Icebreaker Tours 2017: Longs Peak, a success

Having turned back on Longs Peak at 12.1k, we decided we wanted to go for it again, but to give ourselves plenty of time by doing a true alpine start.  The day after our first attempt, we rested, gave our bodies a recharge to get ready for the challenge that lie ahead.

Sleep happened early the night before, as wakeup time was 10:30pm in order to hit the trail at 1am.  We were not far behind schedule, and got moving around 1:30, with a beautiful starlit sky above us.

We stopped at Mills Lake again for a rest break, and the stars above a wide expanse blew our minds.  It was wonderful just looking up.  We were making better time this time, and after three hours we made it to Black Lake.  The crescent moon peered over the mountains just as we arrived there, as if on cue.  We layered up in anticipation of the wind tunnel that was the way out of the Black Lake bowl.  And it was strong.  Systematic steps and breaks got us up the hill and on our way to the Trough.

The sky lightening enough to see the mountains

At the base of the Trough, we got geared up with crampons for the steep and relentless slope that lie above.  After 2000' vertical feet of (mostly) hard-packed snow to climb up.

Gearing up under The Spearhead

The sky always seems to get light so fast in the morning.  If you're not watching closely, it seems that one moment it's black and just a few minutes later it's fully bright outside.  The crescent moon was rising just ahead of the sun this morning.  All the spires in the photo below are called "Keyboard of the Winds" and they are very impressive the closer you get to them.

About an hour into the Trough, we got to a steep step in the rock that forced some critical thinking for us to get up.  A fall would maybe not be fatal, but it's a long way down, so solid purchase with the axe and crampons is critical.  The bare rocks don't help you out much.  I suppose we owe an apology to the points on our crampons.

After hours in darkness, all the gear was finally getting a workout.  Truly wonderful payoff for having purchased all of it.  Just a quick mental image of trying this stuff without proper equipment justifies it for me.  And of course, as they all say, we do all this crazy shit for the views.  We love the views.

We started to see evidence of elevation gain.  The Spearhead appeared quite small now, despite looming over us at the base.

The way the trough works, it slowly curves to the right, and two thirds of the way up, it joins in with the popular Keyhole Route that people often take in the summer time.  The uppermost section of the Trough is synonymous with the Keyhole Route, which is blazed with red and yellow bulls eyes.  Now over 12k, the thin air was changing how we had to climb.  Very slow and steady, no more than 20 steps and then we'd take a break.  There's lots of time for jokes once you catch your breath.

Following the leader.

The view uphill is grand as the columns of the summit block come into focus.  It feels like climbing up a pipe organ, perhaps.

Noah kindly taking the lead for a bit, leaving me behind with endless views.

The photo below shows us nearly to the junction with Keyhole.  We traipsed through the talus and scree hoping to have some snow deep enough that the crampons wouldn't scrape.  The top of the Trough is at the V in the horizon below:

Challenging the perspective

Looking down into the valley revealed incoming snow flurries, which is never a great idea up in the mountains, but we decided to press on anyway, thinking that we could move fast enough to get down at least into the gorge before it got too bad.

Keyhole Route blaze in the bottom right

Action shot!

We got to the top of the Trough, at 14k, with just 255' vertical left to ascend, and turned the corner.  I know this is Colorado, but it was such a shock to pull up to the ridge and see endless mountains on the far side.  As a first time climber in this state, this whole side of the mountain was shielded from view for the entire time.  Looking off to the right is Keyboard of the Winds (shown below).  Not quite as impressive from here, but interesting nonetheless.

Keyboard of the Winds

Now for the sheer cliffs.  Welcome to the Narrows.  Appropriately named, I would say, we shimmied across a pathway only several feet wide.  Thankfully the wind was calm here, allowing us to focus on our footing and handholds.  Again, like the rest of the mountain, this would be a poor place to make a mistake.

Killin' it on the Narrows

I've never quite seen rock like this before, but there were what I'd call "flutes" of rock running along the ridge in front of us, and the coloring was unusual.  Greenish if nothing else.

