7/19/97 - Longs Peak (attempt), via
North Face (old cable route), Rocky Mountain National
Park, Colorado
 Class 1, 2, 3 & 4
Hiking/Climbing, elevation at highest point
gained on Longs Peak, ~13,450', Elevation gain:
~4,045'
Hikers:
Though we had a houseful of company (Bonnie Brands, her son Tom and twin brother Terry and his
wife Michelle, Misti and Mikey, and Darci), we still had
planned a fairly major hike. Since the nontechnical
(Keyhole) route to Longs Peak wasn't open yet, Ernie
suggested that maybe we could try going up via the Old
Cable Route on the North Face of Longs.
While this route is still somewhat technical due to
steepness and still-remaining snowfields, it wasn't as
technical as the Trough and Homestretch side of the
Keyhole route. Ernie had some experience roping up on the
North Face before and thought it might be fun to try. He
would supply the rope and other hardware we'd need. We
agreed that we wouldn't bank on reaching the summit, but
would see what we found when we got up to the North Face.
Terry was disappointed not to be able to go because of
near-blisters on his instep from an unfortunate incident
with a new pair of hiking boots that didn't work out.
Tom, Ernie, and I left very early for the trailhead,
arriving at about 0500. Surprisingly, it was very full
and we almost didn't find a space in the main lot. After
parking and getting our gear, we headed up the trail in
the very faint light of early morning.
Hiking fairly fast and adjusting to the altitude and
effort, we found ourselves at the Alpine Brook Bridge at
about 0545, and were greeted with a gorgeous sunrise. We
hurried up the trail just above treeline, hoping to get a
couple of alpenglow pictures of Longs. Ernie took the one
at right.
We continued pretty steadily on up the trail, stopping
a few times for a drink and a rest. Unfortunately, Tom
was getting a headache, no doubt due to altitude sickness
(compounded by lack of enough time for altitude
acclimatization).
Soon we stopped at what we thought might be the last
"waterhole" and replenished our water supply
(we'd only brought about a liter each) by pumping it
through my filter.
At around 0830 we were near the Boulder Field, and we
stopped at the hitching post for a rest. Met and talked
to a family (pictured at right) who were from Loveland
and other places I've forgotten. That picture also shows
the North Face pretty well.
We left the main Boulder Field "trail" and
started boulder-hopping our way up toward the Chasm View
area. As we made our way up, we saw some climbers going
up the same direction we were going. We learned that they
were headed up to a "rappelling station" where
they would drop down to Mills Glacier, spend the night,
then ascend the East Face (Diamond) the next day.
Instead of stopping at the View, we carefully crossed
the adjacent snowfield without roping up. It was very
handy to have a trekking pole out at this point. We also
had an ice ax with us.
Next we had to do a bit of rock climbing and
scrambling. We went maybe 30 feet and then ran into
another snowfield we needed to traverse up. It was wider
and steeper and we felt we should use protection. We
stopped and broke out ropes, carabiners, and Ernie's
climbing harness.
By this time, we saw the climbers arrive at the
rappelling station where they began preparing for their
descent. They didn't seem to be paying much attention to
us, even though we were fairly close by.
We discussed what we'd do, then Ernie started up the
snowfield with his ice ax, trailing the rope behind him
with Tom and I providing an anchor in case he fell.
Though Ernie had a little protection from us, it was
still a tough and somewhat nervous traverse.
He kicked steps into the snowfield and before long,
he'd reached a rocky area where he had to climb up. It
was here that he found an eyebolt left behind from the
cable route.
The cable route was installed in the 1930s to aid
parties going up the North Face. It was removed in the
1970s, though the eyebolts were left in place.
Ernie's plan was to hook into the eyebolts and just
follow them up the North Face and use them to provide us
all with protection. When he started to anchor himself to
this eyebolt, he realized that his carabiners were too
small to clip in to the eyebolts, so he had to cobble up
a ‘biner, webbing, and rope setup for us to use.
There was quite a bit of melt running down this area and
Ernie was none too comfortable sitting on the wet rocks
with water practically flowing around him.
