This morning was a rough one since I had to get up at 4:33 AM.  That allowed me just enough time to pack, eat breakfast, make some sandwiches, and be at Franks house for our 5:30 AM Longs Peak departure time.  Actually, I was about fifteen minutes late since I had to make Frank some damn sandwiches again…and then he yelled at me for being late! WTF?

Anyway, if you already don’t know Frank, Randy (aka Sandy (inside joke)) and I made a late season attempt to summit Longs Peak today and unfortunately we came up a few hundred feet short. A bit frustrating but I guess the important this is we all made it back home this evening.

The hike looked a little like this…

DSC03637.JPG Leaving Boulder at 5:45 AM…Frank had to drive my Jeep so I could eat my breakfast which I would have had time for if I was not making him frickin’ sandwiches in the morning!

DSC03640.JPG After a quick, cold, dark shit in the woods we left the Longs Peak Trailhead at 6:45 AM.

DSC03642.JPG Like all responsible hikers should do we signed in at the trailhead log book.

DSC03643.JPG Then we were on our was as the sun started to come up.

DSC03646.JPG The view of Longs Peak (middle) once we got above the timberline.

DSC03650.JPG Further up the trail here is Randy and I posing in Front of Chasm Lake with Longs in the background.

DSC03654.JPG Further up past Chasm Land and after making our way through “The Boulder Field” we made it to “The Key Hole” which is where the climb became rather technical mainly due to the snow.

DSC03656.JPG The view from “The Key Hole.”

DSC03658.JPG After making it past “The Key Hole” comes a section called “The Ledges.”  I think under normal circumstances this section would not be that bad however, the hard icy snow definitely through a spanner in the works.  Here is Frank and Randy traversing “The Ledges.”

DSC03660.JPG After successfully making it through “The Ledges” comes “The Trough” which is a thousand foot wall that took us from 13,000 ft to almost 14,000 ft. I did not take any pictures here because I was breaking a trail through the snow and was more worried about not dying!  Here is Frank happy he is still alive.

DSC03661.JPG Me at the top of “The Trough” and at the entrance of a section called “The Narrows.”  Here is where Randy…ummm I meant Sandy started to get pulmonary edema due to the elevation so to make him feel better I tried to make it look like I was breathing hard :)

DSC03663.JPG The view from the top of “The Trough.” Yep…that is our feet dangling off the side of the mountain!

After “The Trough” is a narrow section ironically called “The Narrows.” Once through “The Narrows” it is not far to the summit…only about 300 vertical feet.  However, due to the snow and ice “The Narrows” simply were not safe and to avoid plummeting thousands of feet to our death we turned around.  Definitely a bummer but I believe it was good judgement and plus, there will always be next time!

DSC03664.JPG On the way down I spotted some furry high altitude thing…I wonder what its hematocrit is?

DSC03665.JPG Finally, back to the safety of “The Boulder Field” and from there is was smooth sailing back to the trailhead where the Jeep was awaiting us.

Basically, today’s hike/trail run was an 8 hour failure but hey it was a good workout and now we know what to expect the next time we attempt to summit.

Time to go soak my blistered feet!

later, g.