We came, we saw, we gave it the old college try and then we turned back.
Longs Peak is the tallest mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park at 14, 259 ft and is summited by thousands of climbers each year. My hat's off to them. While only 144 ft. taller than Pike's Peak, Longs is a very different climb.
In order to be off the mountain before the afternoon thunder and lightening storms roll in it is recommended that you begin the hike to the boulder field at the base of the "real" climbing around 4 am. Seth and I decided to hike 1.5 miles up the Longs Peak trail the day before and set up camp in the Goblin's Forest back country camp sight (foreboding name isn't it?) We were in bed by 8 pm with the alarm set for a 2 am wake up call. This is our campsite:
We ate a breakfast of Pop-Tarts and tea by headlamp and set out for a long day. We occasionally passed and were passed by fellow hikers in the dark. Temps were in the high 30s and we were bundled up. Not much conversation was happening other than a warning of a big step up or a toxic breaking of wind (we had black beans and rice for dinner the night before...never again). We stopped only a couple times on our trek to the boulder field to catch our breath, eat a snack or turn off our head lamps and look up at the incredible display of stars. It was so clear and dark that we could make out Orion's bow.
We were making good time and agreed that we didn't want to navigate the boulder field while it was still dark so we decided to tuck in until sunrise when we reached the field. As the first rays of sun brought outlines of rock formations to life we realized that we were more than halfway through the boulder field! Here is a view of the boulder field at sunrise looking back from the Keyhole (we'll get to that in a second) I felt like I was on the surface of the moon:
We did end up finding a rock wall and hunkering down for a few moments to eat and warm up. We had on every stitch of clothing we brought on the trek. that sun could not come up fast enough. Don't we look like this was fun?
Those faces became a bit more serious once we made it through the Keyhole and onto a very different side of the mountain. From our rock enclosure this is the view looking up to the Keyhole:
Our goal was to pick our way up the boulders and go through the notch you can see in the dark rock in the back ground. We made it through and with 40 mph winds blasting through that notch this was the view of the other side:
The second photo is looking to the left once we stepped through the Keyhole. It is a section of the climb called the Ledges. You can make out the red and yellow "target" painted on the rock. This was the trail we were to follow as we picked our way along the rock ledge. Here we are standing on the Ledges:
Seth's first comment when we came to this part of the climb was "Hello exposure!" and he wasn't kidding. Stepping through the Keyhole was like entering a different world between the wind and the steep drop off. I sat down, looked at my knees (anywhere but down!) and composed myself. While I was putting on my game face 3 other guys came through the Keyhole. The first popped his head through and said, "Sweet!" The second, "Oh man! Check it out." the third, "Holy crap." and proceeded to slump down on the rock next to me and hug his knees to his chest. I'm fairly sure he would have also rocked back and forth in a self soothing motion if it didn't pose the risk of pitching himself off a 3,000 ft. cliff. I looked at him and said, "Take you're time. I'm in no hurry here. Let's just breathe."
We got up and began picking our way along the Ledges. Truth be told it wasn't that bad...except for this one part which was pretty sketchy. It involved an overhanging rock and another rock that jutted out over the drop off. Seth lead the way and was a wonderful leader. He talked me through every move and reassured me that we could go back anytime. We had come so far that I didn't want to throw in the towel just yet and I managed to copy the move another guy did and get past it.
Again, the ledges weren't that bad...except for this other "one part" that came up. It was a 10 ft. slab of smooooooooth rock that you had to wedge your foot into and scramble up. Seth made it to the top, turned back to me and said, "Ok babe, this one is kind of sketchy. I think you can do it but you don't have to." I made a few attempts but couldn't find a good foot hold. then I started thinking, "We are going to have to do all of this BACKWARDS on the way home. I don't know about this." I looked up at Seth and he mouthed to me, "I wouldn't mind going back."
Done. Let's get off this crazy mountain.
Here is the turn back point with Seth on his way down backwards (like I said, he was fantastic):
The view looking back through the Keyhole on our return:
When he got back down, I'm not gonna lie to you, we hugged. Then we began picking our way back along the Ledges and it was slow going. We made the right choice for us that day but I am impressed by how many people don't turn back. Once down in the boulder field we stopped for another snack and were attacked by a band of marmots.
Perhaps attacked is too strong of a word but these little buggers were clearly used to people and human food. We set a Ziploc bag with Cliff bars inside and heard it being dragged off the rock behind us only to turn around and see this guy running off with our lunch!
On our way back down we decided to take a detour and see Chasm Lake. It was a short side trail that lead to a snow fed lake sitting below longs peak. In the photo below I'm looking out at the lake and you can see Longs Peak right in front of me.
Overall we had a great day of 12 plus hours of hiking with some sketchy moments and opportunities to push beyond personal comfort zones. In the end we went back to camp together. Still married. Still alive. Still having fun.
