Longs Peak

There are some places which one plans to visit for a long time. For those who are into hiking, there are some mountains which they think they just have to do atleast once. For people who climb 14ers in Colorado, Long's Peak is something like that.

Longs Peak is supposedly the toughtest, non-technical 14er in Colorado (non-techincal implies one you can do without ropes etc.). The round-trip is 15 miles, and the elevation gain from where one starts to climb to the summit is a huge 5100 feet. The last half of the climb is completely exposed to the valley, and one climbs on loose rocks at a 75-80 degree incline. It is thus a pretty tough one to climb and forms an attraction for all hikers.

So this weekend Pushkar flew from California to Boulder especially for this. We had both been planning on climbing Longs for a while, and this weekend seemed to be perfect for that. The weather, of course, had different plans. It had been raining for almost 3-4 days, and there was more rain predicted for the weekend. Not to be bothered by such small things, we still set out from Boulder at 2 am on Friday night, and drove towards the trailhead. When we finally got to climbing around 4 am, we had a combined realization that we were out there in the middle of the night, planning to climb a huge mountain, and we did not have a torch! However, it turned out, the moon was out and there was ample moonlight (I hypothesized it is the night of ashtami, without seeing a calender, only looking at moon. It actually was a panchami). Also the parking lot was full already which meant there were a lot of people climbing.

The first hour or so we climbed amazingly fast. We went past several groups, and stopped once or so only. Every 10 minutes Pushkar was telling me, that the sun will rise in next 10 minutes and the sunrise will look amazing. We saw a signboard a signboard on the way, which informed us we had covered merely 2 miles (we had expected we climbed more by then). The sun did finally rise and it did look amazing.





We reached the point where the trail branches out towards Chasm Lake a little after sunrise, and had the first view of the Summit. The trail at this point looked something like this to us. If you are at a point A and wish to reach point B above you, the trail started traveling in a direction exactly perpendicular to the line joining A to B and went really far away from both A and B and then turned back, went all the way to the other side of A and B. After winding in this fashion for half a dozen times, you finally reached point B. This helped keep the trail not very steep, but it resulted in making it really long. All these routes have good "No shortcutting" boards along the way.


Anyway, at the trailhead to Chasm Lake, the solid rock of the Long's Peak looked amazing. The original rock colour was being changed by the young sun-rays to a nice maroon. The whole scene was being coloured a nice golden yellow, as can be seen here.


Another 2 hours later, we finally reached this place called as Boulder Field. Essentially, it is a large stretch where rocks are simply scattered for miles at stretch and you keep walking, climbing on rocks. Although, this did not prepare us for what lay before us after the Boulder Field. We were still not tired, and good enthusiasm and were making good progress.


Past the Boulder Field, lies the place called as Key Hole, which is the beginning of the 'tough' part of the trail. By this time, the clouds were coming and going once repeatedly, and the summit, which lay to our right, was being hidden from us from time to time. We started growing apprehensive about our being able to reach the top (since the weather can grow from bad to worse real quick), but a man who had climbed the peak yesterday (and camped at the Boulder Field overnight) informed us that it had been like this all day yesterday as well and it should be no problem. We hardly felt reassured.


On top of the Key Hole, a very nice person has built a stone-hut, which provides a perfect resting place for the hikers. More than fatigue, the lack of sleep the previous night was starting to bother us, and we decided to take a short nap-break in this hut. We slept for a few minutes (those who know me personally wont be surprised at this in any way) and went up the Key Hole to get a marvellous view of the other side of the valley, and the beautiful Emerald Lake at the bottom.




The walk past Key Hole grew from 'moderately dangerous' to 'what-on-earth-am-I-doing-here dangerous' really fast. The walk is so narrow and rocky that one cannot stand without having something to hold on, and there is no place to keep the 2 feet side by side anywhere. On one side, there is a big rock-face, where there are several rocks which look like they are staring at you and can pounce on you if they so wish. On the other side, there is a deep valley, some 2000-3000 feet, with hardly anything to stop a fall. Either ways, there's danger, and a single mistake can be your last. Beyond Key Hole very few people were walking, and there was hardly room for a single person to walk at a time.







After traveling half a mile or so this way along the edge, we started the climb up, which again was simply loose rocks. There are these 'bull's eyes' all over place, which show what the easy route is, but it is pretty much every man's way from this point. We were so tired by this time, that it was simply the will-power to reach the top. There were these 2 stretches, called 'troughs' where you pretty much have to climb a 75-80 degree rock incline. As one person on the 14ers website put it, "You pretty much have to trust the rock that you are stepping on to not fall down".




After the two troughs, we finally made it to the top, to be completely covered with smoke. For the first few minutes, we just sat and gathered the energy to move around. The top of the peak is surprisingly large, it would take more to 10 minutes to go all the way around it. We took a few pictures, saw as much as we can on all sides. It was now close to 11 am (we had taken 6 hours to climb), and now was the time to start the descent.

Normally, it takes about half the time or little more to descend from a peak as compared to the time you take to climb it. Longs Peak completely proved this false. Firstly, we had momentarily forgotten how dangerous was the route we had taken up, and how much more dangerous it is to go down. The more professional among us (viz. Pushkar) started off by facing the rock, having all 4 limbs catching the rock and climbing down. The more adventurous and unconventional one, (viz. me) took the robust approach of sitting down on the rear and going down one step at a time. I also saw Sambhoos imitating me after a while. ;)




The way down was a loong, never-ending one. It took more time to reach Key Hole from the Summit we had taken to climb from Key Hole. The fact that we missed the route and went astray for a while did not help a bit. We actually discovered there is a place called "False Key Hole" and had to turn back and go back to the actual route. We were so dizzy at the Key Hole,
that we took another nap at the hut before heading down. Things improved a little after that and we weere walking another 3-4 hours before reaching down. We ffinally made it down at 5:15 pm.

Thus, after 13 hours of pretty much non-stop walking/climbing, we had done it. The peak was not a test of stamina for us, for we had long lost all the stamina. It was merely will-power after that, how much one really wants to reach the top. It was about how much the mind can order the body and how far the body can obey it. For some time, the situation was such that every 10 steps the body used to rebel for the lack of oxygen, energy; it used to get a bite to eat or a sip or two of water and had to go on. Sleep, fatigue, pain and finally the high-altitude dizziness had all set in. To steal a phrase from a popular Marathi writer, the 'feet' were like an unnecessary disease attached to the body. Every step, especially towards the end, sent a signal of pain up the legs and the back. And we were walking, with determination, step by step towards the goal.

The feeling which came over atleast me on the way back was that of a relief and satisfaction at having climbed the One. Again, it might not be such a big thing for many people, but for
us two shur-veers it was a big day. After a short break for a bite at Estes Park, and a swift ride home, we were ready to go sleep, tired but satisfied.

For more pics of this day, visit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7251418@N08/sets/72157601241319856/