Long's Peak - The Trough

After crossing the Ledges, you come to the Trough. I was about 3/4 the way up the Trough looking towards the top when I took this photo. Unfortunately, I only got up another 100 ft or so from where this picture is taken. The non-technical route up Long's Peak is actually underneath the snow at the right side of this picture. These seams in the granite that people are climbing up were navigable, but in places they resulted in something that more resembled bouldering than trail hiking or scrambling. We were about 50 ft from the top of the Trough at 10:30AM. People were still going up to the summit, but it was getting a bit tricky and we decided that the better part of valor was to listen to that little voice that was asking "Are you sure you should be doing this?" Personally, I think the most dangerous thing was that people kept dislodging rocks that would go bounding down the slope causing people below to scatter to the sides to avoid them. Running away from a rock on this steep slope would be a good way to fall and slide a long, long ways. If you want an idea how long, tune in for the next installment.

Long's Peak - The Ledges

After you leave the Keyhole, you cross the Ledges. This is a narrow path across a steep rocky slope that traverses the west side of Long's Peak. Gavin is about 2/3 - 3/4 of the way across the Ledges in this picture. Behind him is the Keyhole. This part of the hike wasn't as scary to me as I was expecting from the descriptions I'd read on the internet. There was only one place where you had to scoot around a rock with a drop below you. Other than that, it was like walking a trail on the side of a very steep slope. Admittedly, the correct path is very hard to see. If you look closely at the picture, you may be able to see some of the bulls-eyes marking the correct way through the otherwise confusing terrain of boulders.

Long's Peak - Through the Keyhole

After climbing to the keyhole, this is the vista that awaits. The lake on the left is Green Lake. The one hanging on the ridge across the valley is called Shelf Lake, I think. I’ll need to look that up on my topo map at home. It’s at this point you realize how far up you’ve already come. The day hike we took to Sky Pond on the first day we were in the park was about 500 ft lower than Green Lake. Even if you have no interest in trying to make it to the summit, just getting this view on the other side of the Keyhole is worth the trip this far.

Long's Peak - The Keyhole

This is the famous Keyhole on the Keyhole Route up Long's Peak. The people sitting in the Keyhole are Jason, Gavin, Sarah, Carter, and Rich (I think - it's kind of hard to tell from the photo). It's about 8am or so, and we're on our way up. We've come all the way around Mt. Lady Washington from the location of the previous picture, and up about 1200 ft. At this point in the hike, I was dragging a bit. I have trouble with my appetite at altitude, and I was struggling between slight faintness because I needed to force myself to eat and nauseousness when I did eat. The Keyhole is a notch in a knife-edged ridge between Long's Peak and Storm Peak to the north. Once you get into the Keyhole, you have quite a drop on the other side!

Long's Peak - The Diamond

I'm going to do a series on our Long's Peak attempt last summer. This first installment is the Diamond face (that big cliff) of Long's Peak at sunrise. In the foreground, the scree slope is the shoulder of Mt. Lady Washington. We got up at about 4:30AM and were on the trail at about 5AM. This meant that we were passing the junction for the Chasm Lake trail at about sunrise. This caused me to get some of the best pictures I've ever taken. :) Tomorrow: The Keyhole

Caroline

You have to suffer through naked baby pictures today. This first one is from a few months ago. Caroline, my niece, is taking a bath, and taking up about half the baby tub, legs all curled up infant style.


My sister sent me this one a few days ago. Look how much bigger she's gotten. Her big, pudgy baby legs barely fit in the baby tub. This is from about 5 months growth! She's going to be huge by the time I see her next. And the shuttle is delayed. If you don't get the connection, read my blog. I'm sure there are a few clues in there.

Colorado Sunset

This was taken about half way up the Long's Peak trail near our campsite. You can't see, but Denver was visible beyond the last ridge. I like this picture because it's the classic mountains fading from blue to purple in the distance shot. Of course, a lot of those are taken from below the ridges while this is taken from above. The campsite was just at the treeline. Everything above us was alpine meadow and then just scree and talus.