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SUNDAY, AUGUST 1:

None of us slept very well Saturday night. It was probably just a combination of anxiety and excitement (and the incredibly bright full moon) about heading up to the peak in the morning, but I think I woke up at least once every hour. For those planning to climb Longs Peak starting at the trailhead, the rangers recommend you start no later than 2 a.m. but because we were already a third of the way in, we had a little more leeway. Becca chose to get up early anyway to get a head start, and we listened as she and Emily got up around 2 and left camp just before 3 a.m. The rest of us dozed for a while longer until my watch alarm went off -- 4:15 a.m.

The moon was so bright that we hardly needed our headlamps as we got breakfast out of the bear bags and got ready to go. We must have been moving more slowly than I though, because once we'd cleaned up the campsite, rehung the bear bags, and refilled the water bottles down at the creek, it was almost 5:30 a.m. We were five miles and 3,200 vertical feet below the summit. The night before we'd set our turnaround time as noon, in order to be well on our way back to camp by the time potential afternoon thunderstorms blew in, so we had 6.5 hours to get as far as we could. We didn't need headlamps at all by the time we started up the trail, but Becca and Emily later said that it was quite a sight when they'd started out. Looking up and down the trail in the moonlight and seeing little points of light here and there from headlamps made everything look very alien, according to Emily.

L to R: sunrise over Twin Sisters; sheer face of Longs Peak from the Chasm Lake trail junction (4 miles from the summit), lit by the rising sun; Longs Peak and our first glimpse of the Keyhole (arrow points to it in this version of the picture)

From our campsite, the trail began to climb a gentle but steady incline toward the base of Mount Lady Washington, an unimpressive-looking 13,000+ foot pile of rocks in front of Longs itself that was our "back-up" climb. (If we had to turn around sooner than planned on Longs Peak, we planned to summit the next closest thing.) I call it unimpressive only because Longs is so imposing -- when you can see the tallest thing around, and see the sheer 1,000 foot face, and see the jagged ridges leading away from the summit...well, a more sloped, boulder-strewn mountain like Lady Washington just doesn't compare.

We had only been hiking for a half hour or so and had just reached the Chasm Lake junction in the trail (go left for Chasm Lake, right for the Boulderfield and Longs) when the sun finally peeked from behind the Twin Sisters and covered the face of Longs in gorgeous orange and pink light. It was really cool to be up so early and see everything light up for the day. We lost sight of Longs for a while as the trail curved around the base of Mount Lady Washington and headed to Granite Pass at 12,080 feet and almost 2 miles from the campsite. Right after the pass came a set of long switchbacks that worked their way up through the alpine tundra. Longs Peak had reappeared in the distance, and by 7:00 we were high enough on the slope to get our first sight of the Keyhole. Despite the fact that it's at more than 13,100 feet, the Keyhole still looks far below the summit. It also looked tiny, of course, and when we actually got there I was surprised at how large the opening in the ridge is actually is.

L to R: Carter and me resting in the Boulderfield (Longs Peak in the background and yes, my bandanna stood up like that all day); view of the Keyhole from the Boulderfield; Emily, Jason, Jen, me, Gavin, Carter, Rich & Becca -- the entire group!

We arrived at the Boulderfield campsite just before 8:00 to find Becca and Emily resting on a large rock. They'd been sitting for more than half an hour figuring we'd be there soon, and were just about to continue without us when we arrived. There were a lot of other hikers around, some resting from the hike so far and others who had camped there overnight and were just getting started for the day. Despite the lovely solar-panelled privies (I can't figure out what the solar panels were for, but oh well), I would not want to camp in the Boulderfield. The park has made nice rock rings and tent pads for campers, but I can't imagine what the wind and rain must be like up there during a storm without any trees to block it. Very exposed.

After a short rest, a Powerbar, and a group picture, we headed for the Keyhole. The park does a great job of maintaining the trail from the trailhead to the Boulderfield, but the trail ends at the final campsite and the last 1.5 miles of the route to the summit are marked first by stone cairns and later by red and yellow bulls-eyes painted onto the rock. We were able to follow the cairns to the Keyhole without much trouble, but scrambling up boulders using hands and feet at 13,000 feet was another story -- it was tiring work! I quickly fell into a pattern that consisted of scrambling up a bit, catching my breath, scrambling some more, breathing some more. Nonetheless we made good progress, and Carter, Gavin, Jason, Emily and I reached the Keyhole right around 9:00 a.m.

