Longs Peak

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 5/28/2021, By: jfm3
Info: I climbed Hallett Peak today and got a good look at the Ledges and Trough sections of the Keyhole Route. Both are still completely buried in snow. 

Route: Loft Route
Posted On: 5/28/2021, By: JacqueTietjen
Info: Ended up just going to Chasm today as I woke up way later than initially planned.

Started at 5am- patchy snow and mud right off the bat but avoidable until you pass the fork for Estes Cone/Eugina Mine. Put on spikes about 2/3mi inward. Nice and solid the whole route first thing in the morning. Solid through treeline on the ascent bus posthole-hell began as early as 9am between chasm jnct and treeline. Gorgeous day!

Ps. Talked to a guy at the jct who came down the Loft, mentioned sketchy icy patches on his descent. 

Route: Flying Dutchman/Clarks Arrow/North Face
Posted On: 5/24/2021, By: Kevin Baker
Info: Lots of snow still on Longs, perhaps the most I have climbed in on it. No hard freeze overnight, so snow conditions on lower Flying Dutchman were poor. The crux was an easier mixed climb with only a little ice. Top of the couloir had better conditions. Clarks Arrow traverse is all snow. Snow in the top of Keplingers and Homestretch was continuous. All tracks were likely blown in by the wind. We descended north face and planned to rappel, but the eyebolts are buried. The low 5th class section is all snow, so we downclimbed it. Longs Peak trail to Chasm Junction is well packed. Chasm Junction to the Boulderfield is posthole hell in the afternoon. 

Route: Keplinger Couloir
Posted On: 5/23/2021, By: thebeave7
Info: Saturday night 5/22 it rained up to 11500ft, all the snow down low had a strange rain freeze layer on top. 1-2" Snow above 11500ft was wet and prevented the underlying snow from refreezing, leading to a 6-12" slush/corn layer underneath. Ski conditions in the bottom of Keplingers were not good today, so we bailed.

Trail is dry for the first 2mi, then patchy snow to Huntington Creek crossing (10000ft), full snow after that. We were able to boot all the way to Sandbeach lake early in the morning, it was still frozen on top. Skinned all the way to Keplingers. Still full coverage, but it's melting fast. 

Route: Keplinger Couloir
Posted On: 5/20/2021, By: jmanner
Info: Keplingers is in and fat. We were able to ski until 9,200' or about 1.3 miles from the TH. 

Route: Trough Direct
Posted On: 5/16/2021, By: garrettanton
Info: We started at 3am from Glacier Gorge. Hard packed snow to Mills Lake but no hard freeze so didn't require spikes. After Mills Lake, trench was less defined but firm enough to not require snowshoes until the bench above Black Lake. Above Black Lake, there was no existing trench, and we used snowshoes to the base of the trough due to unconsolidated snow under a thin sun crust.

At the base of the trough we stashed snowshoes and switched to crampons. We took the direct start to the trough which was filled in and required only one small step on rock. The first several hundred feet of the trough were consolidated and ranged from hard enough for front points to solid snow for kicking steps. Convexities such as the direct entrance currently sport notable wind loading, but the wind slabs appeared consolidated with no obvious weak layers and were not prone to avalanches at least early in the day. After approximately 12200 snow conditions began to deteriorate with increasing wind loading over unconsolidated sugar snow. We tried a variety of aspects including the middle of the trough and the ridgeline above but did not find noticeably better conditions anywhere.

We turned around at 12800 after several hundred feet of thigh deep postholing. The keyhole route did not appear to be well traveled and we anticipated having to break trail to the southwest ridge.

Descending around 9AM we encountered rapidly warming snow. We didn't see any new avalanches, but plenty of wet loose slides on all aspects from previous days suggest potentially dangerous conditions starting in the later morning and early afternoon until things consolidate more. We used snowshoes to Black Lake on the way down, but as the day progresses, snowshoes would likely be necessary all the way to Mills Lake.

Ultimately it appeared as though it hasn't gotten consistently warm enough at high elevations to consolidate the snow. A few more weeks of warming and re-freezing are likely necessary for this to be in good condition. 

Route: Cables
Posted On: 4/5/2021, By: viejo
Info: Trail well packed through tree line. Good boot pack above tree line, but it wanders off the established trail. Might create postholing issues in warmer conditions. Mostly wind-swept or hard pack above tree line. Cables mostly filled in and well consolidated. Went straight up after the Cable's on mostly well consolidated snow. 

Route: Cables/North Face
Posted On: 3/19/2021, By: merrion13
Info: Nearly continuous snow through the Boulderfield to the base of the route. Notable wind-loading on the face and fracturing on top of slabs. Turned around at the apron below the start of the technical section. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 3/8/2021, By: Longmonster22
Info: Snowpack up until Keyhole decent (microspikes only). Tough route-finding along the Ledges, as many of the blazes are still snow-covered, with some pretty scrambly rock-hopping all the way up to the Through. The Narrows ultimately proved to be too loose and exposed for both myself and a couple of other seasoned mountaineers. Silver lining: one of the few days I've been on Long's without crazy wind!

Average pace: 45min./mi. 

Route: Ex Rangers Revenge
Posted On: 3/7/2021, By: Micaiah
Info: Packed to treeline. Lots of loose, blowing snow above. Estimated 13 inches of sugar fell last Thursday, making the Boulder Field zone a maze of pitfalls and intermittent post holing. North Face is loaded, the cracks partially buried in snow. Avalanche conditions are acceptable above and below the Cables area. 

Route: The Cables Route
Posted On: 3/3/2021, By: morgansperry
Info: No need to bring snowshoes, the trail is packed and ready to follow. We brought them with us because we didn't want to get screwed over like we have before, but dropped them after about a mile. The trail is really easy to follow. The Cables Route has a decent amount of snow on it.

https://youtu.be/OnYfIlkMFek 

Route: Martha to Cables
Posted On: 2/23/2021, By: Micaiah
Info: Some postholing below treeline. Not enough to make me want to bring snowshoes.

Stable snow crossing above Peacock Pool.

Martha couloir has neve, some loose unconsolidated snow, and very little exposed ice. I may have gotten 2 sticks.

Cables Route has good neve above and below the pitch. The crack is full of snow. No avy concerns on route. All eyebolts exposed. 

Route: Cables to Clark's Arrow to Loft
Posted On: 1/31/2021, By: Micaiah
Info: Good snow conditions on all areas traveled. Trails snowpacked, not icy. Crack on Cables full of snow. 

Route: Glacier Gorge
Posted On: 1/22/2021, By: Will_E
Info: Summitted Longs today from Glacier Gorge. The trench to Black Lake wasn't hard to follow, and is now refreshed. Ran into a skier at Black Lake that helped improve it as well. From Black Lake I stayed in snowshoes until reaching the bottom of the trough. Going up the trough/narrows I didn't use any traction, but there was enough snow and ice on the homestretch that I used crampons, and left them on all the way to the bottom of the trough. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 1/10/2021, By: jmctigue
Info: I didn't attempt Longs today, but thought I could share some photos of various approaches.

Despite the snow yesterday, the trail from the Rangers station is very well packed and no flotation/spikes are necessary. This is true to the Keyhole and also towards the Loft. (I went to Chasm Lake, so not sure how the base of the Loft Couloir is)

Attached some photos of Lambs slide. A couple of people skied the lower third.

I ascended the Camel route - see my conditions report for Mount Lady Washington.