Longs Peak attempt

For the last couple of months, I've been organizing a small hiking party to make an attempt at Longs Peak. Originally, Rebecca and I wanted to go during the week of a full moon so we could hike at night. Unfortunately, the first week of July came and went; many of us weren't in shape for a hike due to the wet weekend weather we'd been having, and apparently there was still a significant amount of snow on the way up. So we went in August, which meant Rebecca couldn't join us, because she took this month off to hike across Colorado! So the hiking party was Sara, Rich, Ed, Debbie, and me.

Most people leave the Longs Peak Ranger Station trail head around 3 am, but we left at 1:30 (we left Boulder at 12:15, I started gathering people living in Louisvile around 11:30, I slept from 5:15 to 7:15, and lay in bed from 9:30 to 10 earlier in the night). This was our approximate route.


I took this picture of Sara and Ed in the parking lot.


Unfortunately, Sara never wore this hat on the trail!

It was roughly 6.5 miles to the Keyhole (gmaps doesn't get all the twists and turns), which we did in about 4 hrs. and 15 min. I took this picture of the moon behind the Keyhole:


Then the sun rose (Mt. Lady Washington is in the foreground, with Venus above).


The wind was tremendous through the Keyhole. We waited for about an hour and a half for the weather to change, but with no luck. We turned back around 7:30 or 8. Here are Sara, Rich, Ed, and Debbie waiting for better weather below the Keyhole.


Before heading down, I fought the wind and went through the Keyhole to take these pictures. Here is Longs Peak and the continuation of the trail.


I think this is Chiefs Head Peak, directly across from the Keyhole:


On the way back, I took this picture of Longs Peak's daunting East Face.


This is the boulder field you must hike through just before the Keyhole.


We saw elk on the way down.


Here are Mt. Meeker and Longs Peak together, with the slope of Mt. Lady Washington just visible on the right.


Overall, it was a fun day. Hiking with a bright moon was cool; we didn't need headlamps once we got above treeline. Maybe next year we'll try again ... this time with Rebecca!

AUG 8 UPDATE: I like this picture of the Keyhole that Rich took from somewhere down in the boulder field.