Longs Peak

Route: Glacier Gorge
Posted On: 1/21/2024, By: Laxer04
Info: We didn't climb Longs, but rather the Spearhead next door. We put a nice trench in through Glacier Gorge to the base of Longs on the backside. I've attached some photos so you have an idea of conditions on Longs and Mchenry's. 

Route: Trough
Posted On: 1/11/2024, By: Steep Slabs
Info: This was my first time attempting the Trough route and I didnt get very far. I paid the RMNP fee using my phone and got an early start. There were a few inches of new snow on the trail right out the gate. Having gaiters on at the get go was good. I donned snow shoes at Mills Lake but probably should have done so a little sooner. Between Mills and Black Lake the trail vanished in deep snow. I followed a faint track to hikers right through a lot of trees and then up a steep incline which hit a big rock wall covered by a few inches of ice. It was pretty looking but really slippery and kind of sketchy. At this point I checked my GPS (which I should have done sooner) and realized I was quite a ways off route so I headed/slid back down. Once I got back on track the snow got even deeper. I was kind of post holing with snow shoes on. The temp was around zero degrees and the wind started to pick up. My Garmin warned me that it was going to shut down due to the cold so I threw it in a pocket with a hand warmer. I was deflated, tired and cold so I decided to call it. I was hoping to at least catch a glimpse of the Trough in its full glory but it just wasnt in the cards today. If you are going to try this anytime soon I would recommend always following the path/trench that goes to hikers left unless you want to slip and slide across a giant ice covered rock. I was about a mile away from Black Lake and it took me almost 3 hours. I kept my snow shoes on for a lot of the descent. I warmed up nicely on the way down. The wind slowed and the temp at the parking lot was in the teens. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 1/6/2024, By: shapovalovm
Info: tl;dr: did not summit, stopped at keyhole, you can consider the trench gone.

Encouraged by a few recent ascents and despite bad forecast, I decided to go see it for myself.

The trail to Chasm intersection is well packed and easy/fast going.

Chasm intersection to Granite pass: the trail is visible but filled with snow.

Granite pass to Keyhole, I lost the trail pretty fast, and just rock-hopped in the general direction and it was fine.

No snowshoes or spikes were needed at all.

Starting with Granite pass, it was properly windy and cold, but still manageable. But getting up to Keyhole from Boulderfield it became obvious pretty fast that this is where I would stop. Keyhole was basically a jet engine turbine. I went outside for maybe 10 yards and it was abysmally windy and cloudy and looked like a full-blown storm there. Being solo in these conditions on class 3 terrain felt outside my comfort level. Given a little of fresh snow + this wind, I would expect the trench to be gone (every step I would take was filled within minutes and that was on this side of Keyhole). FWIW, I could not see any signs of it there.

Climbed Lady Washington as a consolation prize on the way back from the Boulderfield and guess what, the wind on top of MLW was comparable to the Keyhole.

I'd post pics, but I took very few (like my fingers more) and they all are horrible (camera would freeze/fail to focus/shake/etc) 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 1/5/2024, By: yurkuns
Info: There was a pretty good trail to the summit. You can get to the keyhole in the regular running shoes without getting wet. But beyond the keyhole it would be great to have gaiters + micro-spikes. Also better have an ice axe to be able to arrest yourself in case you slip off (there is a long way down!). Took me almost 7 hours there and back in slow pace but without stops. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 12/30/2023, By: daway8
Info: Just a tiny refresh of the excellent update by Logan. Several other folks have now been up the route so it's getting pretty tracked in now. Ledges have a few divergent tracks but overall pretty easy to follow and most bull's-eyes are visible. Wore microspikes across the Ledges and halfway up the Trough until a minor wipeout when I found a large ice waterfall at 13,470ft that was coated with just enough snow that I didn't see it until it was too late. Wore crampons the rest of the way up but they weren't really needed and made walking on the exposed rock sections awkward so once I got back to the Narrows on the return I switched back to microspikes. The Narrows are easy now thanks to Logan's trailblazing (2nd time this year the guy has unexpectedly put tracks across a loaded Narrows for me - you rock Logan!). While the Narrows has a lot of snow, it's nowhere near as loaded as this spring as there's lot of exposed rock, so I felt much more comfortable this time vs then. Homestretch is almost 100% snow but very well tracked in. Leave snowshoes at home - totally irrelevant given the amount of traffic on the route. Crampons currently overkill except the one partly hidden ice waterfall partway up the Trough but be warned I saw water flowing in many places as the snow melts so I expect the amount of ice on the route to increase significantly with melt/freeze cycles coming up. Now is a great time to go grab this route - just watch your step past the Keyhole, the ice is so far limited but wickedly concealed when it is found. 