After he got himself situated, I tied in to the end of
the rope and began working my way up the snowfield by
using the steps Ernie had just kicked in. I held the rope
in one hand, more for balance than anything else, and
used a trekking pole in my other hand. I quickly and
somewhat nervously made my way up the snowfield and
climbed up onto a tiny flat area in the rocks below
Ernie. Tom then made his way up to the now very cramped
area below Ernie. I noted an altitude of about 13,450' on
my altimeter watch. We were still about 800' below the
summit.
It was here that Tom and I looked up and saw how steep
the next section was. Ernie assured us that being higher
than we were, he could see that it wasn't as bad as it
looked. However, Tom and I expressed concern that we were
starting to feel "out of our comfort zone."
That, coupled with dark gray rain clouds (but no thunder)
moving in from the east, and our concerns about the
difficulty of having to make our way back down the
relatively tricky (for us newbies) snowfield made us all
agree that we would turn back at this point.
Our main concern at this point was figuring out how to
get back down the snowfield so that the last person would
still have protection.
After a moment, Tom came up with a truly brilliant
idea. He and I would rope up and go down normally. When
we got down, we would anchor the rope at our end and
Ernie could remove the rope from his harness, put the end
through the eyebolt, then reconnect to his harness. Then
he could come down with us belaying him using the
eyebolt. When he got down to us, we could simply pull the
rope back through the eyebolt! Very clever, and it worked
beautifully.
Once we were all at the bottom of the snowfield, we
put the ropes and gear away and scrambled back down the
rocks to the first snowfield, where we agreed we would
detour over to a flat ledge where we'd seen the climbers
rappel down towards Mills Glacier.
I arrived first and was absolutely stunned at the view
of Chasm Lake and the East Face. The ledge was protected
quite a bit by large rocks which you could lean over to
look down hundreds of feet to Mills Glacier. It was
dizzying and brought out extraordinary caution and
feelings of self-preservation.
Tom made his way over and I told him about some rocks
he could step down onto from the snowfield. He safely
stepped down onto them and then said, "Hey, Mike,
did you see this hole?" I came over and was
astonished to see a squarish, almost man-sized hole
through which we could see rocks and snow hundreds of
feet below. From the right angle, we could even see a
team rappelling down! Incredible, and a bit scary that
Tom came down within a few feet of the hole (someone
would have to struggle a lot to actually fall through the
hole, but if you fell into it and your legs were dangling
in space, it would scare you to death).
When Tom got to the ledge, he demonstrated even more
caution than I had. He carefully put his hands on the
huge rocks and pushed them to make sure they were as
solid as they looked (they were) and only then did he
lean over to look down below. I would say anyone who
isn't a climber, no matter how non-acrophobic you are,
would have to feel some fear at this ledge. None of us
could even imagine what it would be like to be climbing
up the Diamond. In fact, as we watch a number of
different climbing parties negotiating the Diamond, he
described them as "insane" and said you'd never
get him up there.
There was another ledge around some rocks, so I went
down there. I couldn't handle the exposure though,
because there was nothing but ledge and drop-off —
no rocks between you and the edge.
After watching climbers through the binoculars for
awhile and taking a few pictures, we decided to head on
down. After descending quite a bit, we decided to work
our way over to another overlook area to the east of the
ledge we'd been on. About the time we arrived, it began
to rain, so we decided to take a long break to eat,
drink, and get out of the rain. Fortunately, there was a
large rock forming a natural overhang which we crawled
into out of the rain. I pulled my RidgeRest pad out and
we managed to share it. Tom, who still had his headache,
laid back and rested, as did Ernie. I'm pretty sure they
slept a bit. I changed socks, ate a bit and took a couple
more pictures, including the one at right of them
sleeping.
The rain turned to a light sleet, and then back to
rain. When it seemed to let up a bit, we started back
down to the Boulder Field, but not before donning our
raingear. We worked our way down the boulders on the
slope which joined Mount Lady Washington and Longs, and
eventually found ourselves back on the main Boulder Field
trail. By the time we got to the campsite area, the rain
had almost completely stopped, so we took a break and
removed our raingear.
