Long's Peak

When we first moved to Colorado, I remember driving to Longmont with our Realtor and asking her what that huge mountain was that was so prominent just west of town.  Of course, it was Long's Peak, and I was immediately drawn to it (as I think many people around here are).  In fact, one of the requirements for our new house was that there had to be a view of Long's out one of our windows.  (And that requirement was in fact met).

I've considered climbing Long's for a few years now, but while I researched pics and vids of the route, I came across terms like "The narrows", or "The ledges", or even "The hearse".  Considered one of the most difficult 14er hikes in all of Colorado at a 5,000 foot elevation gain and a 14+ mile round trip, I had never gone out of my way in any given year to try this hike before snow eventually fell on the peak which meant (to me anyway) that 14er season was done until next year.

Well, after a false start a couple of weeks ago (had to cancel the hike because of a bum hip), I finally got to hike Long's today with my friend Sid.  This would be Sid's 4th summit of Long's, which I thought was great, b/c I really wanted someone who A) knew the route pretty well, and B) would gladly match my sure to be slow pace up the mountain.  Sid did both and was a great hiking partner.

Before I get into the details, I want to apologize for the quality of some of the pictures, as I didn't want to drag my good camera up that trail so I had to use my camera phone.  Actually I'm not apologizing, just warning you. ;)

We got on the trail about 3:15 in the morning.  One thing (the only thing?) I love about being out there at that time is that the stars are unbelievably bright.  We even saw a couple of shooting stars.  Breathtakingly peaceful country.  Here was sunrise.

Shortly after sunrise, Long's Peak came into view.

The notch on the far right side of the picture is the "keyhole", and that is essentially the gateway to the back side of the mountain.  In front of the keyhole is an area called the bolder field, which is exactly what it sounds like...a large area with giant bolders on the ground that you have to scramble across to get to the keyhole.  Not my favorite part of the hike.  This sign in the bolder field looked pretty foreboding, though:

I've been part way up the main trail before but had to turn back before the bolder field.  The keyhole is about 6 miles from the trail head, and today I got my first glimpse of the the scenery beyond it.  It didn't disappoint.

From the keyhole to the summit, there are several well known areas that I was really excited to get to finally see first hand.  The first is the ledges, which is an area where you have to skirt around on some fairly steep rock to make your way to the other side of Long's and below the summit.  You can see some people on the mountain here.  It generally was not too difficult, though there were a couple of spots that required you to climb over some exposed rock.

After the ledges, you reached the trough.  This is what it looks like from the bottom (that's Sid on the right):

And this is from the top:

How to describe the trough.  Take your least favorite thing, tilt it up about 120 degrees, add some loose rock, add some bigger loose rock for good measure, then at the very top of it, after you're tired, add a face of rock that isn't huge but big enough that finding handholds to climb over it gets a little challenging.  That would about do it.  This section was my least favorite of all, just slightly more despised than the bolder field in my book.

After you get to the top of the trough, you get to swing yourself up onto a shelf that is about 1 rock wide and enjoy the view of the cliff on the other side of the shelf.  This leads you into "the narrows", which is a short distance of some pretty exposed rock that you have to make your way across.  I didn't get any pictures of the narrows, however at one point there is a rock at the bottom of the valley that is called "the hearse", because, well, it looks like a hearse if you use your imagination.

While there was some exposure here, I never felt like I was in danger of falling.  Careful movements are all that are needed to get through this area, and we did that.  Dodging traffic coming toward you from the summit could get interesting at times, though, on the thin shelves.

Finally, the last stage before the summit is "the homestretch".  Everyone takes and posts almost this exact same picture of the homestretch because from the bottom, it looks like it is almost straight up:

And it is indeed pretty steep, however there are seams in the rock that make it very climbable.  I would consider myself about a zero on a scale of 1-10 on technical climbing ability, and I was able to get up it with minimal problems.  Of course, I never looked down either. ;)  And getting down the home stretch after summiting was also pretty nerveracking but doable.  I actually really liked this part...it was pretty short, and the dynamic of people who were just coming down and those who were just about to summit was very encouraging and friendly.

The summit of Longs is pretty large.  When we got there, there were maybe 15 others on the summit (almost as many had just descended right before we got up there, though).

This last picture is the view from above the diamond face of Chasm Lake.  I've seen the summit of Long's from that lake before, but I'd never seen the lake from the summit until today.  It was a great view.

I actually had another motive for climbing Long's Peak.  My dad died in January 2005, and I've always thought it would be cool to spread his ashes on the summit of Long's Peak, where I'd have something to remember him by every time I saw this mountain.  Today I was able to do just that.

All in all, it was a very memorable and difficult hike, but it was worth the effort for many reasons.  We summited in 7 1/2 hours and were back at the trailhead in 13.  Pretty slow pace, but we both made it back safely and that is always the main objective, right?  Thanks again to Sid for being a great guide and great company today.  Long's, consider yourself officially bagged.  And rest in peace, pops.