Long's Peak

We climbed Long’s Peak, the most challenging hike we have done. For those like our friend Jason, who are afraid of heights, it was an extreme challenge. Jason says he will do it again, though. I am not sure for myself. The weather forecast looked favorable for the day we picked to climb, so we went over the day before and backpacked up 6 miles to the Boulderfield where we camped. The Boulderfield sits at 12,760 feet, just below Long’s Peak. The hike from the Boulderfield to the peak is only 1.5 miles and 1500 feet gain, but those statistics don’t indicate the true nature of the hike. Many choose to hike to the peak as a day trip, but their day can begin about 2 AM with the idea of getting on top of the peak before noon and down before bad weather can hit in the afternoon. We figured that whether camping the night before or starting in the wee hours of the morning, you wouldn’t get much sleep and would use up two days for the trip. We settled in for a good night’s sleep after a red sky sunset and calm weather, but strong winds arrived which battered our tents the rest of the night and greeted us in the morning.

Several groups of people were already passing through when we emerged from our tent close to 6:30, after only getting a few hours sleep. We weren’t on the trail until 7:30, but we figured we would wait and see what the wind situation developed into. The route we took was the popular Keyhole route, which started just above the Boulderfield. The Agnes Vaille Shelter sits at the leeward side of the Keyhole, it was built in memory of Agnes Vaille, a woman mountaineer who died on Long’s Peak in 1925. We were told that the wind would be fierce right in the Keyhole but would subside soon after passing through it. Many people turn back at the Keyhole, not realizing that the wind there is not indicative of what it will be during the rest of the trip. There were two more really windy spots that we heard about though, and the last one was of such force that it just about sucked the breath out of us. The windy spots would prove to be an issue with Kathy, the constant wind which can drive a person crazy was an issue with me, and the heights were the issue with Jason. We learned that wind this day was overall more mild than normal, so the hike would be a no-go on a “normally windy” day.

We went along the Keyhole route, which had some tricky sections of climbing over and around obstacles. We were able to find hand holds in the places we needed them, otherwise the hike would not have been possible for us. We got to the bottom of the Trough, which was a fairly steep area of loose rock, going up 600 feet. We eventually got near the top, but the wind was fairly strong up there again so we hunkered down waiting to see if it subsided some. After getting cold, we looked up and saw that the sun was now hitting the upper part of the Trough, so we decided to go up with hopes that it would be warmer. But it wasn’t because this was the second spot with high winds, so we had to get through that quickly to the next section called the Narrows. The Narrows is the section that has the reputation for being the scariest, as it’s a narrow ledge with steep dropoffs, as much as 800 feet. We always had some kind of hand holds here though, and I didn’t think the section was as scary, although Jason thought otherwise. I did however lose my Camelback mouthpiece somewhere along the way on one of the mad scrambles, losing a good bit of my water. Kathy had enough in her camelback though so that didn’t stop me. At the end of the Narrows is a transition to the Home Stretch, we were greeted by the fiercest winds here, but we had been warned, so we got through that alright although we could barely breathe in there. I was glad to be on the Home Stretch, the top was visible as we climbed up the steep section. It was a slow slog up, but we summitted the 4 acre top at 11:15 and spent the next hour enjoying the views and relative mild conditions. From the west and the north, Longs Peak looks like a big block, from the east it looks vastly different, but it is a flat area that could fit several thousand hikers. There were three other guys wearing jeans who were up there when we got there. After they left, a solo hiker wearing a helmet, David from Manhattan arrived. Then a climber suddenly appeared from the east side, then his companion. They had just climbed the Diamond, a sheer vertical face about one thousand feet, the first of many they said were following. No thanks, I would rather get to the summit on my feet (or knees in some spots).

