Long’s Peak: long time viewer, first time hiker

I love hiking. I love colorado. I love hiking Colorado’s 14ers. Long’s Peak has been on my list for quite some time. I’ve stared at it everyday out my back window. Today, after 9 years, I checked it off my list. And Tara hiked her first 14er (she’s driven to the top of Evans and Pikes Peak). Let’s start with the packing list:

• Lots of water (I went through 2.5 liters and ran out on the way back!)
• Iodine pills or water purifer (see above. There are streams on the way back where you can fill up. We didn’t have this and were thirsty the last 3 miles)
• Long sleeve shirts and pants (it gets cold up there!)
• Warm hat and “functional” gloves (the gloves need to be able to grip lots of rocks)
• Rain Jacket (it always rains and hails on the way back. We didn’t have this and got soaked!)
• Powerful sunscreen (we used “face sticks”, applied twice and still got burnt)
• Sunglasses (see above)
• Ibuprofen (for altitude headache and achy muscles and joints on way back)
• Little bit of Rope (just in case — we didn’t use it but it could come in handy)
• Extra Socks (a must! You will want to switch your socks on the way back)
• Extra battery for iPhone (I wanted to map the hike on Runkeeper — needed an extra battery to pull that off)
• First aid kit with lots of bandaids and mole skin (for blisters and “hot spots”)
• Food (we were on the mountain 14 hours! Power bars, oranges, goos, gels, sandwiches, etc. We did Lara Bars, oranges, bananas, almond butter, jerky, and some parmesan goldfish to eat on the top :)

So let’s get on with the story. We woke up at 2, left the house at 2:14.

Started hiking at 3:45. Full of energy and excitement. The first two miles were a leisurely hike through the pine forest and over log bridges.

Just about the time we got out of the tree line, the sun started rising and we had a beautiful view of the trek ahead and the valley.

Another hour and we got our first glimpse of the Keyhole, we were very excited:

Then into the Boulder Field. This is where the trail pretty much ends. Again, morale and energy were high at this point.

Next it was picking our way up the Boulders to the Keyhole. At this point, it was still very easy. We reached the top of the Keyhole at about 8AM.

Coming through the Keyhole literally took our breath away. If I stared to the right, I would get dizzy and light headed.

Next we started on “the ledges”. From this point you follow painted on “bull’s eyes” from rock to rock. I was nervous about “the ledges” (especially given their name), but if you just stared straight ahead and focused on the task at hand, it was manageable.

After the ledges, is “the trough”. The trough is a gully of loose rocks and boulders that you basically switchback your way up. It looks like it would be covered by a glacier in the winter. Here the scariest part was thinking that a rock would come flying down from above.

By this point I was feeling the altitude. Tara was having no problems whatsoever. At the top of the trough is a 9 foot corner you have to shimmy your way up. Tara did it no problem and was waiting for me at the top of the trough.

When I poked my head over the top of the trough I got dizzy again. Another completely new view of the wide mountain expanse.

At this point in the hike my phone battery died so I had to put it in my backpack while I charged it. So some of these pictures are actually on the way down, but it makes a better story :).

The narrows was one of the most exciting parts of the trip, and Tara’s favorite part. During your hike across, you have a cliff to your right, but you are actually in a little crevasse that keeps you somewhat secure.

After the narrows comes the homestretch. For the homestretch you are basically going straight up the side of the mountain, following the bullseys, and putting your feet into crevasses for grip.

We summited about 10:30 and enjoyed the breathtaking 360 degree reviews.

We stayed on the summit for about 30 minutes. We actually had strong cell coverage and were able to Facetime the kids. They weren’t super interested, gave us the standard “wow” and went on their day. Josh was telling us about an infomercial he was able to watch :) At the top of every fourteener is a stamp from the geological survey. Tradition says you have to find it and touch it to count as bagging a 14er (okay, it’s my tradition).

Next, time to go down. Tara says going up the homestretch was the scariest part. We thought going down was going to be even worse, but it actually wasn’t too bad. Back across the ledges, to the trough. At the top of the trough we didn’t want to slide down the same 9 foot crevasse we shimmied up so we went a different route which wasn’t a good idea. During one part Tara had to go underneath me with my arms up on the trail for support. Definitely the scariest time for me. Lesson: always stay on the trail. Afterwards was a good time for a selfie.

When we got halfway down the trough there were some clouds rolling in. Tara said they didn’t look ominous. I called them “semi threatening”. The first thunder started about the bottom of the trough. The goal was to get to the relative safety of the other side of the keyhole. We tried to move safely but quickly across the ledges. It was pretty scary to hear the thunder rumble. We made it to the other side of the keyhole at 1:20PM.

Down the boulder field. At this point our legs were killing us. We didn’t rest the entire way down because of the weather. To make things worse, about half way down the boulder field the hail started coming down! We were not happy campers.

The hail stopped at the bottom of the boulder field so we could rest and put on new socks. But we paid for our rest when a much stronger hail storm pelted us for about 45 minutes as we made our way to the trees.

From here it was a LONG way to the treeline. And we were wet. And cold. This part seemed to take forever.

Luckily the hail stopped after about 45 minutes. If we thought that part took forever, the hike down from the treeline took eternity. And we were out of water. By the time we got to the bottom we were thirsty and exhausted.

True to the form of the trip, when I went to get our car I walked up to the wrong truck because of course our truck was parked much further down the road! We took this picture because our feet were so swollen.

We made it down at 5:40, a full 14 hours after we started! Annnd about an hour and half longer than we thought it would take. We ate Snarf’s sandwiches (pro size thank you) and went to home. Every time you would get out of the car there was a little yelp. We took about 40,000 steps. 19,000 of them were up to the keyhole, only 2000 after the keyhole to the top and it takes 3 hours!

So here were our times:

• 3:40 AM — Start Hiking
• 5:30 — Sunrise and out of treeline
• 7:00 — Boulder field
• 8:00 — Keyhole
• 9:30 — Top of Trough
• 10:15 — Summit
• 11:00 — Start Down
• 11:45 — Back through Narrows
• 1:20 PM — Back to Keyhole
• 2:30 — Rest at bottom of boulder Field
• 4:00 — Return to treeline
• 5:30 — At ranger station!

Summary: 14 hours total, 6.5 hours up, 45 minutes on top, 6.5 hours back down. Most hikes are faster on the way down but you have to be so careful and you’re so tired, so that definitely wasn’t the case! Bottom line, Tara was amazing. It was one of the neatest things I’ve ever done.