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Peak(s):  Longs Peak  -  14,259 feet
Date Posted:  09/13/2016
Date Climbed:   09/10/2016
Author:  Chinook
 Keyhole Ridge 5.6 fun crack climbing   

Longs Peak was the first mountain that I ever climbed in Colorado 14 years ago. When my friend and neighbor Dave suggested we do the Keyhole ridge route, I was all in.

I had done the standard route, so doing this 5.6 route would be a very fun alternative. We started the hike at 3:45am in the cold, with a full parking lot. The sky was completely clear and you could see the Milky Way stretching across the sky.

As we made our way up, it was fun to see the stream of headlamps making their way up. 14 years ago, I didn't see any other people on my way up... How times have changed. We got to the Keyhole around 6:30am and instead of going through it, we turned left and made our way up the ramp to the route. Here we are at first light making our way up the class 2 ramp.
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Starting up the ramp to the Keyhole Ridge


To save time we decided to simulclimb the route. This is where each climber is tied into the rope, and both climb at the same rate keeping the rope tight, placing protection along the way. after a short class 4 section we made it to the base of the technical climb.
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Cracks on the route to climb


Dave went slightly to the right of the route which let us climb this fantastic crack system.
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Awesome crack climbing


Here is looking down at the cracks that Dave and I went up.
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Looking down what I climbed


We made our way up the cracks to a spot near the top of the spire. From here there was an awkward move to get around a wall, to make it up another crack system to the top of the spire.
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Pillars on the route

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Drop off on the turn


This vantage point shows the route to get to the crux.
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The route to the crux


Here is the view from the top of the spire that we climbed.
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Top of the spire


From the top of the spire we went over to the West side of the ridge for a short section where it was in the shade, extremely windy, and very cold! We pretty much went numb at this section. From here we made our way across the ridge to the base of the crux. Here is a picture looking back towards the spire with the route marked.
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Looking back at the spire and route to the crux


This is the rock on the crux portion of the route. It was a lot of fun!
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At the base of the crux


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climbing on the crux


As was the case for the entirety of this climb, the exposure was constant.
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Exposure on the crux


For this final section Dave belayed me up rather than simulclimbing.
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Dave the happy belayer


I'm pretty bad at placing gear, which is why Dave lead most of the pitches. The only pitch of the climb that I led was after this section. Dave likes to lead and I like to clean, so it works out well.

Dave making his way up the class 4 section below the summit.
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Dave just below the summit


On the Summit!
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On the summit


We hung out on the summit for an hour or so, ate some lunch and talked with other climbers. We ended up meeting a friend of Dave's wife on the summit... Small world. She had a rope, so we went down the North Face and tied our ropes together to make one 180 ft rappel down the technical portion of the North Face. Don't use the first cables anchor that you see, rather 20 ft lower are 2 more bolts to use for the rappel.
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Rappel bolt


Making my way down the North Face
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Rappelling down the North Face


Here is a video of almost all the technical sections of the route from my GoPro. I think it will give you a good idea of what the route and rock are like.


It was a 14 hour day and not a cloud in the sky. This was my favorite route that I have done on any mountain and can't wait to do another one like it. Have fun and climb high!



Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
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Comments or Questions
ChicagoMike
User
Nice Job Ryan!
9/14/2016 10:11am
Miss getting out there with you.


dcareymtn
Great pics
9/17/2016 9:34pm
These came out great! Nice job breh!



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