Longs Peak Attempt
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• Statistics:
  • Date Hiked:  September 3, 2010
  • Miles Hiked:  10.0
  • Elevation Gain:  5,000'
  • Hiking Partner(s):  Jeff Shafer & Eli Helmuth
• Description:
  • Jeff, Eli, and myself headed up for some climbing and training on the Casual Route of the Diamond of Longs Peak.  We started from the trailhead at 3:00 am and made it to Chasm View in about 3.5 hours.  We rapped off Chasm View down to Broadway only to find 4 other parties queued up in front of us.  We hung out on Broadway for a couple of hours and finally got on the route after 10:00 am.  Jeff led the first pitch (5.4) which felt like 5.5 to me.  Eli took over the leading from here linking the short 5.9 hand crack pitch with the 5.7 traverse pitch.  The next pitch below the enduro-dihedral pitch was slightly harder than the hand crack section of pitch 2 and had a squeeze chimney.  The 200' dihedral pitch was sustained and challenging.  I thought it was 5.9 instead of the reported 5.8.  We had been waiting behind parties at each belay, so by the time we reached the crux pitch and had completed 4 out of the 6 pitches (the way we broke them up) a bottleneck had formed.  The first and fourth groups of climbers of the day were extremely slow.  We did the math with the amount of daylight left compared to how long we thought it would take everyone to finish the route and knew we had to bail.  We rapped back down to Mills Glacier and the party in front of us was still on the crux pitch with another traverse pitch yet to climb to get to upper Kiener's.  We made the right call as the sun sank and we hiked out in the dark.  It ended up being a 19 hour day.
• Maps:
  • Click here to view a map of the area where this hike is located.
• Photographs:
  • The Diamond
  • Looking back at Chasm View from Broadway.
  • Looking up the Casual Route from Broadway.
  • Eli starting up pitch 2.
  • Eli in the hand crack section of pitch 2.
  • James starting up pitch 2.
  • James on pitch 2 before the traverse.
  • James starting the traverse.
  • Jeff starting up pitch 2.
  • Jeff on pitch 2 before the traverse.
  • Jeff nearing the start of the traverse.
  • Jeff starting the traverse.
  • Jeff warming up his hands.
  • Another climber near the middle of pitch 3.
  • Eli starting up the enduro-dihedral pitch 4.
  • Halfway up the dihedral pitch.
  • Jeff cranking on the never-ending pitch 4.
  • Looking up at a climber on the crux pitch.
  • Chasm View from our bail-out point at the top of pitch 4.
  • The Boulder Field from our turn around point.

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