Longs on a Saturday Expectation

[smrcka]

When I climbed Longs in August 2008, I did a little research and found that, at the time, about 600 other climbers could be expected to be on the mountain on a weekend day. I opted for a Thursday climb to avoid the crowds. When checking in to a local motel on the previous evening, I asked for a 3am wake-up call. The person working the desk remarked that was a late start and most asked for a midnight wake-up which surprised me. So, I asked for a 2am call which put me at the trailhead at 3am. I stopped at the trail register and there were already 70 people ahead of me. A group of 12 from Tennessee had signed in with an 11pm start. When I got back to the trailhead in the early afternoon I stopped at the register and counted 250+ people who had signed in - on a Thursday. Long’s is a very popular mountain. 15 years later, I can’t imagine what a weekend day looks like…

[LucasR]

Another approach is to make it a night hike. I hiked it once during a full moon - started at 2PM, got to the summit right at sunset and then started hiking down at dusk. It was practically empty and I didn't see anyone hiking up until I was near the trailhead at around 2am.

[Benito_Esposti]

Depending on your ability (and comfortability) with some 5.4 climbing, you could check out the cables route. It follows the standard keyhole route until the boulder field. You then go left towards the face and climb what is essentially the rightmost part of it for ~70 feet and then get to a large section of boulders (class 3/4) which you can scramble to the summit. This route avoids all the typical bottlenecks/crowds going the keyhole route.
I did this climb with my dad last year on July 22 (a friday) and there were around 10 people doing the same, compared with the 150+ people we saw going to the keyhole. We descended down the keyhole route once the summit cleared out and were some of the very last people going down that way and didn't run into any issues with crowding/bottlenecks.
It was a lot of fun and I would highly recommend it if you are comfortable with class 5. We roped up and did it in two pitches but there were also two people who were soloing up and they looked to be just fine.

[misterdarcy]

Thank you for the feedback everyone. We are going to schedule the attempt for August 26, and this is helpful information on what to expect. Hopefully there is a good weather that day as well.

[Dayute]

How is the parking at 7-8am on the weekends? Thinking of hitting Meeker from the loft and maybe looping over to Longs and MLW depending on weather. I assume the lot will be full but is there any other parking down the road? Dont mind walking a ways. Not really interested in waking up early theres an 80's band playing Buffalo Bills days I want to see tonight.

[justiner]

How is the parking at 7-8am on the weekends?

I would expect the lot and overflow areas to be very full. 7pm would be when it becomes a little less full.

[Dayute]

How is the parking at 7-8am on the weekends?

I would expect the lot and overflow areas to be very full. 7pm would be when it becomes a little less full.

May just have to head over to Sandbeach if I cant get a spot.

[Ryan987]

I just did it on Sunday July 23 and had no issues with parking at 1:45 AM. I was the first one up and the crowds going down wasn't too bad. I'm sure Saturday in Aug would be a bit worse tho

[infinitealpine]

After reading some of these replies it seems my experience on Longs today wasn't as bad as others in terms of crowd. There were a lot of people but I never hit a bottleneck anywhere and there were 20 people on the summit at 8am. I got one of the last parking spots at 245am. The hike was fun but I'd never repeat it on a weekend.

[ECF55]

I'm still in planning phase for a trip to CO this summer. I am considering finishing the trip with a Longs attempt, but that would put it on a Saturday. This site has lots of comments that the trailhead parking lot spots fill up before 3am, so my start time goal would be to be on the trail before then. However, when the parking lot fills up, is that it, or do hikers park in some other overflow area? (The road to the parking lot doesn't look like it has any shoulders.)

[CaptainSuburbia]

I'm still in planning phase for a trip to CO this summer. I am considering finishing the trip with a Longs attempt, but that would put it on a Saturday. This site has lots of comments that the trailhead parking lot spots fill up before 3am, so my start time goal would be to be on the trail before then. However, when the parking lot fills up, is that it, or do hikers park in some other overflow area? (The road to the parking lot doesn't look like it has any shoulders.)

There's lots of parking along the road.

[nyker]

It is a nice popular TH...what about Uber?