L to R: Carter almost at the Keyhole (note the shelter to the left of the gap); me in the doorway to the memorial shelter; the amazing view through the other side of the Keyhole; Jason, me & Gavin resting at the Keyhole with some guy in a yellow jacket

The view was amazing! After spending the last hour climbing up a river of boulders and seeing nothing but various shades of gray and brown rock, we pulled ourselves up the last bit and stared through the Keyhole at blue sky, puffy clouds, mountains as far as the eye could see, a long gorge, and deep blue lakes thousands of feet below. We could see for miles; it felt like all of Rocky Mountain National Park was right there in front of us. We sat down for a rest and also visited the Agnes Vaille Memorial Shelter just to the left of the Keyhole, built in memory of a woman who died during a winter ascent of Longs Peak in the 1920s. (There was a lot of snow inside.) Looking back towards the Boulderfield, we could see Jen, Rich and Becca still working their way up below us.

We discussed our next move for a few minutes. We knew that there was snow in the Trough and that according to the Ranger Station the route was still technical (and we didn't have crampons or ice axes, needless to say), but the Ledges were completely clear and looked totally passable...as long as you weren't afraid of heights! I decided to continue and started to work my way along the Ledges with Emily close behind. It was a little intimidating to be crossing a series of rocky ledges where one false move could send you flying down a thousand-foot drop, but there were plenty of handholds and flat places to put your feet. The bulls-eyed route was easy to follow, and Emily and I slowly but steadily moved across the Ledges. While the route itself goes up and down, this portion of the trail doesn't actually gain very much elevation overall.

After twenty minutes or so, Emily and I looked back to see what the rest of the group was doing and didn't see anyone! Carter, Gavin, and Jason hadn't followed us out, so we were on our own. For the next while, Emily and I had at least a dozen conversations that went something like: "What do you think?" "I don't know, what do you think?" "Well, let's keep going a little farther and then decide." When we looked back towards the Keyhole again, we were able to spot Gavin, Jen and Carter out on the Ledges, so we knew part of the group was following us. (Carter soon turned around. Becca, Rich and Jason all went out on the Ledges far enough to say they'd gone past the Keyhole and then turned around. Emily, Jen, Gavin and I were the braver -- or maybe just crazier -- half of the group who conquered the Ledges in their entirety.) I didn't look at my watch much once we were past the Keyhole, but I think we got across the Ledges in 45 minutes or so. We were taking our time, taking frequent breathers, and enjoying the view.

L to R: looking out onto the Ledges from the Keyhole; Emily close behind me on the ledges (route marked by yellow & red bulleyes); Jason testing the Ledges; view looking back along the Ledges toward the Keyhole

The Ledges end at the base of the Trough, which was one of the more intimidating sights I've ever seen. You get across the Ledges feeling good, only to look up and see a granite slope ranging from 25 to probably 40 degrees, big rocks covered in loose rocks that are occasionally sent falling down the mountain by a careless climber. The base of the Trough is a few hundred feet wide but it narrows to 10-15 feet at the very top. On this particular day, there was still a long tongue of snow and ice running down the right side of the Trough and covering the bulls-eyed route (that's why the Ranger Station was still calling it "technical conditions") so the steady stream of climbers was making its way up the Trough to the left of where the official route is. Emily and I had another "What do you think?" conversation and then started climbing.

Climbing up the Trough really wasn't all that bad -- at first. It felt like a staircase built for someone about twice as tall as me. I'd plant my foot on the side of a rock, push off with my other foot, and use my hands and arms to steady myself as I climbed. It wasn't easy, and I was having to stop more and more to catch my breath, but it wasn't that scary. I never felt like I was in serious danger of falling, though my eyes certainly tried to tell me that I was. I don't really have a fear of heights and I found that whenever we paused, I actually preferred to sit with my back to the Trough and look out into the gorge and down the 1,000 foot mountainside; if I tilted my head and looked up at the top of the Trough, the clouds moving past the immobile mountain made me feel a little dizzy and very disoriented! Because of that, I didn't look up much, and preferred to concentrate on the rocks in front of me.

L to R: another view as we progressed along the Ledges; looking up the Trough; looking down at Gavin from our turnaround point; me and Emily at the highest point we reached (~13,800-900 feet); panorama taken from the bottom of the Trough

The climb got harder as we got higher. At one point, Emily and I (along with two other men) decided that the best route was right along the edge of the snow and ice, which made me a bit nervous because of the wet rocks. We made it up that point, but were soon met with a series of thin ledges. I don't know that I've ever relied on the traction of my boots as much as I did as Emily and I worked our way up a crack between two huge slabs of granite. At the top of that section, we caught up to a girl who had passed us back on the Ledges -- she had stopped climbing and didn't plan to go any higher because she wasn't comfortable, and so was just waiting for her friends to return from their summit attempt. Emily and I thought we could make it a bit farther, but soon discovered why the girl had stopped!

