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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