Longs Peak

14,255 ft Longs Peak was the 6th and final 14er of the summer for Ryan and I (note I said "summer" and not "year"). Back in May when I first looked at Longs this year I honestly would never have guessed I would summit it in 2007. It's an intimidating giant among giants that you can easily see from DIA (Denver airport), almost anywhere within RMNP, and other 14ers two hours away such as Mt. Bierstadt. It attracts (or creates) most of the bad weather within sight of RMNP, and is the only 14er in the Rockies north of I-70 until you get to Alaska and the Yukon (Mt. Rainier in the Cascades is the only 14er north of Longs in the lower 48). What all that means is I'm pretty happy that I made it up and back on the first try, and am surprised I was able to do so within 4 months of moving to Colorado.

Our adventure began with the alarm going off at 2:15am Saturday morning. After a bit of disbelief, we headed out and made it to the Longs Peak Ranger Station trailhead (9,405 ft) at 4:00 am. There were already at least 75 cars parked when we got there. We hiked the first two hours in the dark with our headlamps. While we were below the treeline the air was extremely warm, and I wouldn't have been surprised if you told me it was 75 degrees. Once above the treeline it was probably below 50 with the windchill. We could see clouds around Mt Lady Washington, and I thought for sure we'd end up turning back due to weather. The sunrise was a beautiful sight. Just after the sun came up we hiked around Mt Lady Washington (13,281') and Storm Peak (13,326'). Despite pulling my quasi-frequent "heave whatever you got" 15 minutes into the hike, I found the first 6 miles of the 7.5 mile journey the easiest/most gradual of all the 14er ascents so far. [I was really pissed at my body for the el-puke-o but have since discovered this is a side effect of Rolaids, which I had taken to help with the Mexican pizza from a few hours earlier, so now I don't feel so lame.] After those first 6 miles, however, fate turned and presented the most challenging mile and a half I have ever climb/hike/crawled. To be specific, the first 3500 ft over 6 miles took us 3 hours and the last 1255 ft over 1.5 mi took us 2.5 hours.

The first obstacle in the Keyhole route is getting across The Boulder field (at 13,000 ft) to the Keyhole. The boulder field looks like this (from above, in the Keyhole itself):
Once across the boulder field and through the Keyhole, you're faced with "the Ledges" then "the Trough" to "the Narrows" and finally "the Homestretch" to the summit. The names are all very appropriate. Here's the Trough from above, for example:
In the above photo you can see Glacier Gorge (a view just shy of the Maroon Bells and Tetons in my opinion) with Mills and Black lakes below. This is he inverted view of the hike Alissa and I made to Mills lake where we saw elk. Here's the backside of the "Colorado quarter" picture, with 13,497 ft Pagoda Mtn, 13,579 Chiefs Head Pk and 13,310 Mt. Alice in view (viewed best by clicking on the image, then All Sizes > Original on flickr):
I thought for sure I was at the summit when I came around the final corner and saw the Homestretch. It looks really technical, but actually isn't that bad as long as you put a bit of thought into hand and feet placement.
We made it to the summit in 5.5 hours, which is apparently average.
We spent 30 minutes on the summit (until 10am), bringing our duration above 13,000 ft to 3 hours before we even started down. The hike up was definitely only half the battle. This came into play for Ryan more than me, but suffice it to say 5 hours above 13,000 feet starts to affect your mental capacity, lung capacity, and just about any other capacity you may have. Examples:

• My breathing got to the point where when I took a deep breath I sounded like an asthmatic whether I breathed through nose or mouth... it was kind of like an empty wheezing, like you can almost hear the air you're breathing in is thin. [update 2009-07-05: apparently this is called Rales, and was just a minor case]
• I kept talking about how we were going to take 150,000 steps over the 15 miles round trip because we were averaging 10,000 steps / mile. Apparently I thought "2 feet per step" for 5,280 ft meant ~10,000 steps / mi instead of ~2500 steps / mi.
  

When we made it back to the Keyhole we could see rain and lightning within reasonable distance. We tried our best to get down as fast as possible, but that still included a couple of extended stops to catch breath and rest sore legs. We made it back to the parking lot at 3:15pm, no more than 5 minutes before a significant downpour. It took us 5:15 to get back to the Jeep, bringing our total to 11:15 including the summit. I was glad to see the hike below the treeline in the day. It's a beautiful mature pine forest with a creek (called Alpine Brook) running along the path for most of it. The camp sight named "Goblin's forest" seemed very fitting, and the screeching elk was also a bit eerie.

I don't take back what I said in May about Huron being hard, but this is now easily the most challenging day I have ever done. Not to be over-dramatic, but whatever used to be #1 on the "most physically and mentally draining day of my life" list is now #2. Two days later my thighs are still sore and my calves are flexed. I felt Pikes Peak in my bones with the jarring descent, but I feel Longs in my totally drained muscles. [I have no desire to ever run a marathon, but imagine I have a bit of an idea of what that feels like after this 15 mile day, and am pretty confident I could walk a full marathon in decent time.] When I got home, I ate a large dinner and fell asleep unintentionally on the couch watching a strange movie about an endurance runner named Forrest Gump. After waking up tired and confused, I cleaned up dinner and proceeded to sleep for another 10 hours before getting up for church on Sunday.

Unlike the other 14ers I've done so far, Longs seemed to be more about the route than the view from the top. It's very strange seeing so much land above treeline - it really doesn't look like other peaks. All in all, I feel lucky for the good weather, am very proud yet humbled, and would like to thank Longs Peak for giving up its prize before the weather finally broke. As usual, the pictures don't do justice, but you can see all photos from this hike at http://flickr.com/photos/brett_burch/sets/72157601541063519/.

For some extra information about Longs, visit the RMNP "climbing Longs" page or Roger Wendell's 14ers page, where he adds this bit of color to the conversation:

According to the July 31, 2005 Denver Post (Sunday, front page story by Steve Lipsher) Longs Peak is Colorado's second deadliest 14er (right after Maroon Bells) with 55 documented fatalities since Carrie Welton died of exposure near the Keyhole in 1884. Longs Peak was named after Army Major Stephen Long who made the first recorded American sighting of the peak in the 1820s. Colorado River explorer John Wesley Powell, in 1868, was the first to climb the peak. Over 25,000 people attempt the 15 mile round-trip climb each summer with about 10,000 reaching the summit. Average time for the round-trip ascent is about 12 hours with Chris Reveley having completed it in two hours and four minutes in 1979!