Turning the corner to the left, we spiraled our way up to the Homestretch, the final 250'.  Noah told me that it was much easier to ascend this with snow in the cracks between rocks than in summer.  Apparently the rock is wet with runoff and getting a good grip is tricky.  With an ice axe, the feeling of invincibility is easy to have.

Noah gave me the honors of topping out first, and in all my excitement, I immediately sunk into the snow to rest.  It was real: Nathan J Hillimanjaro had climbed to over 14 thousand feet!  Honestly, I should say that it's not the summit really that makes the trip for me.  I love breaking a new altitude record and all, but the whole mountain experience is what I come back for.  I think any mountaineer can agree with that to some degree.

The Icebreakers at 14,255'

Shortly after, I shuffled over to the geologic marker for the summit, wanting to get the most elevation possible out of the mountain.  With me on top of the rock, I got to see 14,261', which. I should note, is miles better than the view from a measly 14,255'.

Yep, I got high in Colorado.  14,261' high.

The views in absolutely every direction are nuts though.  That's the part about Colorado that stands out.  You can see mountains in all directions.  Rugged mountains that have stood up to the weathering and erosion over millions of years.

A quick bite to eat and looking around the strangely flat summit, we headed back down.  We opted for crampons because of the exposure below, but they became unhelpful for the Narrows.  I admit there is a lot of switching gear on and off, and that certainly takes time, but with such an alpine start, and being on the descent already, we felt that having the right gear for even a short section of the mountain trumps any time saving by staying in the wrong gear, or not putting on gear that you really should have for your own safety.

My new helmet and down jacket were wonderful for this trip

Returning to the Trough, there is a hard move to down-climb, primarily because it's outside what you can see looking down, so catching a foothold is a bit nerve wracking.  I was able to go first with longer legs, and give Noah a hand.  By now however, the snow was coming down at a good clip, and we were anxious to descend.  We planned to glissade the Trough, which would save an enormous amount of time.  However, standing at the top without crampons, (you glissade without them because it's safer when your feet catch on anything as you're coming down) I was not over my nerves.  Noah, as usual, has no problem with such things, but I struggle to feel at ease.  My fear of course being unable to stop, and knowing about the 10' vertical drop that we had to deal with near the bottom.  In addition, my back was not cooperating well at this point.  I had been working with a sore lower back for a few days prior, but at this point, it was quite painful with any twisting motion.  As luck would have it, glissading involves twisting as you sit on snow and hold your axe as a rudder (and a brake when you want to stop).  This made my progress very slow.  I managed, even with a bout of questionable self-arresting.  As the speed picks up, you end up kicking snow right into your face, which coats beards quite nicely.  The ski goggles help, but you still end up with a wet face.

With snow in the cracks, the Spearhead was much more defined, and certainly gave off a hint of "guys, it's still winter, perhaps you should get back to the trailhead".

Spearhead

With all the gear stowed away in our packs, it was a fairly simple trek back to the car - just follow the footsteps before they fill up with fresh snow.

Coming back to the Black Lake basin was beautiful with the snow falling.  Arrowhead Mountain on the far side of the lake was just as beautiful as the attempt two days before, yet so different in the snowstorm.

Taking in the view

Soon the trees reappeared, and our footsteps evolved into a steady rhythm.

By the time we got past Mills Lake, we realized it would a dark finish to the day.  It's amazing to think that even with an alpine start of 1am, we still utilized the entire light portion of the day to accomplish our goal.  That's one of my takeaways from this mountain.  It's not easy, and you have to work hard to get what you want in this kind of terrain.  High elevation, mileage, steepness, exposure, short winter days, and potentially bad weather are all against you in an attempt to do this.  But the right mixture of willpower, reasoning, and experience will get you to your goal.

Our climb ended after 12.7 miles, 17 hours, and an elevation gain of 5700' for the day.  That's what I call a good kind of tired! :)