Longs Peak Trip Report 09/26/2016

Peak(s):	Longs Peak - 14,259 feet
Date Posted:	09/26/2016
Date Climbed:	09/17/2016
Author:	oI2ange

Keyhole Route
I read this site and the trail conditions/trip reports every day for about 1 week so I feel that I should contribute a bit as well. Overall, Longs was a difficult, satisfying experience. I went up Longs Peak via the Keyhole route on Saturday, September 17th 2016. After a day of prepping our meals and gear (notable gear that we had that was different from your normal hiking gear was: microspikes, hiking poles (not sure if this is the norm), and head lamps). After 2 hours of sleep, we woke up around 12:30 at night and drove 1.5 hours to the trailhead, starting the hike around 2:30am. The parking lot was almost full at this time and we were really excited (and somewhat scared). This was our second 14er ever and, although we aren't super hikers like many native Coloradans (we live here now but we came here only a year ago), we are in fairly good shape and actively rock climb/run/work out several times a week. We have also done some moderate hikes in 1 day as well, such as Half Dome in Yosemite. We hiked for a few hours and had a consistent pace going. We were slower than many other groups and also took more breaks than our fellow hikers. After slightly losing our sense of direction in the dark, we continued up what we THOUGHT was the path to the keyhole. It was a rough trail and, despite adequate research for this trail, we climbed about 500 feet and 1 hour of hiking when we talked to a fellow hiker, who told us we were headed up Longs peak via the LOFT route. Unfortunately for us, we missed the turn off and slightly missed the trail, which resulted in us hiking further than we should have. We turned around and made it to the turn off, where we correctly got back on the trail towards the Keyhole. Other than that, our hike was very standard compared to other hikers. In total, we took about 15 hours and were back at the car around 5:00pm. We likely would have finished earlier had it not been for our 2 hour fiasco. I will write a few observations/notes on the hike below: -For gear (other than the obvious), I would recommend: Decent gloves (not super thin ones), microspikes (amazon search these, they help A LOT), heavy coat, a head lamp, and hiking poles. -Once you have made it to the Keyhole, the route is only about halfway done in terms of difficulty. Going up the trough and the home stretch is a very tough endeavor and the first part of the hike, while challenging, is not as difficult. -There are some legit rock scrambles that you will encounter past the Keyhole. If you aren't great with rock scrambling or any sort of technical climbing, I would recommend that you either practice in a rock climbing gym (or outside) or get yourself a bit more familiar with some technical climbing. While this isn't essential (and I'm sure plenty of people have hiked this without any of that), I do think that the rock climbing training would help a lot. -It's getting to the point where there will be more ice and snow at the top, so be sure to read as many weather/trail reports as possible. I know this is obvious, but I just thought I'd write it again. -We had experiences where our water froze through our camelpak tubes at some parts. The wind was very strong in places. I can't think of a ton of others at the top of my head. All in all, it was a beautiful, exhausting, tremendous experience. Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Keyhole Route

I read this site and the trail conditions/trip reports every day for about 1 week so I feel that I should contribute a bit as well. Overall, Longs was a difficult, satisfying experience. I went up Longs Peak via the Keyhole route on Saturday, September 17th 2016. After a day of prepping our meals and gear (notable gear that we had that was different from your normal hiking gear was: microspikes, hiking poles (not sure if this is the norm), and head lamps). After 2 hours of sleep, we woke up around 12:30 at night and drove 1.5 hours to the trailhead, starting the hike around 2:30am. The parking lot was almost full at this time and we were really excited (and somewhat scared).

This was our second 14er ever and, although we aren't super hikers like many native Coloradans (we live here now but we came here only a year ago), we are in fairly good shape and actively rock climb/run/work out several times a week. We have also done some moderate hikes in 1 day as well, such as Half Dome in Yosemite.

We hiked for a few hours and had a consistent pace going. We were slower than many other groups and also took more breaks than our fellow hikers. After slightly losing our sense of direction in the dark, we continued up what we THOUGHT was the path to the keyhole. It was a rough trail and, despite adequate research for this trail, we climbed about 500 feet and 1 hour of hiking when we talked to a fellow hiker, who told us we were headed up Longs peak via the LOFT route. Unfortunately for us, we missed the turn off and slightly missed the trail, which resulted in us hiking further than we should have. We turned around and made it to the turn off, where we correctly got back on the trail towards the Keyhole.

Other than that, our hike was very standard compared to other hikers. In total, we took about 15 hours and were back at the car around 5:00pm. We likely would have finished earlier had it not been for our 2 hour fiasco. I will write a few observations/notes on the hike below:

-For gear (other than the obvious), I would recommend: Decent gloves (not super thin ones), microspikes (amazon search these, they help A LOT), heavy coat, a head lamp, and hiking poles.

-Once you have made it to the Keyhole, the route is only about halfway done in terms of difficulty. Going up the trough and the home stretch is a very tough endeavor and the first part of the hike, while challenging, is not as difficult.

-There are some legit rock scrambles that you will encounter past the Keyhole. If you aren't great with rock scrambling or any sort of technical climbing, I would recommend that you either practice in a rock climbing gym (or outside) or get yourself a bit more familiar with some technical climbing. While this isn't essential (and I'm sure plenty of people have hiked this without any of that), I do think that the rock climbing training would help a lot.

-It's getting to the point where there will be more ice and snow at the top, so be sure to read as many weather/trail reports as possible. I know this is obvious, but I just thought I'd write it again.

-We had experiences where our water froze through our camelpak tubes at some parts. The wind was very strong in places.

I can't think of a ton of others at the top of my head. All in all, it was a beautiful, exhausting, tremendous experience.

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

Jay521

Heckuva day!
9/27/2016 10:34am

You really ramped it up on your second ever 14er. Congrats on a tough climb!

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