, any kind of road speed fitness might not translate whatsoever on Longs Peak. If acclimated, it could perhaps help to the Boulderfield, but I have seen very fit people take multiple hours from the Keyhole to summit and especially back down to the Keyhole from the summit. Keeping this variable in mind, it is really hard to predict.

[Dan England]

Thanks both of you. I appreciate the beta. I'm so old school that the thought of doing Longs Peak starting at 6 a.m. just naturally makes me blanch. I'm still relatively new to the mountain running thing. But I will start a little later, maybe try to get to the trailhead at 5:30 a.m. I have to admit the verglas possibility scares me, both because it's verglas on polished rock and because it seems to be a real possibility, so if there's any hint of it, I'll consider the run to the Boulderfield good training for the Black Squirrel Half and call it a day. He'll understand. He's a Dad too. I don't know how long we'd have to wait before it melts off, but I would imagine too long. Plus my trail runners are great, but I don't think the bottoms are as sticky as the more recent models.

I'm guessing it will take me 6 hours, maybe even 7.

Jeff that list is perfect and makes me feel good because I was planning exactly what you listed.

And I know what you mean about road translating to mountains. I definitely have an advantage over him in that sense. But he's done Mount Evans a couple times - his name is Bret Naber - and he's such a fast runner that his "struggles" will make him more equal with me. He struggled a lot on Evans and still beat me by a chunk this year.

[Dan England]

So we made it to the Boulderfield in like 1:50, and the winds were at least 60 mph. Gusts, but still. So we bagged it. I hated turing around because of the wind - makes me feel wimpy - but it didn't feel right, and it would have been no fun. We got back in 1:30. So this was a decent confidence boost for my fitness. Makes me think I could have done it, and in probably 6-7 hours, which is good for me. The advice helped. Thaks.

[mtnjim]

I tried the North Longs Peak trail today, started from Bear Lake mid morning and turned around at Granite Pass. Yup, nasty wind above timberline. This was my first time on this trail. It's a much more runnable trail than the normal trail, at least til a bit above timberline, then it's terribly washed out and kind of a nuisance for a mile or so. I saw 4 people after the trail left the Glacier Gorge trail til I got back on the GGtrail. Not much of a crowd over that way. Highly recommended as a running trail. It's 7.2 miles from Bear lake or Glacier Gorge trailheads to Granite Pass so a couple miles longer but so much nicer.

[Dan England]

Thanks Jim. I will try that next time. It would be fun to try it from a new way anyway. Good to hear you turned around too makes my decision easier to take.