My first experience with this mountain was in 2009. I was working on a guest ranch in Allenspark and would take guests on guided horseback rides throughout the National Park and surrounding national forest lands. I remember how excited I was to finally take guests up the legendary Long's Peak trail to the boulder field. We always got nasty comments from the hikers about having horses on the trail, because it doesn't happen often at all and the hikers dislike our horses pooping on the trail (#getoverit). I climbed from the boulder field to the keyhole in my cowboy riding boots; I also got a few funny looks for that. I remember how amazing the view on the other side was, and it got me to thinking about how it's like God's secret. Very few eyes see that kind of beauty and wilderness -- only the ones that deliberately climb to those spots to see. Yet, they're always there and unchanging. Wild and relentless. Created there for our human eyes to enjoy, but so few people get to.
I had heard all of the stories of this peak -- the deadliest mountain in Colorado. It's an arduous hike and quite dangerous. Without experience, the cliffs and drop-offs can scare people. This front range 14er also literally creates its own wild weather system. In a day you will see it all. Hurricane winds, sun, hail, snow, rain, more sun, more wind, etc. You can be climbing in great weather, a wind and ice storm can literally come from nowhere, throw veriglass on a rock, and a person will either be blown off by the sheer strength of the gust or slip off to their death. Considering all the factors and its history, Long's remains the most climbed 14er in the state as well. Moral of this story, I respected this mountain from day one.
In the summer of 2013 I had done quite a bit of hiking. Leading up to August, I had done 5 other 14ers, so when it came time to try and climb Long's for myself, I thought I was in pretty decent shape; it was going to be my 11th 14er overall if I made it. Long story short, I woke at 1:00am, started climbing at 3:00am, summited 8 hours later at 11:00am, and was finally back down at the car around 6:00pm, 7 hours after that -- a total of 15 hours pounding on my joints. I had never hurt so bad in my life. Climbing Long's was a full body experience -- my core and arms hurt just as much or worse than my legs and knees did because of all the scrambling I had to do. It was hot in August, but on Long's that day, I was wearing every layer I had packed, and even had to borrow spare socks that someone else in my group had packed to put over my cold, already-gloved hands. It was so cold and windy, and I had no idea why it was so much colder than all the other peaks I had climbed in the weeks before. I had made the summit that day, but it was the hardest thing I had done in my life; Long's made me work for it.
I told myself I would never climb that peak again -- because I already had once, and the distance and suffering just wasn't worth it to do it again! I went back and did Meeker, Long's conjoined twin, three months after. In the fall of 2014, I was playing with the idea of going for it again. My mindset about my hobby and my athleticism had changed and it was now my full-on life style, so to use the excuse that I already had done it was irrelevant - I don't bat my eyes at any "repeat" climbs anymore, it's second nature now. Three other times, I attempted to climb Long's a second time. The first time with my friend Tiffiny, I ended up getting food poisoning (which she so hilariously reminded me of just the other day) and we couldn't make it much higher than Chasm Lake (we were going for the loft route). The second reattempt was on the cables/north face route. It was just too icy and there wasn't a good route to go up. Just when we started harnessing up and roping in to try and find a way, a freak snow storm came and scared us down; by the time we got back to the boulder field, it was sunny again. The third time, we went up the lamb's slide couloir and dabbled with trying to cross broadway and up Keiner's, but it was freshly winter in the mountains and still too icy; we didn't have the right equipment to do it. We went over and finished up to the saddle through the loft, and instead of getting Long's, the group (who outnumbered me) voted to tag Meeker a second time instead. That day, the summit was within my reach, so I was disappointed I had to give it up. Don't get me wrong, I love Meeker and no day hiking is wasted, but considering no attempt on Long's is guaranteed and I had already tried twice again before, I hated knowing I could have had it and didn't take the opportunity.We had a snowy spring this year, so it's not really even full on summer hiking season on most high peaks because you still need gaiters or at least waterproof shoes for most of them. It has been hot and sunny this week, and I'm on summer vacation, so I had a crazy idea to ask around for friends that might be crazy enough to say yes to climbing Long's this week. Thanks Alan, "Moe," Leonard, and Jane for agreeing to go :) We knew there would still be snow in spots, so we packed our winter climbing gear, and in the back of my mind I was nervous. I can do exposure, scrambling, cliffs, all that no problem when the rock is dry. Knowing people have died from one small slip, I was not confident that we could summit this without a hitch; I was even in the mindset that I wouldn't be upset if we ended up climbing most of the way and then might need to turn around if it were too dangerous. For starters, after having such a rough first time on the keyhole route, it was not my first choice to do that again. I know there are other routes that are more direct and different that I'd love to try, but the conditions weren't good for any other routes, so we knew the keyhole would be the easiest and safest.
Alright, it's 3:00am my alarm goes off, and I was packed so that all I had to do was grab my breakfast, wash my face, and drive to meet my friends; we planned a 5am start. We get out of the car at the trailhead, I grab my pack from the trunk, and then I remember: I left my bag of food for the day sitting on my kitchen counter. When I'm NOT hiking one of the hardest mountains all day long, I eat almost every other hour. Now, I had just screwed myself for the whole day by not having vital fuel for such a strenuous day; how could I go the entire day with no food?! I was kicking myself, because I had grabbed a cutie and half a banana to eat in the car and my bottle of water from the fridge, but left my snacks and sammiches on the counter. Would I have to accept my mistake and just wait in the car or climb something small nearby while I waited for the rest to climb Long's? Would I be able to go all day without food and climb safely while fatiguing myself that much? My second thought was, hey, there are extreme athletes that climb harder things than this and go without food, I'm obviously not the first to have to do this and I won't die from starvation. "This is how I train for 8000m peaks!" I said to myself. Another friend and I make this joke whenever we do any random exercise for no reason, or anything that wouldn't be typical healthy "training" for this type of exercise. Anything that would test your body's limits and deprive it of something you would normally deem pretty important for good performance: adequate sleep, food, water, or even strenuous back to back to back hard days.
The snow wasn't so bad; we had a little bit of a chilly and windy start up to the keyhole, and shortly after we strapped on the crampons to maneuver through the occasional snow patches. The trough and homestretch felt like really shallow couloir snow climbs. It was pretty soft and in a few places we were sinking up to our hips. I'm still in a little disbelief that I made it to the top in the end, because it's such a privilege on Long's Peak. Throughout the day, my friends were able to donate me a small cliff bar, a Gu pack, and a few pringles during the day, so I at least had a few bites of sustenance in my belly. And that view from the other side of the keyhole -- one I'll always love, still will never disappoint:
And I don't ever take selfies, but here you go, my signature "summit jumping" shot.
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