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  1. Climbing

Long's Peak, Colorado - July 2009

Flew out to Colorado to climb Long's Peak (14,255ft) via the Keyhole Route with Gabe, Bonnie and Dan. Mike graciously let us crash at his place in Lyons. Here's a quick run down of what we did: Thursday - Arrived at Denver airport and met up with Gabe and Bonnie. Drove to Estes park to pick up our backcountry permits then did some shopping for last minute supplies and met up with Dan at Mike's place in Lyons. Friday - Began hiking up the Long's Peak trail (9,400ft) mid-morning and arrived at camp in the boulderfield 6 miles later at an elevation of 12,740ft in late afternoon. We set up basecamp and hung out, took photos and made dinner in anticipation for our summit attempt the next morning. Time from trailhead to basecamp: ~4hrs Saturday - Started early to join the many other parties heading up the Keyhole Route. From we first negotiated through the boulderfield up to the Keyhole notch. Going through the notch onto the other side of the ridge, we traversed across the Ledges section for a ways until we reached the Trough. From there we ascended up the slope of loose scree and boulders to the top of the Trough topping out on another ridge. From here we traversed across the Narrows, another ledge system that led us to the Homestretch, a last section of slab that leads up to the summit. See here for more details about the route: After making it to the summit and back down, we packed up camp and hiked out the same day. Time from basecamp to summit: ~3.5hrs Time from summit back to basecamp: ~3hrs Sunday - Went on a short day hike. Then Mike showed us his bee colony, then showed us out to shoot his bolt-action shotgun. Monday - Hung out in Boulder, grabbed some lunch then it was off to the Denver airport.
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  • Sunrise the next morning was beautiful.
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  • heading up to the Keyhole
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  • looking back at the boulderfield.
  • This shelter is a memorial to someone to who died on the mountain as far as I know.
  • The is what we saw at the top of the Keyhole looking out to the other side of the ridge. Looking down into Glacier Gorge as the sun rises.
  • Glacier Gorge, Chiefshead behind me, Spearhead over my right shoulder.
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  • First section after the Keyhole is a traverse across The Ledges. This is where we put our helmets on.
  • The snow is really solid ice. For the most part we could avoid it on the route so we didn't bother bringing crampons or ice axes.
  • Looking back at The Ledges to the Keyhole.
  • the route is marked with painted bullseyes.
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  • This is The Trough, a very arduous climb up a steep slope of boulders, loose rock and scree. This section was pretty arduous and miserable.
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