I decided to take a long shot attempt (Longs shot, get it - ha!) at doing Cables unroped in wintery conditions - trying it first in the "pre-season" as a practice run to see if I could potentially pull it off in calendar winter for the coveted snowflake (see Backstory at the end for why I was dumb enough to embark on this quest....) Alas, I bailed at just below 13,500ft before even engaging the class 5 sections. But I compiled a lot of beta that I want to collect for future reference (both mine and others). Look at the standard Keyhole Route description to get you to the Boulder Field - this report will pick up at the far side of the Boulder Field. Cables is also referred to as the North Face.

Included in this report will be:

• Borrowed Beta (gathered some of the best, most useful photos of this route from other TR's - with accreditation and links to the originals)
• Custom marked photos from lots of different distances/angles to help locate the route from afar and up close
• Some really cool close-up photos of the East Face (this route is worth the hike even if you stop at the epic close-up of the East Face!)
• Some backstory to explain the adventure
• My times
• If you want GPX tracks see North Face (Cables) Descent by carlsampurna - it's a non-report of a TR but the waypoints marking the bolts are super nice!

Borrowed Beta

I reviewed a bunch of reports from the months of Dec-Feb to try to get data about what this route would be like in winter. There were some reports with absolutely fantastic beta in the form of photos that make the route really, really clear. They're so good that I feel it to be a public service to compile a few of the most useful ones here, with full credit and links to the original reports. If any of the authors are perturbed at me snagging a couple of their photos this way, feel free to reach out and I'd be happy to buy you dinner someplace and chat about this awesome mountain!

The below photo from elliojos was way too good to not steal (er, borrow). See the full trip here: Longs Peak - North Face - Winter I love it when people mark things out like this to give newbies to the route a better idea of what they're gunning for. Some folks feel it takes the mystery/challenge out of it. If you're one of the folks, close your eyes as you scroll past the photos because there are a ton of "spoilers" in this report.

The next two photos are borrowed from Dancesatmoonrise - I have absolutely no idea how they pulled off such outstanding and phenomenally helpful photos but this is absolute pure gold beta for understanding where the challenging class 5 sections of this route are at. The original report has lots of other good beta which I won't attempt to replicate - check it out here: Longs Peak, North Face, Winter

This final borrowed photo is from Gcobb (Grayson Cobb) who gets major massive kudos for figuring out a way to do this route on his own but still roping himself in, rappelling down to collect the pro he placed and then climbing back up. He bent over backwards to be humble about the experience in his write-up so I have no qualms at all about tooting his horn for him since, wow, that sure sounds impressive to me! (If I knew how to do that I could have summitted - well, except not safely with such a late start...)

A key thing to note in the photo is the proximity of the plunge off the East Face (more photos on that to follow). An uncontrolled, un-roped fall from here would likely land your battered body back down in the Boulder Field, but like a life-size game of Plinko, there's a distinct possibility - depending on how your body bounces - that you might just plunge off on an extremely dramatic bungee-less bungee jump over the East Face, which would be a very thrilling way to discover for yourself if there is indeed truly an afterlife, a Creator of all things, and other deep life questions.

Custom Route Beta

Having blatantly stolen such fantastic photos and mined them for their priceless outlines of the route, I took that learning and applied it to my own photos, many of which I've marked up to help pinpoint this route from afar and as you get closer and closer (I wish I had this degree of beta when I was up there - it was really easy to spot the route from afar (look for the bat...) but I found it harder and harder to track as I got closer.

After reviewing and comparing photos I've figured it out and am placing the results here for future reference.

I'll interrupt the photo show here for a quick word on avy danger. I descended this route last spring (when it had historic snow loading that allowed me to literally walk down the normally class 5 section in crampons on consolidated snow). If you want to hear more about that check out Snowy Longs up Keyhole down Cables. At that time I did see some evidence of very minor slides at the base of this route. Others have also confirmed it can slide under certain conditions.

Knowing this, I kept a frequent eye on the avalanche forecast from CAIC in the weeks leading up to the attempt. There was moderate danger above treeline for the aspects that match up with this route with Persistent Slab listed as the danger. It had been rated as "likely" only a few days before my attempt but then dropped to "possible."

