Longs Peak

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 6/9/2018, By: climbingcue
Info: The Keyhole route has very little snow and ice. You can avoid the little snow there is if you wanted to. I brought microspikes,crampons, and and ice axe and did not use any of them. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 5/27/2018, By: OG_hokie
Info: 5/26/18 summit. 230am start. Keyhole at 6am, summit 845am, car 1pm. Everything up to the keyhole is easily manageable. After climbing through the keyhole, this is where it gets tricky. Tread carefully if you decide to go on past the keyhole. The Ledges have inches of crusty snow and ice. The trough is loaded with snow and the narrows are even more narrow due to snow cover. Homestetch is steep and icy. My friend and I managed this with micro spikes and poles, however most of the others on the summit had ice axes and crampons. 

Route: Loft Route
Posted On: 5/26/2018, By: Leroy2196
Info: Trail update.....

started 3:15 am at goblins forest campground, cold 30 deg. Clear skys. The trail is clear of snow for 1.5 miles..... then snow patches, and ice the rest of the way.
Near the tree line, snow drifts 2 - 10 feet high and hard ice make spikes encouraged (AM temps kept snow, and ice mostly frozen) That continues past the falls, and log bridges all the way to tree line. Mostly clear, but patchy snow in a few areas past tree line. We reached tree line at sunrise about 5:45, and realized we wouldn't make the summit before noon.

Just then a man, and daughter maybe went by in jeans, hiking shoes, and hoodie. Now i may have had more gear than i needed but they had nothing at all not even water, and a storm was predicted. Some mey be able to do this good for you but what happens when something goes wrong. It just makes me shake my head and hope they got off before the storm hit. It was a beautiful morning almost no clouds. Sunrise was like a painting, and 2 small moose came out of tree line right before we went down to say hello. It was a hard realization, and decision to turn back, but with storms coming we were safe, and went home.

With a farewell to the golden diamond behind us, and 2 moose looking on, we descended into the pines. As we left the trail head clouds formed over Longs around 10am. By noon a storm arrived over most of the front range. By 2pm even longs peak cam was blacked out. I think we made the right choice in leaving!!!

I will be back, be safe, watch the sky, and watch the weather!! 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 5/22/2018, By: CamKelley
Info: Botched attempt just before the Chasm Lake Junction. Partner left behind a piece of gear, so we bailed but hiked up to catch the sunrise.
3/4 of the trail to treeline is snow free, then followed with some hard pack ice/snow.
Some postholes were thigh deep, but early AM was easy to walk with spikes. Saw a couple stepping off just before us around 3:45 am, and met another couple and lady going up as we were headed down. Not much of a report, but just for those thinking they can still ski to the parking lot... lol 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 5/2/2018, By: drewwhite88
Info: Confirmation of 4/28 report by daway8- able to ascend without crampons; ice axe invaluable on trough and homestretch- I imagine it's still worthwhile given the spotty weather since. Highly recommend an early start ~60% of the route still has feet of snow but as long as you get moving before the sun starts melting it, boots and spikes can keep you on top of the well defined path.

Pics attached. Times below:

4:00 AM left TH
7:30 keyhole
8:20 trough
9:15 narrows
9:30 homestretch
9:45 summit
1:30 PM back to car 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 4/28/2018, By: daway8
Info: Made it to the bottom of the trough without using traction devices at any point (though I could have benefited from them a time or two. Intermittent snow just after the Ranger station then continual snow after ~1.5 miles. Trail was very well packed down up to the turnoff for Chasm lake (though occasional side trails confused some people). Past the Chasm Lake turnoff traffic was lighter but still easy to follow tracks. Boulder field had just enough snow to fill in the cracks and in the morning was firm. Past the Keyhole was a bit dicey but doable early when the snow is firm. The trough looked easily doable but I was running out of steam and started too late in the morning. Another hiker said he followed the entire Keyhole route to the summit including crossing the narrows - he recommended an earlier start to do it while the snow is firm. Summary: the Keyhole route is now doable without technical gear but only for the adventurous (others can wait a month or 2). 

Route: Keplinger Couloir
Posted On: 3/26/2018, By: soybean56
Info: Great snowshoeing in Wild Basin, but very little snow above treeline on the peaks.
Enough snow in Keplinger's, but it's thin. The Homestretch is clear of snow, but there was a layer of ice still. 

Route: The old Cables Route
Posted On: 3/14/2018, By: jscully205
Info: Climbed Long's N face aka Cables Route yesterday. Main trail from the Ranger Station is packed snow through timber line with pockets of variable snow patches above. There was unconsolidated snow in between the boulders that we avoided by hopping around. The actual route itself presented itself in good characteristic winter conditions. The snow was solid enough to front point with confidence down low and the class 3 above the technical pitch was no more difficult than summer conditions. The summit had little snow.

