Longs Peak is the 14th highest mountain in Colorado at 14,259 feet. If you fly into Denver, you cannot miss it looming northwest of the airport. The lower peak to it's South is Mt. Meeker. To climb Longs it takes stamina. The trailhead is at 9,205' meaning you climb about a mile to reach the summit. Park Rangers suggest starting at 2:00 or 3:00AM. Most people take 9 to 14 hours for a round trip to the summit.

Due to the thunderstorms, you MUST be off the peak before noon in the summer. This means starting around 5:00 or 6:00 at the latest. Please see Anatomy of a Storm for my first hand account of a forming storm in the summer. A winter storm video taken by Larry Chapman shows Gerry Roach and I fighting a storm just above tree line in April 2004. The winds were a steady 40 mph gusting to 70. We turned around shortly after the video thus abandoning our attempt on the North face in winter.

I climb on and around Longs quite often since the trailhead is near my home, I use it as my training peak for my big climbs. To see summer and winter photos of Longs and the Keyhole route, click on the pictures link above. I have summited six times thus far in 2007 - twice by the Keyhole Route, three by the Loft route and once on the North Face. I have summited Longs 15 times and probably climbed on it nearly 40. Twin Sisters, Storm Peak and Mt Lady Washington are all nice climbs near Longs.

Climbing Longs is straightforward. You gain altitude steadily on a well worn trail below the tree line then it becomes rocky and uneven before going into the boulder fields around 13,000 on the Keyhole route. The Loft route follows the same approach up to the signs for Chasm Lake then branches South to take you up the couloir between Meeker and Longs. Some challenging rock scrambling is required before rejoining the Keyhole route near the summit. Early spring or late summer you will find ice and snow beyond the keyhole and almost always in the Meeker couloir so I always carry an ice axe and crampons. Most people use the Keyhole route, so if you are interested in a detailed description, please visit my Keyhole Route page. I also have a page on the Loft Route which is not as crowded, slightly shorter and slightly more technical than the Keyhole route. I highly recommend it. The North Face route is technical and requires ropes and climbing gear. It is much shorter by distance than the Keyhole or Loft and a fun rappel down from the summit.


I first climbed Longs in August, 1992. I was dead tired after the 13 hour round trip. We experienced ice (verglas) around the corner from the keyhole and given that I had zero experience on mountains with ice, I feel lucky to have avoided a fatal mistake. Just to show that getting older doesn't always mean getting slower, I made the round trip 10 years after my first summit in just under 6 hours.

I see all kinds of people climbing Longs in the summer. The success rate in reaching the summit is about 30%. Most people fail because they start too late (need to be on the trail no later than 5-6AM), do not take enough food or water, or simply underestimate how long the day will be (9-14 hours depending).

There are guide services that do Longs but unless you want to do the Diamond (technical rock climbing the face in the picture on the left), I don't think you need them. Almost anyone can summit Longs using the Keyhole route in good weather and with proper preparation.

The picture left is of the Diamond from Chasm lake and the one on the right is a view from the summit in February 2002. We had a big snowfall the night before.

A free Longs Peak and Rocky Mountain National Park screen saver which can be downloaded for personal use along with some other screensavers.

I used Longs as my primary winter training mountain for my Broad Peak/K2 expedition in June 2006. Here is a log of the climbs.