We are back from glorious Rocky Mountain National Park — alive, well, in one piece (though with some new aches and pains), and feeling very defeated by the flatness and humidity of Houston. The trip was awesome. The Rockies are awesome. Longs Peak is awesome. All this was confirmed by an Australian woman in a vintage Rolls Royce on Trail Ridge Road, who said “this is — I’ll use a new American word I’ve learned — awesome.”
Five of us caught a ballgame on Thursday at Coors Field. Friday we hiked 9.2 miles round trip to Sky Pond and camped in Glacier Basin at 9,000 feet. Saturday we hiked in 2.5 miles to the Battle Mountain backcountry site at 11,000 feet and set up camp. On Sunday we got up before sunrise and started on our way to Longs Peak. We hit the Boulderfield around 8 and the Keyhole by 9. Emily, Jen, Gavin and I traversed the Ledges and made it most of the way up the Trough before finally turning around about 400 feet below the summit because the climb got a bit too tricky for us. With snow and ice still in the Trough covering up the official route, the climb was a Class 4. (For reference, Class 5 is what I do on Monday nights with a harness and ropes at the climbing gym.) The bottom of the Trough was manageable, but the last 50 feet required scrambling up some pretty scary-looking ledges. The four of us agreed that we’d reached the edge of our comfort level, and turned around, arriving back at camp around 4:00.
We were happy with our decision to turn back, but disappointed that the snow and ice prevented us from making the top. In a week or so when the snow is completely gone, we probably would have made the summit without a serious problem. The way I see it, this just means that I’ll have to go back and try again sometime!
On Monday morning, five of us hiked back up the trail and took a different fork to end up at Chasm Lake, directly below the sheer face of Longs. (The non-technical route we’d attempted the day before goes around the back.) It was gorgeous, and with binoculars, we spotted three people ascending the face. Wow — talk about scary. That afternoon, we hiked back to the trailhead. Going down is so much easier than going up, although my calf muscles paid for it.
Yesterday we drove Trail Ridge Road from the east side to the west side of the park, topping out at just above 12,000 feet as the highest road in the country. From there it was back to Denver, say goodbye to Carter, return the rental car, say goodbye to Emily, and back on the plane. As we descending to Houston, we were enveloped in haze.
Sigh. I want to be back in Colorado!
Sheer face of Longs Peak lit by the rising sun:
At the Keyhole — 13,162 feet:
Sheer face (“the Diamond”) of Longs Peak from Chasm Lake below:
I took a couple hundred pictures and am in the process of organizing and posting them. I’d have more here, except my software did some weird compression thing where pictures with people in them look blurry. By the end of the week I hope to have a trip report up.
Graybeals make me jealous.