We continued on, happy to be back on a trail again
after spending so much time hopping boulders. Again, both
Ernie and I were amazed at how much help just one
trekking pole is on the boulders. We each used one on
about the last third of our hike going up that day, and
all the way down. I don't think I'll ever hike more than
5 or 6 miles without mine, especially if there is
boulder-hopping, snowfields, or a lot of downhill. Ernie
has ordered a pair for himself.
It continued to rain lightly. We saw other folks on
the trail without raingear and they must have been
miserable with still another 4+ miles to go.
At about 1500, we passed by a guy off the trail next
to a Boulder who asked if we had a radio or cellphone. I
told him I had a cellphone and he explained that one of
their party had broken or sprained his ankle at the
Trough, and though they'd nursed him back to this point
(just below the Boulder Field), he couldn't go farther. I
asked where he was and was shocked to hear a voice come
out from what I thought was just a pile of their gear. He
was wrapped in a space blanket, but on the ground.
His friend called the Backcountry Office (I was
pleased with myself for knowing the phone number) on the
cellphone, and wanted to see if another member of their
party had made it down to request assistance. He learned
that they would be sending a horse up to pick up the
injured guy and bring him down. The rangers told him it
would be 15 or 20 minutes.
We noticed the guy shivering and I decided to give him
my RidgeRest pad to insulate him from the ground better.
They seemed appreciative, and assured me I'd get it back
soon. When there wasn't anything else for us to do, we
headed on down the trail.
We hiked pretty steadily, as the stretch between the
Boulder Field and Chasm Junction seems interminable
(especially on the way down). Tom was still feeling
pretty rotten from his headache, and he decided to bump
his pace and see if that made any difference. He moved
way on out from us, and we didn't seem him again for
about 20 minutes until we got to the Junction. We decided
to take another longer break. I hit the privy at the
junction and Ernie and Tom both sacked out on a boulder
and soaked up the sun and dozed. After 20 minutes or so,
we got back up and headed down. It was about 1600 when we
left.
We were well below treeline when we finally saw a
ranger coming up on horseback. Their 15 or 20 minute wait
turned out to be more like an hour and half! That was
really bad, since the whole party must have been
struggling to stay warm. We don't understand why it took
so long.
Again, we hiked pretty steadily until we finally
arrived at the parking lot at about 1700.
Tom's headache still continued, and didn't really go away until the
next day. We had steaks on the grill and a cold beer just half
an hour later. After dinner, we sat around and recounted
our adventure, then went down and gathered around my
computer to look at the digital pictures I downloaded to
my system.
Though we hadn't reached our "goal," we had
a lot to show for our day, and we were pleased with what
we'd done and what we'd learned. I'm ready for the summit
of Longs, though, and will probably go up almost as soon
as the Keyhole Route opens!
Note: The Keyhole Route "opened" (became
nontechnical) the very next day, 7/20/97.
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We saw this gorgeous sunrise from the Alpine Brook
Bridge.
Alpenglow on Meeker, Longs, and Lady Washington.
Longs Peak, as seen from Chasm Junction.
Columbine we saw on the trail.
The group we talked to for awhile at the Boulder Field.
The large snowfield behind them and below the North Face
is called The Dove. We were on the far left of that
snowfield, almost to the edge of the Diamond. It's a lot
farther away than it looks here.
The Keyhole is center left. Storm Peak is center right.
Awesome views from here.
The Boulder Field. You can't see it in this picture, but
there were tents and people visible.
 Ernie surveys the technical stuff
we were about to start while Tom rests.
 Looking back east. That's Twin
Sisters in the background. The bottom of the
"V" is Chasm View where we went after coming
back down.
Ernie puts on his harness. The Keyhole is behind him.
Tom, roped up
on the snowfield. Ernie is barely visible in the rocks
above the snowfield.
 Mike at the base of the snowfield.
Looking east.
Looking down the hole in the ledge at Chasm View.
 Chasm Lake as seen from Chasm View.
Though the picture is worth a thousand words, being there
is worth a million.
The clouds engulf the summit above the Diamond. There
were climbers on the wall at the time, though they're too
small to see in this image.
Ernie and Tom take a nap under a rock while we escaped
the rain.
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