Longs Peak

Last week I tackled another 14er. I've been wanting to do Longs Peak for several years now, and finally bit the bullet. I went with my brother-in-law Andy and Pie Konchar. We left Denver at 2 a.m. and started hiking at 4. As the name implies, it is a LONG hike - about 15 miles round trip and over 5,000 feet elevation gain.

Andy and I at the trailhead.

Pie Konchar

Sunrise

We hiked for about 2 1/2 hours in the dark until the sun came up. The first part of the hike was mostly trail through the forest. Longs Peak is in Rocky Mountain National Park, so the scenery is beautiful.


After a while we hit the boulder field which leads up to the keyhole. After that the hiking became more difficult.


You can see Andy and Pie hiking up toward the keyhole. As we passed through I think it was one of the windiest places I have ever been in, and I must say a bit scarry.

Close up of the keyhole

After we hiked through we traversed a face, which you can see behind Andy and me.

At the end of the face is the trough - a narrow steep section of bouldering. I took out the helmet at that point as there is a ton of loose rock which can fall down at any time. The section after the trough was the toughest, as we came around and hiked across another face which had some exposure. There were a few slightly scary moves but I made it across without much trouble. At the end of that face is the homestretch - a steep rock climb to the summit.

Summit of Longs Peak - 14,255 feet

More summit pictures

Pie, me and Andy on the summit

The hike down was somewhat grueling, as we were pretty tired by that point. The entire hike took 11 1/2 hours and it was definitely the hardest 14er I have done so far. I think that will be my last for the year - 13 down and 41 to go!