Route: Cables
Posted On: 12/29/2023, By: jbealer
Info: No need to update the route to the boulder field as that got covered in the other update. There are a lot of trap doors between the rocks getting up that slope to cables. We wore nothing till we hit the snow field below the start of cables, we put on crampons at that point, snow is firm, no sinking at all, no concern for avy yet.
The first bolt is missing now, not sure how long that has been gone as my friend said it was there in April, if u want to protect your belayer bring some other gear for that spot. There is some ice and snow in the rocks but not enough to make it easy, still more of a rock climb. I still used 2 axes and my crampos to get up it, my friend used 1 axe but no really for holds, he did more rock moves. Above the last bolt the path to the left has some ice on it so go to the right above the last bolt and then traverse left, you will see our tracks. There is also a oddly placed blue sling up there, neither of us would trust that. We used a 60m rope, that worked great to lead up to the last bolt and for 2 rapps down.
So happy to finish up my front range snowflakes today!!! 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 12/28/2023, By: Logan5280
Info: Managed to snag a Longs snowflake today! I've been looking forward to this one for a while. I wasn't too excited about the idea of doing the trough in its entirety, so I decided to go for the keyhole given the somewhat dry-ish start to winter.

With a small willingness to posthole a bit here and there, snowshoes are not necessary. The trail is packed snow to tree-line, wind swept and scoured to Chasm Junction, then has a few deeper but short snowfields up to the boulder field. The boulder field is endless as ever, but had a surprising lack of trapdoor snow.

The ledges are in decent shape right now. They consist of a lot of rock with snow in the gaps, with the except of a few deeper snowfields. Some of the snowfields have a little bit of a slab forming in places, but those spots are fairly isolated. The snow was becoming cohesive in places, but many of those spots didn't have enough snow to be too consequential.

The trough is a mix of rock and variable snow, with the exception of a short section of water ice (probably avoidable) about half way up. A previous reported suggested that micro spikes might be helpful for the trough due to how much rock-walking there is, and I agree that it got old in crampons.

The narrows were...interesting. The report from 12/22 showed the narrows conditions as some rock with snow around the walkway (which I was looking forward to), but they seem to have held a lot of snow from the storms since then. The new snow didn't seem to have much of a slab forming at all, but is was definitely unconsolidated, making for an exciting crossing. The postholing was helpful here, especially because my axe was getting minimal purchase.

The homestretch has varying amounts of snow, from a few inches on rock, up to hip deep in places. Some parts felt reminiscent of spring. Axe purchase was a bit better here, thankfully, but caution is necessary since sometimes crampons were hitting rock.

The summit was frigid, especially with the NNW wind, so I didn't stick around very long. However, the homestretch and narrows were wind-sheltered and were getting absolutely absolutely cooked by the sun due to the aspect, so I tried to move quickly on the return to the trough. The ledges have some stray tracks leading to somewhere on the Keyhole Ridge, so it's best to keep a close eye on the trail-blazes on the return.

Overall, great day on Longs! 

Route: Trough
Posted On: 12/22/2023, By: supranihilest
Info: Perfect conditions on Longs today. Trail is packed to Black Lake. Above that there's some postholing getting into the Trough but not terrible - we left our snowshoes at Black Lake. Microspikes were worn from the trailhead all the way til about the halfway point of the couloir, where the snow steepened and hardened enough that spikes were no longer sufficient. We switched to crampons here for a few hundred feet, then back to spikes when the couloir dried out enough that we were cramponing up talus. No use wrecking the 'pons. Snow in the couloir was variable, ranging from punchy to just pure powder to wind packed. No signs of instability. Wore spikes up the remainder of the couloir, across the Narrows (which were snowy but easier than expected) and up the Homestretch to the summit (also snowy, but there's steps kicked up the whole thing). Kept spikes on from the summit until the rocks in the couloir ended, switched back to crampons for the rest of the couloir, then wore spikes all the way back to the trailhead. Snowshoes weren't useful today but they might be after the storm this weekend. That said, ALL conditions could change after this weekend, so bear that in mind.

Gear: helmet, ice axe, crampons all mandatory. Microspikes were actually our most used piece of gear but they aren't mandatory. 