Furthermore, Logan5280 had posted a conditions report on 11/19 which showed an extremely useful photo of the North Face where I could tell there was only a pretty small section where there was an established snowfield which could serve as a possible weak base layer for following storms to build a potentially dangerous layer on top of.

Also, I hiked to Black Lake on 11/25 before attempting this climb on 11/28 and was able to get a picture from within RMNP showing that there didn't appear to have been all that much extra snow added by the storms after Logan's update, at least as best as I could tell from such a distance. I'm talking in terms of anything that could produce dangerous slabs/slide conditions along the route.

So I just want to emphasize for the record that I was paying attention to possible avy concerns since the slope angle is absolutely in the danger zone here, but the good thing - at least under the conditions the day I was there - was that there was a pretty small section of continuous snow in the region that day and I knew from Logan's picture that there was an even smaller section of continuous snow before the previous storm. So any slide that might have been possible would have had to be fairly small.

Nevertheless, as the following photos will help to highlight, even a small slide here could be of grave concern so it's best to be alert to the possibility, even if it may not be a a huge possibility.

The East Face

As I was working my way up the above slope I was hyper focused on staying attuned to snow conditions to make sure I didn't get SARed off the peak by finding the one tiny little spot that might possibly be primed for an early season slide. As such, I was not sure what sort of view I would see at the top of the little hump of exposed rock that I determined I would get to before bailing due to unpleasant cross winds, uncertainty of the exact route, presence of a little more snow/ice than I was comfortable with at class 5, and so forth. I was bummed to know already that I wasn't going to summit (no way would it be safe to descend an unknown class 5 route alone in the dark with no ropes).

I took the below photo and only later studied the other trip reports and pinpointed where the technical section begins as shown by the red arrow.

So when I finally crawled up to the top of the exposed rock and looked up I gasped in shock to see that I had popped up practically onto the East Face! I instantly forgot my disappointment at not summiting as I sat there and stared in awe at this magnificent rock face. The snow and ice and the gusty wind trying to blow me off the East Face only added to the drama of the moment.

I'm sure a Longs guru could probably correct me and say "well, technically the spot you're at isn't along the East Face it's the such and such..." Ok, whatever. I mean sure it would be kind of neat to know what this spot is officially called - there is some permanently fixed hardware in the rock here so I have no doubt it's part of some established route other than Cables, I just don't know which.

But whatever it's officially called, I call it freaking awesome!!! I put in a bunch of photos even though none do it justice.

But do check out this photo below where I later pinpointed the start of the technical section on Cables with the red arrow. Compare that to the hardware in the circle and you'll see why I say a fall off the East Face (or whatever this section is called) is a distinct possibility - even though you might be equally likely to bounce back down into the Boulder Field. But from this angle a deadly plunge looks all too possible if you tumbled with any speed...

A Look Back

Here are a few more shots taken on the way back to help solidify the route.

Just For Fun

Couldn't resist documenting the world class toilets (unfortunately locked in winter).

Backstory

Rather anti-climactic to put the backstory at the back... but anyways. Why did I do this as I did?

Well, I've wanted to flake Longs for a while now. I face-palmed when someone interpreted my conditions report as if I was thinking I would flake it in November - I'm well aware it has to be in calendar winter to count as a snowflake and that won't be until December 21, 2023 at 8:27pm (can't start prior to that time).

I picked this particular day because the weekends before and after were stormy and I was running out of time to get a practice run in before calendar winter. That together with family plans, and other obligations and uncooperative weather... so when I saw a Tuesday where the common 50mph winds (with -10F windchill) were set to drop dramatically starting at noon I was like - "great, I'll just start late and get to Cables as the winds start to drop off..." Looked good on paper, but started WAY too late, having utterly failed to properly calculate how much time was needed to boulder hop across the Boulder Field and go up that wicked slope below the crux of Cables with a heavy pack.

So anyways, the idea of doing this in November was to give it a try before calendar winter so I would know what I was up against come winter and would feel less of an urge to push myself to get to the summit since I knew it wasn't flaking season yet, and therefore it was easier to get over summit fever.

