Breaking Trail at 14K on Longs Peak

Climbing Colorado 14ers in the winter is always a crap shoot. If the winds don’t get you, then the deep snow will. Recently I met up with a group assembled from the web community 14ers.com to climb the highest peak in Rocky Mountain National Park, Longs Peak at 14, 256′.

The plan was to meet up with another climber visiting from out of state. He was motivated to claim a winter summit of Longs. However, when we met up with him, he was suffering from mild AMS and smartly declined to go up. So our team of six made the climb to the feature called the Keyhole at about 13,000′. However once we all converged, one by one the team lost their mojo and return to the trailhead. Understandable but still disappointing.

I returned six days later to give it another go – solo. One of the skills I have been working on is mental toughness – the ability to keep going when you want to stop.

I have climbed Longs Peak 16 times with 2 previous winter summits so I knew what I was getting into. The late winter of 2010 had seen a lot of snow in the high country but not a lot down lower. I was not quite sure what snow conditions to expect.

I got up at 3AM and was on the trail head at 5 – well before sunrise on a perfect day: no winds, clear skies, temps in the 20s. I made good time to tree line and went off-trial staying on the snow pack to protect the fragile tundra. Soon I was at the Keyhole once again.

As I turned the corner, I stepped onto Longs Peak’s west shoulder, aptly called the Ledges. A boot path in the snow marked the way but came to a full stop only 20′ from the Keyhole. As I looked ahead. All I saw was a 25 degree angled hillside of rock and deep snow. Motivated to make the winter summit, I pressed on.

Back at the trailhead I met several groups also climbing Longs but by different routes. However, at this point all I saw was one lone climber well behind me in the Boulderfield and another climbing up from Glacier Gorge.

The snow was soft and knee deep at times. I carefully placed my crampons step by step keeping my ice axe uphill in case of a fall. After a long while, I found myself at the base of the next feature, the Trough – a 600′ coulair filled with more snow. I had hoped it was crusted and would let me ascend quickly but it was more knee deep snow that took all my strength to break thru.

Topping the trough, the next obstacle came into view – the Narrows. This is an infamous section of Longs. The Narrows is relatively short, maybe 1/4 of a mile but it is … narrow. Perhaps 10 feet at the widest and 3 at the narrowest. In the summer this is not too bad.

But with fresh snow, it was difficult to see the somewhat flat section that provided a stable shelf on which to walk. So again I proceeded gingerly testing each step along the way for a frim(ish) foundation. If I slipped the consequences would be severe. The drop-off is several hundred feet with almost no opportunity to self arrest. Mental toughness.

I made it through the narrows and climbed the Chock stone at the end and came face to face with my least section – the Homestretch. This is another sloping slab of rock, maybe 300′ high. It was covered with snow that was shallow down low but knee deep about halfway to the summit. At this point the other two climbers were making the turn from the Narrows.

So after more trail breaking, I came onto the summit. It felt good. The views of rocky Mountain National Park, the Continental Divide and the Colorado Front Range were impressive.

The downclimb was uneventful, following my trail, I made good time.

Back at the trailhead, I gave myself permission to consider the day. My goal was to summit. The snow conditions from 12,800 to 14,256 were tougher than anything I had seen on Longs. I felt good. It was a good day in the mountains.

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Climb On!

Alan