Longs Peak

August 22, 2020 / 14,255’

RT STATS: TOTAL TIME - 11 HR & 59 MIN, 16.34 MILES, AND 5,275’ ELEVATION GAIN

TIME STATS: 5 HR & 24 MIN TO SUMMIT, 42 MIN AT SUMMIT, 5 HR & 53 MIN BACK TO CAR

RATING (HOW MUCH I LIKED THE HIKE): 3/10 (lol)

Happy birthday to me!! 41st 14er for (the day after) my 22nd birthday. I did this 14er with my sister Melissa and her friend Sam. You will probably get this vibe after reading this post, but I am not a fan of Longs Peak. There were way too many people on this 14er since it is in Rocky Mountain National Park and is pretty easy to get to (paved access to TH/close to Denver). I am pretty sure that I read somewhere that it is the most climbed 14er. ALSO, IT’S NOT NATURE IF THERE ARE BATHROOMS AROUND 12,700’!!!!!! I woke up at 12:30 am and left the Springs soon after. I picked up Melissa and Sam in Denver a little before 2:30 am. We arrived *near* the TH right before 4 am. There were a lot of cars so we parked on the shoulder of the road approximately 0.4 miles from the actual TH. We started the hike at 4:10 am.

We wore our headlamps for about the first 1.5 hours before it got light enough to take them off. I took some cool pictures of the hike in the dark but a lot of them are blurry as heck (2nd picture is an example) because I just aimlessly snapped those while I was hiking (typical me ;) ).

We made it to the Chasm Lake junction (11,550’) right after it got light. It took 1 hour and 44 minutes/3.83 miles to get to this point. Melissa still chose to wear her headlamp even though it wasn’t needed anymore. I guess she was trying to make a fashion statement?! Too bad that the helmets are the ULTIMATE fashion statement >:). The sunrise was also pretty neat. It was made cooler than usual by the haze/smoke (unfortunately).

At 4.90 miles/2 hours and 16 minutes, we made it to another trail junction (elevation ~12,125’) that said Longs was 3.3 miles away. I took a kristin selfie with the sunrise in the background as well as just some pictures of the trail. About 15 minutes later, we got a great view of Longs Peak! I took some pictures in front of it lol ;)

We continued on and made it to the (stupid) bathroom area at 3 hours and 7 minutes/6.35 miles. My watch had the elevation of this area at 12,727’. Might as well have thrown in a McDonalds here while we are at it. Just kidding, let’s put a Qdoba in there. :D Not being a jerk, but part of the fun of these hikes are being in the middle of nowhere and this hike certainly felt like the complete opposite. At least they tried to make the bathrooms blend in haha. They also had a nice warning sign that said “DO NOT CLIMB IF UNPREPARED” and “Self-reliance is essential”. People wearing helmets were the minority today and imo you should wear a helmet on any Class 3 or above route…Side note, the “Self-reliance is essential” part is a phrase that can be extrapolated to all parts of life. Anyways, we were pretty close to the Keyhole as you can see!

The next part of the hike going up to the Keyhole was just a trek through a boulder field. I found the route-finding simple during this part. Melissa and I had already put our helmets on back at Disneyland (the bathroom area), so we were already prepared because safety first!!!!!!!!!!!!! But actually though, I cannot emphasize the importance of safety which was not evident out here today. We made it to the Keyhole (elevation 13,233’) at 3 hours and 48 minutes/6.94 miles. I snapped a few shots here!

So, from the Keyhole, we had approximately 1000’ ft. to gain. I’ll just talk all about this last 1000’ ft. now, and then post a ton of pictures below. My first impression was “These bullseyes… where tf are the cairns?!?!” It made route finding the easiest thing ever (which is a good thing…) but it was just weird not seeing cairns. It makes sense because those bullseyes are basically permanent and the cairns could easily get knocked over (which would be a major problem on this route). There was some exposure in a few parts (the Narrows), but nothing gnarly. Definitely busy as you can see in the pictures below. The final pitch (the last picture) is apparently called “the Homestretch” and it was a nice little scramble type of deal.

We reached the summit of Longs Peak at exactly 8.00 miles/5 hours and 24 minutes after we started. The summit was the complete opposite of Crestone Peak that I climbed last week. Crestone Peak was a tiny summit but the Longs Peak summit was a huge flat summit. I walked around the summit a bit and went over to the geological marker to reach the official high point ;). The smoke and haze is pretty evident in these pictures as you can see. Usually, the surrounding mountains are much more visible but not today. Ah, hopefully the conditions begin to clear up. We took some pictures on the summit of course. I took off my helmet for some pictures just so I’m “not always wearing a helmet” in my pictures HAHA. The pictures turned out well. We stayed up at the summit for 42 minutes before beginning our descent.

The descent wasn’t very special, but at least it felt like there were a lot less people around on the descent. Here’s some random pictures of the descent up until the Keyhole.

It was 9.87 miles and 8 hours and 52 minutes to make it back to the bathroom area. Took a longer break here (about 25 minutes) before finishing the hike. I took some pictures of Longs Peak and Melissa took a flattering picture of me with the ABSOLUTELY STUNNING bathrooms in the background. This is my favorite picture from the hike, doesn’t get prettier than us (more so the bathroom, but also kinda me ;) ).

Our descent from the bathrooms took was 6.35 miles and 2 hours and 42 minutes, for a total RT stat of 11 hours and 59 minutes/16.34 miles. All I could think about was the Mexican food I was gonna eat later tonight. Here are some cute pictures from the descent. The first selfie 2nd row is me 7 minutes from the car and the second selfie is me at the car (finished). Haha, I love hiking these 14ers, but today took awhile. I was the driver, so I told Melissa to look up some Mexican food places. We were gonna eat in Boulder but there wasn't anything really good. So, we ended up at Chuy’s, this Mexican chain, in a suburb of Denver. I, of course, got the chicken fajitas!!!!!! The highlight of the meal honestly were the refried beans—they were sooooo delicious. We got back to the Springs a little after 9pm. Yee haw….14er #41 complete.