Longs Peak

Route: 
Posted On: 8/28/2012, By: Carl
Info: There is some ice on the 5.4 pitch(s) on the cables route. Makes the climb just a little more challenging since you're limited on holds that aren't iced over. Placed a few cams when I otherwise wouldn't have. Certainly not a deal breaker, but just a heads up.

Also heard there is a little ice on the northwest couloir.

Looked down the homestretch and it appeared dry. Didn't hear any mention of ice/snow on Keyhole route. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 7/30/2012, By: seaplus
Info: Arrive early if you want to park in the lot at the Trailhead...we arrived at 1:30am and there were only 5 spots available.

Perfect conditions...no ice or snow anywhere along the route. Due to showers the previous day, the Trough & Homestretch had some flowing water and wet areas. This was my first time to summit Longs so these wet areas I described are probably always present. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 6/26/2012, By: MissH
Info: Perfect conditions. Snow patch on the right side of the Trough is completely avoidable. Spots of ice (and melting ice) throughout are completely avoidable as well and should not pose a challenge. Get to trailhead early if you want to have a chance to park in the lot, saw lots of cars parked down the road on my way out and lot was probably 60%-75% full at 3 am when I arrived. Some photos attached (Homestretch and Narrows) show you how dry it is now. And a fun one to show how windy it was :) 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 7/2/2012, By: klimbien
Info: Route is in and awesome. Lambs slide was easy moving and was the only snow on the route (which could be avoided if you wanted to) Very little snow on broadway - easily avoidable. I wore 5.10 approach shoes and was very glad with that decision. I will post some photos of the rack that we carried. I found it to be MORE than enough gear for the rock sections. We also carried one single 60m 8mm line and just doubled it over on itself. I climbed with both ends tied into my harness and my partner put a double figure eight on a bite at the middle of the rope. Very lightweight, and provided plenty of line to rap the cable route. 

Route: Loft Route
Posted On: 6/23/2012, By: flintster
Info: Longs via Loft Route with Mt Meeker thrown in for good measure.

No microspikes or anything needed. One "spot" of ice on the loft couloir - but unlike the misleading posts usually typed up here - the ramps are not icy. There is ice in 1 spot, but there are lots of spots to go around it. Loft to Keplinger's to summit of Longs was 99.99% dry - with some occasional snow melt running - but totally avoidable. 

Route: Loft Route
Posted On: 6/10/2012, By: Alan Arnette
Info: Dry until ramp off Loft Couloir then patchy snow fields. Down climb to Clarks Arrow and to just below Homestretch dry with few areas of avoidable snow. Tough is rotten snow on south side of gully but can be down climbed on right avoiding snow. Dry on Ledges and below. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 6/8/2012, By: scrambling
Info: Conditions seem to be changing rapidly but on June 7 the crux of the route was the trough, where there is a mix of hard frozen snow, softer (kickable) snow, frozen plunge steps, ice, loose rock, etc. I was uncomfortable in there, going back and forth from rock to snow, sometimes using an ax, sometimes wanting both hands. I had crampons but did not use them. There are places they would be helpful, places they won't. It's a personal thing though, of course. I know that others went through with nothing, wearing trail shoes and shorts.

Other than the trough, there are no problems whatsoever. There was some verglass on the homestretch at 9 a.m. and likely will be early in the day for days/weeks to come. It got my attention, but is avoidable. Any snow/ice on the various ledges is easily avoidable. The approach trail up to the Boulderfield CG is in great shape (tiny bits of snow in a few shady spots). There is no snow from the CG to the keyhole. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 5/15/2012, By: Alan Arnette
Info: A few snow piles below treeline then clears up - no spikes needed. Snow avoidable in Boulderfield. Ledges extremely icy in many spots- care advised. Trough snow packed with boot path. Narrows had large area coved by recent slide, icy in many spots. Homestretch had many sections covered in veriglasss with snow near top. Used microspikes down and none up, no ice axe. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 5/2/2012, By: pete26
Info: I hiked the keyhole route today. Left the TH at 315am. It took me 5hrs to the summit including a 30min break at the keyhole. Then only took me 3.5 hrs down for a round trip of 8.5hrs. Clear night with many stars turned into a cloudy sunrise. snow in the trees was packed down from others so no issue crossing it. windy once above treeline. mix of snow on the trail after the keyhole. ice axe was totally needed. spikes or crampons depending on your comfort level. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 4/29/2012, By: jsdratm
Info: Hiked up to the Boulderfield today and encountered some large snow fields on the trail, Mt. Lady Washington, and it looked like there was quite a bit of snow up by the keyhole. Most of the snow below treeline is hard ice and easy to get over with microspikes. The snow above treeline is much softer, but too shallow to cause much difficulty. Mt. Lady Washington is very clear of snow and easy to go up. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 3/31/2012, By: Jay521
Info: Did Storm Peak Friday. Trail to Keyhole is dry from just above treeline to the Keyhole. Below that the snow is pretty solid in the early morning but softens up pretty quickly in early afternoon. Advise to get down early. Traction helpful below trees. Did not take snowshoes and didn't really need them, but that will likely change as temps continue to rise. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 3/25/2012, By: Cool Hand Luke
Info: The trail is boot-packed all the way to treeline. Snowshoes are not needed, but microspikes would be helpful. The Ledges have some snow in spots and there is a solid trail in the snowy areas.

