Trip Report: Long's Peak, CO

After I signed up for the Tour du Mont Blanc trip, I was surprised to discover I was disappointed the group would not attempted the summit of Mont Blanc. I had never done any outdoors climbing, nor had shown any serious inclination towards summit bagging. And yet, I felt incredible disappointment that the tour was only going to hike around Mont Blanc.

I mentioned this to a co-worker, prophetically suggested "perhaps I should sign up with RMI and see what mountaineering is really about." Not three weeks later, the same co-worker told me of a Mt. Rainier trip that  was short a participant back out. I immediately signed up.

The team had a range of experience, so we arranged to meet up for a training climb up Colorado's Long's Peak, a 14,000 ft peak in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.

Long's Peak (including final Boulder Field) as seen from base camp. For scale, note the tiny human figure on snow field near the middle of the picture.

The five and a half hour hike to base camp was not easy. 3000ft elevation gain (9k to 12k ft) at altitude with a hefty pack makes one annoyingly slow.

After we set up camp, I crashed - moving and motivating was very difficult, I was beginning to think this whole mountaineering thing was a massive mistake. The rest of the team set of to recon the next day's route, but I stayed at base camp to try and recuperate.

While they were gone, I rested in one of the tents. Sleep and forcing myself to eat (something I had neglected on the hike to base camp), ultimately fixed the problem. After a few hours, I felt like a human again - not 100%, but easily capable of pulling my own weight.

The night was EPIC! Heavy winds, rain, and small hail (or loud snow) battered the tent. The night was so rough, I began to have trouble sleeping WHEN IT WASN'T STORMING! I'd wake up in a start, hear nothing and not be able to fall asleep until the wind pulled at the tent. After that I'd be out like a baby.

I woke the next morning feeling like a real human - perfectly normal. My apatite still wasn't there (only ate half of my breakfast), but I was able to slowly navigate the bolderfield with the group.

Snow field leading to the Cable route

After the boulderfield we faced the snowfield - a >30% grade of mixed depth snow. This kind of traversal is very difficult - Every step must be secured: Stab the ice ax into the snow, check resistance. Kick step with right foot, shift weight. Kick step with left foot, shift weight. Lift Ice ax - repeat.

As you get tired, you start to get lazy - maybe I only need to kick once to make the step (normally I kicked three times per step). Any time this happened, I would shake my head to regain focus. Your life, and the life of your team, depends on the quality of your steps - getting lazy is a good way to get dead.

Mike, Mike, and Me on the snow field (Photo by Chaz Wendling).

The toughest test of the snow field came at the end. Chaz, who had the most climbing experience, was tasked with securing us to the rock face - a task that took at least 45 minutes. During that time we were stuck, roped together, in our last foot holds. Imagine standing with one foot on a step for 45 minutes without being able to move more than a few inches.

After securing the ropes, Chaz skillfully climbed the face (to the second pitch) in his plastic boots and crampons - a feat I was not able to replicate.

The rest of us followed, sans crampons, and by 11 we had all reached the second pitch.

Unfortunately, at this point clouds had started to form on the horizon - we knew the day held a 50% chance of thunderstorms, something we didn't not want to experience on the exposed summit. So, we turned around and returned to base camp. To quote Ed Viesturs, "Getting to the summit is optional, getting down is mandatory."

Despite not summitting, this trip was a major eye opener for me. The combined impact of altitude and nutrition torpedoed my first day. I corrected this on the second day and felt incredibly strong when we turned back (so strong in fact, I lead the snowfield descent).