Longs Peak

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 10/6/2026, By: Flextrek 37 trillion
Info: Keyhole route clear and dry as of Tuesday, 10/6/2026

Started at 4:30am, finished at 1:20pm. Lots of open parking at the start, lot half-full at 1:20pm. Only saw 4 people on the entire route past where the trail splits toward chasm lake. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 10/5/2026, By: emeyer
Info: Summited on 10/4, Keyhole Route was clear, no snow or ice. 

Route: Cables
Posted On: 9/27/2026, By: Caitlin123
Info: There’s a lot of ice directly beneath the block in the middle of the first part of the climb (see photo). A roped pair ahead of me bailed from the bolt directly above the block because of ice on the pitch above. It looks like you could shimmy around the ice, but downclimbing would be tricky. That’s ultimately why I bailed, since I couldn’t fully see the conditions above the block. There’s definitely a fair amount of ice on the left side of the dihedral above the block. I talked to a guy camping in the bolder field and he said a roped pair bailed from above the block on Saturday too, so guessing it's fairly icey above!

As of Sunday, there was no ice in the bolder field and water was flowing normally. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 9/26/2026, By: Cbbush
Info: 4am start, parked about .1 mile from the trailhead. Cold and windy all the way up to the Boulder field but manageable with layers.

Boulder field had some verglas in the morning, water was running in the usual places. Slicker rocks as you approach the keyhole. Conditions after the keyhole were variable - extremely gusty until about 10 meters into the ledges. Heavy verglas and ice throughout the ledges - had to be extremely careful.

Trough was also icy and snowy in spots- test each rock carefully as the verglas is not easy to see. The crux section 30ft rock as noted in the route description was covered in black ice and people were falling trying to ascend it.

Narrows were mostly clear of ice. Homestretch has ice and verglas, heavily on the left section.

7 hours walking time. 1hr 30 from keyhole to summit, about the same back. Ice was melting partially when descending but still extremely slick. Probably the last go weekend for this route unless you’re particularly skilled. 

Route: Loft Route
Posted On: 9/23/2026, By: Lardtazium
Info: Rained the night before.
Bulletproof ice and verglas on loft cliff bands. Manageable with caution.
Downclimb/keplinger's dry
Trough with verglas late morning. Ledges melted/wet late morning. Proceed with caution if still shady.
It'll still go until there's a big snowstorm. 

Route: Loft route, Keyhole descent
Posted On: 9/11/2026, By: shakabrah
Info: Some decent water running down the middle of the loft couloir making early morning ice and some ice on the exit ramp. All easily avoidable with a few careful footsteps. Keep an eye out for moose near treeline in the early morning as well; had a bull take a few fast steps towards me this morning but he seemed content watching me move steadily away from him. 

Route: Cables, Keyhole
Posted On: 9/11/2026, By: syrupgravy
Info: Mostly dry on the Cables with a few spots of avoidable ice: 1) some coming out from under the block at the crux when moving out and left, just frozen drips that didn’t impact my movement at all and 2) more ice on the left wall of the dihedral and one spot on the slab in the upper, lower angle section (see pic). This was my first solo of this route and it felt very comfortable even with these spots of ice. Otherwise totally dry and great condition! No verglass anywhere. No ice on upper North Face or the Keyhole decent. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 9/3/2026, By: alphaktrk
Info: Got to the keyhole at 7 am, which had strong winds through the keyhole but quieter on the ledges and trough. Only a few spots with wet rocks or ice on the trough and homestretch. Ledges and narrows were clear of water and ice. Summited by 10 am with a few clouds but no precip 

Route: Cables route
Posted On: 9/1/2026, By: ballardwf04
Info: As mentioned in other reports, above 13000 expect continuous ice in the mornings. We did Cables yesterday and encountered ice on the final summit scramble pretty much continuous to the summit. It melted by the time we went down at about 10am. Talking with others the trough and homestretch seemed iced up as well. Spikes might help a little but not a ton. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 8/30/2026, By: Chase0214
Info: Extremely strong winds ~60mph, with even stronger gusts, at the keyhole this morning. Could not progress as rock was also wet past this spot. We met a member who was in contact with a group who summited that morning via the cables route. We were informed there was ice on the route and the pair had to hunker down in a cave as conditions were too poor to safely descend keyhole. 

Route: Lamb's Slide
Posted On: 8/29/2026, By: englerv
Info: Lamb's Slide is very hard ice from bottom to top. You'd want stiff boots and steel crampons to attempt it, but even then I wouldn't recommend it. It was shedding lots of large rocks when we were there at 7:30 am today. A group before us bailed after a member of their party was hit by a falling rock. We scrambled up the rock on climber's right of Lamb's Slide to access Kiener's and watched dozens of rocks up to microwave sized flying down Lamb's Slide. Probably should avoid until its either much colder or covered in snow.
Broadway and Kiener's was a fun romp, no snow up there. 

Route: Loft Route
Posted On: 8/23/2026, By: 1kCardioInA14kWorld
Info: Our weather was great, but definitely getting those late-season afternoon storms. We were getting light rain and thunder by the time we hit treeline, around 2pm, with storms being seen in the distance as we exited the boulder field probably around 1pm. Parking was rough, we arrived at 2:45am and the lot was already full and we had to park down the road about a quarter mile. All in all good conditions and what you would expect for a Saturday in August on Longs!

Timing:
Started at 3:30am
Chasm Lake at 5:30
Summit at 10:30
Car at 3:30 

Route: Up keyhole ridge down cables
Posted On: 8/19/2026, By: BadWolf
Info: Keyhole ridge had some wet sections from last night's storm. Definitely made it trickier. It will dry off probably by tomorrow, assuming there's not another descent sized storm. Still felt comfortable soloing it.
In classic fashion, Cables had running water. Not much to add. 

Route: Loft Route
Posted On: 8/19/2026, By: linkingxi
Info: Prime summer condition, water till the top of loft couloir 

Route: Loft -> Clark's -> Stepladder -> Cables Descent
Posted On: 7/27/2026, By: notidealbutfine
Info: Snagged a dispersed campsite just outside of Allenspark on Ski Road Saturday afternoon. Spots were mostly filled by 5pm, but we managed to get one not too far from the forest service border without an AWD vehicle. Got up at 10:30PM, left camp at 11:30PM, and departed the Longs TH just after midnight. Parking lot had about a dozen or two cars at midnight; tons of space for us. From the TH, we followed the trail to the Chasm Lake privy, then left the trail moving southeast at ~11,600' towards Meeker's Iron Gates. We blindly climbed through the gates in the dark to the summit ridge and then Mount Meeker - East Peak. Followed the class 3 knife edge to the summit of Mount Meeker proper which was a lot of fun with a bit of spice in the dark with the morning winds. Descended to the Loft and followed Clark's Arrow to the Notch where we finished out the final pitch to the summit on Stepladder (5.5), which felt more like 5.0-5.2 to my partner and I. About 20 people on summit at 7:30AM. From the top, we descended the Cables route (5.4), which was a lot more icy and wet than we were anticipating but it went without ropes just fine for our first onsight descent of the route. In current conditions, I'd say it goes a grade or two above it's rating, maybe 5.5 or 5.6. From the bottom of Cables, we bagged Mount Lady Washington on the way down and made it back to the car just before 1PM. Parking lot was full and absolute insanity when we got back with cars parked on both sides of the road leading up to the TH for about a mile or two. I thought Longs was going to be crazy overhyped, but it did not disappoint in any way possible: to traverse this entire cirque was quite the treat, especially for my first time out here. What an absolute blast of a day! ~14.5 miles / 6,142' gain / 12 hours, 53 minutes