Route: Cables
Posted On: 11/28/2023, By: daway8
Info: Failed to summit but never failed so gloriously in all my life!!! I'm in awe of this mountain now! My Frozen Finisher aspirations just turned to solid ice (at least for now) as did all pretentious hope of snowflaking Longs unaided via Cables (barring a freak storm that creates the walk-up conditions I found this spring). Utterly schooled by this route - didn't help that I didn't manage to start until 7:30am or that I had absolutely way too much stuff in my monster pack, though I persevered until almost 13,500ft, which is just below where the route really gets serious but also where the most epic views of the East Face I've ever seen are! That alone was a consolation prize adequate to redeem the day for me, though the pictures don't do it justice.
But as for conditions... snowy from the get go but no flotation or traction needed yet. One super brief pile of snow right at treeline. Lady Washington pretty bare. Even the Boulderfield wasn't that bad to pick across. But going up to Cables I chose the snowfield - good grief - every flake that's landed on Longs this season is piled up right there. Waist deep at times. Avy antenna were firing like crazy since this was the one zone CAIC called out as some possible moderate danger. In the end, with some careful study and slow progress I deemed it ok to proceed up but not without a touch of unease remaining (I saw minor slides here last spring when I descended this route). Probably not huge danger yet but for sure keep your eyes on this slope. Only a slight wind slab on top that I noticed but that could change. By the time I got there with my way too late start there was no way I could have finished safely even if the above route wasn't being blasted by crosswinds and splattered with snow and ice (not sure what form of madness led to my delusion that I would cruise up a route pretty much everyone ropes up for in winter - temporary insanity I guess). Looks like I'll be looking at other options if I want to flake Longs this season...
This could be a very epic climb for someone properly prepared but be ready for a little of everything if you go now - steep, deep snow; scattered ice and powder on class 5 rock... Not a route to be trifled with at the moment. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 11/19/2023, By: Logan5280
Info: Attempted Longs today, but I turned around at the Keyhole as a storm rolled in. The forecasts couldn't agree on the weather for today, and it seems like the more pessimistic ones were correct. As I reached tree-line, a pretty intense wind started to cause issues, and then clouds started rolling in once I reached the boulder field, greatly reducing the visibility. At the keyhole, the visibility was near zero, with knock-you-off-your-feet winds. I took a quick break in the shelter there (it offers amazing wind protection), before descending. The visibility improved slightly as I left the boulder field, but I was still glad to have turned around.

The ascent to the keyhole currently ranges from a dusting of snow on trail, to knee-deep wind drifts, to trapdoor snow.

From the minimal amount of the ledges I could see, they seemed to be in okay condition with crampons, but it was difficult to tell. I stopped at Chasm Lake on the way down (final headwall to the lake is currently a sheet of ice) as a consolation prize, which was well worth it in dramatic snowy conditions. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 10/23/2023, By: Eagle Eye
Info: For yesterday (Sunday10/22) the Keyhole Route had both great trail conditions AND great weather. Wind didn't factor in: it was just a little windy around the keyhole feature/shelter. In my opinion microspikes were necessary to safely ascend/descend the Trough, though not needed elsewhere. The majority has snow and powder on & between rocks and then under that, ice on climbers right. At the crux people mostly took the climbers left side detour (a couple of small shelf areas) Otherwise dry conditions (Ledges/Narrows/Homestretch)
Also a "person off route" type rescue happened without incident. The person was above the route near the false keyhole on the Keyhole Ridge. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 10/22/2023, By: grnmnthkr
Info: Trail conditions were great from the trailhead to the summit. Only time micro spikes were needed were in Trough if you felt like going through the ice/snow. I managed to ascend/decend the Trough without going into the snow. 

Route: Clarks Arrow
Posted On: 10/21/2023, By: _coloradical
Info: I approached Clark's Arrow after doing Mt. Meeker via Iron Gates.

The entire route is clear and good to go. I descended down the standard route and the trough is the only spot of concern. Microspikes is all you need right now, but ice is starting to form near the western side of the trough. Boulderfield has a small section of snow, otherwise it's clear. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 10/19/2023, By: bangerth
Info: I'll file this for Longs Peak, even though I only hiked Storm Peak right next to it, given that I suspect that that's where people interested in the area will look.

In any case, no snow to speak of all the way to the Keyhole. There is snow on the North Face (with the Cables Route) and on the mountains to the west, around Glacier Gorge. I can't speak to anything beyond the Keyhole, but there hasn't been any new snow since the last trip report, so see no reason why any of that would have changed.

I came and went from the north (the Glacier Gorge Trailhead in RMNP) and along the trail, there are short stretches of wind drifted snow covering the trail. But it's always dry left or right, and keeping your feet dry is not a problem. I suspect that it is the same way on the standard trail from the ranger station to the Boulder Field. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 10/15/2023, By: spear
Info: Great fall conditions today. Trail is mostly dry with some packed snow through the boulder field. Traction needed after passing through the keyhole. A few drifts up to knee deep. Microspikes are sufficient for the snow and ice on third class rock in the trough. After exiting the trough, spikes can be removed. The sun has melted out the narrows and the homestretch for easy climbing.