Anyone done this variation of Kieners?

[Nobleman]

Hi all,

Back in early June a friend and I took our first romp up Kieners. All went fairly swimmingly until we hit the upper snowfield, where deep snow slowed our progress considerably. Then, instead of trending right and navigating the Diamond step, we headed left straight up a couloir that ended in a small notch on the south-east side of the summit. Rotten snice and icy cracks made the lead rather spicy, but I would estimate that when dry the climbing would be maybe 5.6 (its hard to say though). Along the way we found a couple old pins, and ancient rusty cans stuffed in cracks. This route variation is not listed in any guidebook i've seen, although I think that a map at the trailhead ranger station labels it as "the small notch couloir". I posted on MP a while back, but got no response. Has anybody here done this variation, or know who the FA was, or have any other historical details about it?

stock pic of what we did vs the standard route attached. When we did it there was significantly more snow.

Thanks!

[Brian C]

I have not done it, but did look it up in the old Nesbit book. It says...

Little Notch. Class 4. Flank: E. First ascent by: Blaurock? Year: 1922. Comments: Variation of Kieners.

IMG_0094.JPG (302.67 KiB) Viewed 466 times

Nesbit, P. (1990). Longs Peak: Its story and a climbing guide (9th ed., pp. 36-37). Halstead, KS: Mills Publishing.

[Kiefer]

Cool picture Brian! I have a massively large framed picture of that I picked up at a yard sale here in town a few years ago.

[John Landers]

Back in June of 1993, I was on Kieners for the first time as part of a group of 6 or 7 as two rope teams. I led the pitch off of Broadway which was a rather wet lead. After that the snow on the upper standard part of the route made me rather concerned. As some one stated in another thread, it felt like a terrain trap. We stayed to the left and worked our way higher. Thankfully there were a couple of really solid climbers in our party that led a mixed pitch our two. I just can't recall exactly how we did the final piece to the summit, it could have been up the couloir you went up or something else. I was also on Kieners on September 11th of that same year when things went amiss for a party behind us. Kieners is one of my favorite routes on a 14er.

[TomPierce]

I looked in my out-of-print Kimball guide and found only one cryptic sentence: "One can do the first, or other, chimneys found right of the Notch, but they all involve 5th class climbing." Sounds like if you went up a gully, probably 4th class based on Brian's input, but maybe 5th if it was more a chimney. Regardless, very cool that you went off the beaten path to get the route done. So much variety on Longs (and many other peaks) vs. the guidebook trade routes.

-Tom

[Nobleman]

Thanks Brian C! That is exactly what I was looking for! The line we took topped out at LN in the pic.

And John, that is pretty much what happened to us too; the snow stability was beginning to degrade, and we took it because it looked doable and would keep us from having to cross as much snow. In retrospect the regular diamond step would have probably been better.

Regarding the grade, that is something that I have thought about often since doing it. For reference, I have only a small amount of ice leading experience and virtually no mixed climbing experience, although I usually feel fairly comfortable leading 5.10 trad. It may just have been the altitude and fatigue getting to me, but in the half rock half rotten ice mixed condition that it was in, and with only one mountaineering axe, the lead was, as I said, spicy. It kinda started as a "chimney", in the same way the the chimneys off of broadway are, but then opened into a very narrow couloir, maybe 20 ft across. It definitely felt harder than the chimneys off of broadway, but I could see it going at stiff 4th class, possibly low 5th class (sometimes the line there can be a bit vague, anyway).

Anyway, it was a memorable first day on Longs for me, and cemented Longs as my favorite 14er. All my subsequent attempts on the diamond this summer got shut down by weather or scheduling, so here's to another safe and fun winter season for everybody!

Cheers!