All,

Here is my trip report from my trip to Long's Peak, CO at the end of last month.

It was a great trip and I successfully reached the 14,255' summit at noon on the 28th. I planned an alpine start leaving the Long's Peak Ranger Station at 0100 to avoid not getting a parking space. This being my first 14er and only having 2 days to acclimate I decided I better give myself plenty of time. I reached the boulder field at approximately 12,000' by 0500 and had a short time to wait before sunrise and full light.

I had decided to go for the North face or Cable's Route to avoid the line of hikers taking the classic Keyhole route. The Cable's Route also cuts off 1.6 miles of hiking. The scramble across the boulder field and up to the Chasm View from the boulder field camp sites took another hour but it was definitely worth it. The view of The Diamond (East face) at dawn from the Chasm View was spectacular. I got a picture of The Diamond that I thought was beyond the capability of the Sony Powershot camera that I was carrying. The Cables route is normally rated a 5.4 but with the water I was advised by AMGA to consider it a 5.6. The route was a waterfall, totally wet with snow melt run off. The granite on the route took active and passive pro really well. The pro that I placed was supplemental to the permanent eye bolts that I had read so much about. They are left over from the cable that used to run down the route until it was discovered that the cable was a very good lightning conductor. The eye bolts made great belay and rappel anchors. The route is approximately 180' with two pitches. The water added another aspect to the climb but wasn't an insurmountable obstacle by any standard.

Once at the top of the technical pitch there was still another 300 vertical feet of Class III scrambling. This was no doubt the hardest part of the trip since it was also the highest altitude. There is a vague trail marked by cairns that can be followed to the summit.

As expected the afternoon thunderstorms were coming in from the East and the summit was almost deserted by noon. I back tracked to the top of the Cable's Route and did two raps down with the added benefit of squeezing the water that had accumulated out of the rope. It took another hour back across the boulder field complicated further by the rain that started to make the boulders slick. The hike back through the alpine meadow and into the tree line was like a whole new trip since I had done the approach by head light. The view back to The Diamond was obscured by clouds by late afternoon making me glad I had started as early as I had.

I took as small of a rack as possible; 5 stoppers (#6-#10), 4 Mastercams (3,4,5,6), and multiple biners and slings (24" to 48"). The Black Diamond trekking poles were awesome and definitely took some of the stress of the descent off the knees. The 60 meter New England dynamic rope was as good as always and got a good cleaning from the water. The military issue pack I took weighed about 25lbs with everything in it and definitely was not as comfortable as it could have been. As far as hardware was concerned there was nothing that I was lacking but I definitely didn't take enough food. In my military experience food comes in pretty far down the list of necessary items.

It was a great climb for my first 14er and apparently I got it in just in time. RMNP is reporting snow and ice above the Keyhole route already.

Jack