Hoping that the winds were lessening, we started down the Home Stretch, mostly on our butts. I saw David up higher as we approached the transition to the Narrows. In the middle of the Narrows, we met five family members coming the other way, two adults and three kids. Like us, they had never done Long’s before and were unsure of what to expect ahead. They had also dropped their packs down below the Keyhole and were going up without water or anything. I told them how tough the wind was ahead, but they wanted to push on, except for one of the kids, Bruce, who wanted to turn back. We said we would let him come with us, and one of the adults said he could wait for them somewhere back on the trail. We got to the top of the Trough, and Bruce said he would hunker down there. Jason offered him some food or water but he declined. The next obstacle was a steep drop of about 15 or 20 feet that we had to negotiate. I tried at first to go down the way we had come up, but couldn’t see the footholds below so gave up on that route. I didn’t like the looks of the straight way down, so managed to slide down on my butt on a diagonal, barely keeping from sliding. Jason liked the straight way down, and came that way, with a little assistance from me with finding a few foot holds. Next, we got Kathy down by forming a human chain with Jason on the bottom and me on top lowering her gradually. Once we were all down, Jason thought better and yelled up to Bruce that he should come too. Bruce changed his mind and yelled back that he would come. So we started forming our human chain again but instead of Bruce appearing above, it was David. He was eager to receive our assistance and immediately started descending, with me holding his feet. Jason, not able to see who it was, and me not knowing that Jason couldn’t see that, struggled under David’s weight. David was a big guy and I thought my shoulder was going to give out but somehow we got him down. Jason was wondering what the problem with Bruce was, he was supposed to be just a little guy! What a laugh. Then we got Bruce down, with Jason holding him by the chest, and then Bruce even accepted food and agreed to come along. Jason’s careful reconsideration made him realize this was not the best place to leave Bruce, good for him. It was also right at this point that Jason stopped acting like a baby and became his manly self again, haha. We would take Bruce down to the shelter where he would later meet up with his family. We enjoyed a reunion with them back at the Boulderfield and also met up with David later who thanked us profusely for helping him and took a short video of us to share with friends back in NYC.

After we packed up at the Boulderfield and started hiking out we ran across a group of guys all wearing red packs and camouflage fatigues. Kathy remarked on their identical packs and I asked them if they were a club or something. They said they were military (Army) and were her for some training. Jason identified them as special forces of some kind. We figured if they could conquer Long’s Peak, they could do well in a place like Afghanistan.

Facts about Long’s Peak:

1. Thousands of climbers and hikers go up Long’s peak a year, mostly during the summer. On a good day, over 200 people could attempt it.
2. Highest Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park and the only peak in the park exceeding 14,000 ft at 14,255 ft. (4,345 meters)
3. An average of one death occurs there a year, there have been two this year.
4. The park patrols the mountain regularly, we met two SAR rangers on our way up on Tuesday and one on our way down on Wednesday. These guys are fit and top notch climbers.
5. There are about 60 rescues a year on the mountain.
6. Denver-based nonprofit Veterans Green Jobs and Boston-based Force Factor announce that the Veterans Expeditions Rocky Mountain National Park Team (www.vetexpeditions.com) will lead a group of eight disabled and able-bodied military veterans to the top of Longs Peak in Colorado on September 11, 2010. The climb is designed to primarily engage physically and mentally disabled military veterans who recently served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
7. First recorded climb was in 1868 by John Wesley Powell and party, but certainly climbed earlier by natives. Recent research shows that natives caught eagles on the peak.
8. Best climbing months are June - September.
9. The first climb on the East Face of Longs Peak was by Reverend Elkanah J. Lamb in 1871. After climbing the Keyhole Route, Lamb descended the face via the Notch Couloir and then down a snow gully that was aptly called Lamb's Slide.
10. In 1873 the first three women climbed Longs Peak. Addie Alexander in August; Anna Dickinson in September; and in late September, Isabella Bird, an English woman who wrote a detailed account of her ascent in A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains.
11. Enos Mills, a naturalist, climber, and father of Rocky Mountain National Park, led many groups to the summit of Longs from his Longs Peak Inn. He climbed the mountain 297 times, including 32 ascents in August 1906. "Climbing a high peak occasionally," wrote Mills, "will not only postpone death but will give continuous intensity to the joy of living."