We worked our way up another crack and stopped to take a breather. We were maybe 30 feet higher than the girl we'd just passed, and as we looked down below we could see that Gavin and Jen had been moving up the Trough more quickly than us, and Gavin was only about 40 feet below. Emily and I began another "what do you think?" conversation, but this time instead of deciding to continue, the interchange ended with "hmm ...well, let's wait until Gavin gets here and see what he thinks!" After 5 minutes, Gavin was only about 10 feet below us, with Jen maybe 40 feet down. We hemmed and hawed and discussed our options, and talked to people coming down from the summit who were encouraging us to continue. We were only about 50 vertical feet below the top of the Trough, and could practically taste the summit...and yet I finally had to listen to the logical part of my brain. I read a lot of trip reports before going to Longs, and so I knew that if the Trough was snow-free and the bulls-eyed route could be followed, the climb was only Class 3 -- we'd have to use our hands, but not extensively. But with the Trough snowy, and having to skirt to the left and up a tougher section of rock, the climb became a Class 4. (For comparison, Class 5 is with a rope and harness.)

To put it simply, we had reached the limit of our comfort zones with Class 4 climbing! "Look guys," I said, "we've been sitting here for at least 20 minutes debating what to do. That probably means we should turn around and go back down." I wanted to make it to the top badly, hadn't rested for more than 5 minutes at one time at any point along the trail, and yet I hadn't been able to make myself continue up the rock slabs in the past 20+ minutes. If that didn't indicate that some part of me wasn't comfortable with the climb, I don't know what does! Emily and Gavin both agreed, and we shouted our decision to Jen, who stopped climbing and just sat to wait for us to make it back down to her. It was 11:00 a.m.

L to R: final view looking up at the Trough, probably ~50 vertical feet above the point where we turned around; back at the Keyhole and looking down at the boulderfield (Mount Lady Washington in the background); final view of Longs Peak as we head back down the trail to our campsite

The first 5 minutes of our descent firmly convinced us that we were right in our decision to turn around, as they were the scariest minutes of the entire trip. Going up is one thing; having to turn back around and slide down the rock on your butt while controlling your speed with your hands and arms is another! I should mention that it was about this time that we saw a guy with ski poles and tennis shoes bounding up the Trough, in the snow, no less. We did see many people who made it all the way up the Trough -- and across the Narrows and the Homestretch that follow the Trough -- so it was definitely possible to make it to the top. But with the official non-technical route still covered in snow, the alternate route was just a bit beyond the comfort level for us novices. That's life. We were all very happy to have made it so high even if we couldn't say we summitted. I estimate that our turnaround point was at about 13,800-900 feet, which in itself was a full 4,000 feet higher than I'd ever been before! Very cool.

It took us almost as long to descend the Trough and return across the Ledges as it had taken to go up. By far the most, well, "exciting" moment of the descent of the Trough was when Emily's Nalgene bottle somehow escaped the carabiner that had secured it to her backpack. We had gotten used to hear the occasional "rock!" call when a loose rock was falling, but hadn't thought about anything else. "Um...water bottle!!" we called out as the full Nalgene bottle careened down the slope, bouncing off rock after rock. Fortunately it didn't fall near anyone, and we watched with amazement as the bottle finally hit one rock and exploded in a shower of water. So Nalgene bottles are breakable after all. (In fact, Emily was quite excited about taking the bottle back to REI and explaining what happened.)

We reached the Keyhole a little before 1 p.m. and didn't know where Becca, Jason, Carter and Rich had gone, but knew we'd meet them back at camp later on. Gavin, who was in quite a hurry to get to a privy, made a speedy descent from the Keyhole down the slope to the campsites in the Boulderfield, while Emily, Jen and I spent a couple more minutes just re-admiring the view. Going down through the Boulderfield wasn't much easier than going up (my poor knees) but at least it was faster. We were meeting Gavin at the Boulderfield campsite in no time, and refilled our water bottles in the small creek there. Trying to actually find the creek was a pretty funny experience, because for a while you can hear it under the rocks, but can't actually see it! (At this point we also realized that the four of us had all three of the group's water filters, meaning the other four had no way to refill their bottles. Big oops. We felt really bad about that, but the other four assured us later that it hadn't been a big problem.)

After a long slog back down the trail, during which Emily and I were entertained by Gavin's many stories about zeppelins, spy planes, Shackleton's Antarctic expeditions, and more, we finally arrived back at camp just before 4:00. It had been a long day for all of us. Jen and Gavin were exhausted and disappeared into their tent, but Emily and I were all pumped up and enjoyed telling the others (Becca, Jason, Carter and Rich were all back at camp already; Rich and Jason had climbed Battle Mountain while we'd been attempting Longs) about our day. Thunderstorms rolled in soon though, and we all hit the tents to wait out the longest storm of the weekend. Carter was really feeling the effects of the hard day and got sick a couple times, but by the time the storm cleared around 7:00, he was starting to feel better. After dinner, our pooped party crawled into the sleeping bags for the night.

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