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/

Democrat and Cameron

When a man has a bad week, the best thing to do is climb a mountain. The effort, the exertion, the sweat washes away all the webs from the mind and body and makes one ready for another Monday. We had a similar plan when we set out for four 14ers in the 'Ten-mile and Mosquito Range' near Breckenridge on the 4th of July weekend.

To give a little background, Colorado is full of peaks which are above 14000 feet called as 14ers. The amazing thing is the highest peak in Colorado is about 14500 feet but there are around 53 peaks above 14000 feet in Colorado. Although each 14er is pretty much a test for mental and physical willpower, they make a nice climb for a day.

On the 4th of July, me and Pushkar set out with a rather ambitious plan in mind. We planned on doing four 14ers on the range since they are rather close by to each other. The plan was to start climbing as early as possible and do as many as possible and come down when the weather gets bad. (On top of a 14er, there are daily storms starting around noon and it is dangerous to be on the top of one during a storm since you can get hit by a lightning.)
However, little did we realize that the trailhead was a long 130 miles away from Boulder, and hence we started climbing towards Democrat around 10.00 am from the Kite Lake. The climb was pretty uneventful (ssh Pushkar!!) and I was at the base of the final climb of Democrat around 11.30 am when I first heard the thunders at a distance. Pushkar was a good 20 minutes ahead of me, and seemed to be nearing the top. Now, normal people turn around at this point, since it is pretty dangerous to be at the top when its lightening, but we continued. Around 12, Pushkar called me saying he is about 200 feet from the top, and that I can continue. I made it to the top around 12:15, we took a couple of quick snaps (I call those 'yogi poses'), and headed down.










By the time we came down from the 200 feet or so mound which qualified as the 'peak' and started walking on the plateau, we saw a cowboy-looking man and a kid coolly taking pictures, with no apparent hurry. We suggested they hurry up, and not spend long time on the top (since weather was getting very bad by now). They didnt seem to mind the weather and continued their photo-session coolly.

The way Democrat and Cameron are positioned is that there is a saddle in between the two. You climb upto the saddle, climb Democrat, come back and climb Cameron on the other side. From Cameron you can go to Lincoln and Brosch, which are the other 14ers in that range. We started climbing down to the saddle, and the scene was really terrifying. There were definitely thunders behind us on top, the visibility was poor, since there was fog. People living in cold climates like Colorado know that when the weather is dry and cold, metal objects have a 'static' charge sometimes. Well, during this climb, we were experiencing that static first hand, and pretty much on everything. My woollen sweater was giving me static every time and behind my ear there was slight noise since wind was blowing with clouds in it. Pushkar commented that my hair has 'stood up', and his was no better. The point was we were moving through clouds and there was charge in them, with a good chance of we being the target of some of the heavenly missiles! We were simply climbing down as fast as possible, but I couldnt help noticing that some of the rocks around me had a charred black side as if they had been burnt on a side. Was it that the lightenings had hit them on one side? Fortunately, I didnt have to stay long to find that out.

We were on the saddle around 12:30, all logic and common sense pointed to walking down the rest of the trail to the car and drive home. But the weather had changed almost miraculously! It was bright, clear and the black clouds were nowhere to be seen! A small climb lay ahead of us which would have taken us up to Mt. Cameron. We had started with 4 14ers in mind, but had managed only one so far, so the Camron ahead was tempting. The near-death experience climbing down the saddle not withstanding, we started the climb after a couple of snaps.

We had climbed about 20 or so minutes when the first signs of changing weather became apparent. By this time, we had enough experience to judge we had hardly half an hour ahead of us of the 'beautiful' weather. As usual, Pushkar was on top ahead of me and said the mountain was disappointing. I was so tired that it was all will-power for me to climb, the physical power had long gone away. I think about 1.30 or so I was on top of Cameron only to realize, Cameron is hardly a 'peak', it is more of a playground (which disappointed my friend). It is a kind of plateau at 14000 ft. and the same route continues on to Lincoln. Of course, given the thunders we were hearing, Lincoln was out of question; and a safe return was the only thing on minds. Bidding goodbye to Lincoln, promising a return soon, we turned back, this time down to the saddle from the side of Cameron.

We might have taken about 20 steps, when the first dark clouds covered the sky and it started hailing. Soon it started raining pretty heavily and we started running full speed. By the time we came down, the last iota of energy had exhausted and sight of the car was the most beautiful thing in sight. A last couple of snaps, and we were off to Boulder. Completely wet, starving and without any energy, we set our voyage back to Boulder.

The two of us were sure our lives were in danger during the first descent. We were seeing lightenings behind us, and could very well have gotten hit by one. I dont know if it was right that not only did we continue climbing, but in fact climed another 14er after that! People back in Boulder have declared they have 2 lunatics among them for doing that! Maybe it was not that big a deal, but for us shur-veer Maratha boys, it was a adventure! And we cherished every moment of it!