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Base Camp
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- Statistics:
- Date Hiked: July 25, 2009
- Miles Hiked: 11.0
- Elevation Gain: 5,000'
- Hiking Partner(s): Jeff Shafer
- Description:
- I had been wanting to climb the Keyhole Ridge on Longs Peak for
quite some time, so Jeff and I decided to make a go of it. I got
up at 1:45 am, and we left Highlands Ranch (CO) within a half an hour.
Jeff made good time on the drive to the trailhead and we were hiking at
4:00 am. It was a Saturday in July shortly after the rating of the
Keyhole Route went non-technical. As expected, the parking lot was
full and we didn't even drive up to make sure; we simply parked on the
road at the first convenient location. The hike in was uneventful,
and we took a break at the Jim's Grove trail junction and the Boulder
Field. By the time we got to the Boulder Field I wasn't feeling
that strong, so I checked my blood sugar level which was low. I
ate some food to recover and we continued up to the Keyhole.
Unfortunately, I felt even worse and was really sucking hind teat.
- I ate some more food after getting another low blood sugar level
reading. I was still feeling poor when we got to the base of the
first pitch, but we geared up and I headed out anyway. Jeff had
already lead the route, so he let me have the sharp end of the rope for
the entire climb. I used the entire rope on the first pitch making
it to within approximately 40 feet of the top of the large fin/tower on
the ridge. There are several options for climbing, and I stayed on
the east side (climbers left) of the tower for the duration of the
pitch. I brought Jeff up to my anchor which I had built in a wide
chimney. We climbed this wide chimney and then traversed slightly
left to a flake that takes you to the summit of the second fin/tower.
This was a short pitch, but I could not continue because of the
excessive rope drag. Unfortunately, my blood sugar had increased
significantly by now and I basically should have allowed myself to
recover from my first snack in the Boulder Field rather than continue
eating when the results were not immediate. I actually took some
insulin at this point.
- It is not possible to easily climb up and down the ridge proper of
the fin, so we essentially ended up traversing up the left side ridge,
crossing over the top of the tower, and then down climbing back to the
ledges on the west side of the rock formation. For the third
pitch, I down climbed from the tower to wide easy ledges and made my way
up some low angled slabby ramps that lead to the final technical pitch
of the climb. Approximately half way up the ramp, we ran out of
rope and simul-climbed a very short way to the base of pitch four.
Although my blood was high, I was feeling better by now and really
enjoying the day. The weather was holding out despite a few
sprinkles and the climbing was relatively easy. The options on
where to climb on the fourth pitch are fairly wide. The climbing
eased up fairly quickly on the pitch, so I stayed right and climbed a
chimney back to the ridge to keep it interesting.
- I brought Jeff up and switched over to my trail running shoes.
Since Jeff didn't plan on leading anything, he didn't even bring rock
shoes with for the climb. As we climbed the Keyhole Ridge we
watched the train of people ascending the Trough. Jeff warned me
not to let my guard down once the technical climbing was over because
there is a fair amount of scrambling to reach the actual summit.
Although I could see the top of the Trough and roughly estimate the
distance to the summit, I prepared myself for a 600' slog. Because
of this, the final few hundred feet to the top didn't seem that bad and
before we knew it we were enjoying the summit in the sun. Of
course I insisted that we wear our harnesses and helmets to the top in
order to demonstrate to others how bad@ss we were. Whatever.
- Since the North Face still had plenty of snow on it and we did not
want to bring crampons or an axe, we had conceded to going down the
Keyhole Route. I can honestly say I was more concerned about
descending the Homestretch with hoards of people on it than climbing the
Keyhole Ridge. In fact, I witnessed a woman stumble and almost
take a big fall on the Homestretch. Our descent went fine, but it
is difficult to pass in a few sections where the route tends to
bottleneck. After getting to the Boulder Field, it was iPod and
cruise control time. We ended up climbing the route with a
car-to-car time of 9 hours and 45 minutes. Nothing
earth-shattering, but we were happy with that time considering there was
time technical climbing involved. This was my eighth summit of
Longs Peak by the seventh route.
- Maps:
- Click here
to view a
map of the area where this hike is located.
- Photographs:
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