I found the Trough to be the most difficult area: mix of rock, snow and some ice. The ice is all avoidable and microspikes would be helpful. I never used my axe, but would recommend carrying one to be on the safe side.

The Narrows and Homestretch are mostly snow-free and the few snow spots are avoidable. As of today the Homestretch did not have any run-off from the summit.

Conditions are great right now, if the weather is nice camping at the Boulder Field is free until May 1st.

Pictures are of the Homestretch and Meeker's couloirs 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 2/12/2012, By: kushrocks
Info: We attempted the Keyhole route yesterday with a 3:45am start, which was about an hour later than we had hoped. The icy roads and snow on the way the whole way up to the trailhead slowed us down even more. My car said the temperature was 5 degrees out when we started. The trail to start with was easy to find and was mostly boot packed except for the new snow of about 3 o 4 inches. As we approached tree line snowshoes were definitely needed. With the new snow the trail immediately disappeared so it was really helpful to have the GPS. From there we experienced steady winds around 10mph with intermediate gusts from 30 to 40mph that seemed to come out of nowhere. It snowed almost constantly from start to finish although it was almost all very light.

As we followed the trail there were a few sections where there was some serious trail breaking with snow up to our waist even with snowshoes. About a mile below the boulder field almost everything was windblown at that point so we took off our snowshoes and ditched them below the boulder field. Winds were HOWLING through the keyhole. It had taken us about 6 hours just to get that far so we figured we would try to go past the Keyhole about a hundred yards to see if the winds died down. . We got to just below the trough when we noticed slabs of snow starting to slide as we tried to traverse them. We sank into our waist on a few of these sections and noticed how easily the snow broke away and slid down the mountain. Looking up we saw that the slopes looked very unstable and anywhere from 35 to 45 degrees. We also figured with that with the conditions at our pace it would take us probably another 4 hours to summit from where we were and with the conditions we being what they were we decided to call it a day. I am no avalanche expert but what we saw just before the trough was pretty frightening. I would not recommend this route until the avalanche danger decreases. Also do not follow our "shortcut" down from tree line. We ended up postholing with snowshoes in waist deep powder for about 1/2 a mile.

To give you an idea of the conditions it took us 13.25 hours to go only 11.36 miles and only 4196ft of elevation gain. Even if there were no avalanche conditions with the deep snow and winds if we would have continued it would have been about a 20 hour day. Either way it was still a fun day with two good hiking buddies and as always a really good learning experience. Thanks Jameseroni (James) and Dchild10 (Ryan) for a fun trip. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 1/11/2012, By: Iman86
Info: Climbed the Keyhole route yesterday. Trail below treeline is very packed down. Went up and over Lady Washington and then to Keyhole. Going was pretty fast...boulder hopping to avoid snow. Past keyhole there was plenty of snow on the route, but manageable. I wore microspikes the whole time, an axe is 100% necessary. Targets are relatively easy to spot. The narrows were easy with a few traverses of snow slopes. The sketchiest part was the last bit of the home stretch...powder snow covering slippery rock. PM me for any more details. -Iman 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 11/28/2011, By: Carl
Info: No need for snowshoes anywhere on the keyhole route. Trail is packed snow from the TH and then mixed at treeline. From the keyhole, most of the route is mixed light snow and rock until the summit. Any ice was avoidable.

We descended the keyhole but we had climbed the north face. Didn't see any ice on the north face. Only sections of substantial snow were below the start of the 5.4 pitch. Was able to locate 4 of the eye bolts. Climbed about 200 feet of the route roped up, although most of that was easy snow climbing with a few mixed moves. Mixed snow and rock above that.