I do not know what the keyhole route looks like. 

Route: Trough
Posted On: 3/12/2018, By: supranihilest
Info: The approach to Black Lake is all tracked out. Get there early in the morning while it's frozen and you can boot all the way. Microspikes will probably be useful. Later in the day and you may want snowshoes as the snow softens if it's very sunny and warm. The gully above Black Lake is mostly ice. We found maybe 2-3 inches of powder on top but that will quickly blow off and/or melt into more ice. It can probably be bypassed on the left, otherwise you will definitely find traction of some sort useful.

Once above Black Lake, that's where the "fun" begins. Due to the dry winter this year the western aspect of Longs is incredibly devoid of snow. We encountered a couple of inches of fresh powder from the storm the day before, on Saturday (3/10/18), but not much else. Everything from Black Lake and above was essentially scrambling on loose, powder covered boulders or slick, powder covered grass, all the way to the bottom of the Trough. This was incredibly time consuming and tedious on the way to the Trough itself. All of this snow will likely be gone in a few days without new snow to replace it. The easy cliffs at the bottom of the Trough, if one wanted to climb them, were mostly snow covered. We did not climb them ourselves but visibly they were one of the few places we found with any significant snow accumulation. From previous experience there is very likely a significant amount of ice on the steps underneath the snow.

Once at the Trough we broke out the axes and crampons but didn't make it very far. The approach story was similar in the couloir itself. Stepping out onto the "climbing" portion we found all sorts of mixed conditions without any consistency. One step would be a stiff surface slab. The next could be waist deep powder, or shin deep powder with an unsupportive slab underneath that you'd punch through into unconsolidated sugar. Maybe you'd hit icy or dry rock below the snow without warning, and there was plenty of rock above the snow as well. All in all we made it a few hundred feet up the Trough before turning around, largely out of frustration at the poor snow conditions. Additionally, the top third of the Trough looked almost completely dry. There may have been snow patches to chase from side to side but as everyone who's climbed the Keyhole knows, the Trough is a miserable, loose mess when dry that would be made even more miserable with typical winter gear. Those snow patches are likely to shrink into discontinuity or become absent entirely over the course of this week. 

Route: Trough + Ledges
Posted On: 1/3/2018, By: ProfessorQuirrell
Info: We did the Trough route from Glacier Gorge and then cut back on the Ledges rather than heading to the summit.

Trough (below Keyhole Route): Hardpacked snow (likely from all the recent wind), crampons a must.
Trough (Keyhole Route): Some snow on the right side, looked like you could avoid it if you needed to.
Ledges (Keyhole Route): Mostly dry, two sections of snow-traverse that are somewhat soft later in the day, but mostly windblown and slippery. 

Route: Loft Route
Posted On: 12/10/2017, By: Dose
Info: Ascended via the loft and descended via the Keyhole. The Loft Couloir is in good shape. Nearly continuous snow from base to the exit. Lots of ice at the exit of the loft couloir. It is avoidable but you need to be careful on foot placement first 20 feet. Used traction and axe from the base of the couloir to the loft. Loft to Keplinger's Couloir is clear. Used traction and axe from couloir to summit and back to Keyhole. Home Stretch has about 6” of snow. It was melting today so might start icing up.Good conditions in Trough. If you stay climbers right on ascent, continuous snow from base to exit. No post holing and good firm snow. Overall very good conditions right now on both routes. 

Route: Area
Posted On: 12/10/2017, By: WillRobnett
Info: View from the north, trough still holding snow. 

Route: North Face
Posted On: 12/8/2017, By: bmcqueen
Info: Went up the North Face today. Hard packed snow and ice from TH to Granite Pass - spikes strongly recommended. From Granite Pass to Boulder Field, mostly dry - no traction or flotation needed.

North Face was icy - we were glad we roped up. Once above the bolts, we stayed in crampons up to the summit. 

Route: Loft Route
Posted On: 11/25/2017, By: Micaiah
Info: From trailhead to tree line, hardpack snow and ice. Very slick. I took some winter shortcuts thru the trees that were nicer to walk on.

Tree line to Chasm Junction, mixed consolidated snow and wind scoured rock.

Chasm Junction to Chasm Lake, hard pack and ice. Traction devices highly recommended.

The Loft was filled in nicely with consolidated snow. Made a great glissade on the way down. I turned around before topping out on the Loft. 

Route: Area
Posted On: 11/19/2017, By: WillRobnett
Info: The Wind Tunnel of Colorado