I've been recently starting to actually give some semi-serious thought to trying to become a Frozen Finisher. This practice run on a wintery Cables was supposed to set me up for an actual Longs snowflake in late December on a unroped Cables, which was going to be my "gateway" peak into tackling some of the harder peaks and open the door to perhaps going after some of the Dirty Dozen (the thinking was if I could do Cables unroped in winter then I would be setup nicely at least for the potential technical climbing aspects of peaks like Pyramid - though of course there are many other challenges - access, avy danger, etc related to the Dirty Dozen).

But now, having bailed on a practice run on a peak that isn't even part of the Dirty Dozen, I feel like my Frozen Finisher aspirations are on ice for the time being. I'll need to dial back my ambitions for this winter a bit and maybe go with some class 3 and 4 stuff before I try any more snowy class 5 (plus I really probably ought to make sure I can nail this route in summer before doing it in winter).

However if some brave soul is willing/able to set ropes on the route for me, then I'd be more than happy to buy you dinner/beer/whatever. Otherwise, this route will have to wait another winter or two or more as I likely instead pivot to the dreaded Black Lake approach (aka the Trough that never ends) and hope the Narrows aren't as loaded as they were this past spring. But when summer rolls around - this route is up near the top of the list for me.

But what was I thinking trying to do it unroped in wintery conditions?!?

Well... first of all, I had done most of my research the prior winter and sometime between then and now had gotten it into my head that I had seen reports of at least a couple people doing it without ropes in winter so I was like:

"Well it's not like EVERYBODY feels the needs for ropes on this route in wintery conditions..."

But then the night before this journey I started skimming back over TR's to refresh my memory on the route. One after another I started seeing names of very capable climbers all reporting being roped up on this route outside of summer conditions (and many even during summer!) I even came across a report from justiner where he used ropes on this route . At that point I was like:

"Oh crap, it looks like EVERYBODY feels the need for ropes on this route in wintery conditions - I'm doomed!"

But I had already taken the day off and I knew even just going up to the Boulder Field would be fantastic conditioning/acclimation so I was like, what the heck, might as well give it a whirl. I did have both microspikes and full crampons with proper mountaineering boots plus ice axe, ice tool and helmet and plenty of gloves, layers, etc. And I had intentionally scheduled this as a practice run during the pre-season when I wouldn't feel that extra twinge of not wanting to waste a potential good day to get a snowflake (in winter there is sometimes a little extra summit fever because good winter summit days on the weekend are hard to come by).

So it's not like I was totally insane nor some arrogant blowhard who thought he could do better than everyone else. I know full well I'm not in the same league as the top climbers on this site. I put it more down to a lapse in memory and a bit of excessive optimism, combined with scheduling nuances. But at least I did plan from the very get go to do a low pressure practice day before calendar winter so I knew I would be able to go as slow and careful as possible and only press up the class 5 stuff if I was fully confident that everything was totally bomber and that I had no doubt I could do it in reverse. I did not have this confidence going in - thus the practice run.

And once I realized late the night before that my recollection was wrong and I was unable to locate a single recorded instance of someone doing this route without ropes under wintery conditions - well, I knew others could likely benefit from some up close beta so I decided to go ahead and make a careful attempt and report my findings.

There's a fine line between bold and stupid - I walked right up to the edge but ultimately I believe I managed to avoid stepping over it this time. Hopefully this report helps other be better prepared. This is an awesome route that I hope to one day go up for real in winter!

My Times

I groan at posting these but let them be a warning to others not to start this late nor to carry such a freaking heavy pack without adequate conditioning beforehand.

7:31am start from Longs Peak Ranger Station (see long rambling paragraph above for the warped reasoning behind such a way too late start)

8:47am Lightning bridge

9:18am pause by few remaining trees to get in my daily Duolingo lesson while I had signal

10:22am cut past Chasm Lake turn-off with an accidental short-cut

11:20am Granite Pass

11:42am Continue after rest break and adding layers to protect against the -10F windchill (dang those double digit negatives even blow through GORE-TEX!)

12:23pm start of the Boulder Field (always forget how tiring that hill up to the start is, especially with a heavy pack)

2:37pm at my stopping point with awesome views of East Face - about 100-200ft below the start of the class 5 sections on Cables

2:51pm glissade down

6:28pm back at the trailhead