Steps in the Right Direction: Longs Peak

July 19, 2011 Longs Peak 16 miles round trip 111.9 Total Miles

After sitting in the car at the Beaver Creek Ranger station Penny using the free WIFI and her computer to search for a forecast and Kathi in talking with the Ranger trying to find the best forecast for Tuesday’s weather; we find a great internet weather source go to http://www.noaa.gov/ You can almost pin point the location and get weather conditions and forecast for a very specific spot. Kathi even came up with a way to talk with a weather forecaster at the National Weather forecaster’s station out of Boulder CO. He pretty much gave Kathi the same report that we were picking up on Noaa. 40% chance of rain. (Since it is Monsoon season, the forecast has been forty percent chance of rain everyday since we got to CO. And it has rained everyday we have been here at some point during the day. So it is my belief that forecast should read: 100% chance of rain, and it will start sometime around ...)

Tuesday’s forecast was: Winds 6-10 miles per hour, mostly cloudy, and wind gusts possible. Wednesday’s forecast looked about the same but the winds were 10-18 mostly sunny… What should we pick…? I reminded Kathi that when the winds are 15 miles per hours, I choose not to ride into it! I bet climbing on the ledges will not be fun.

We decide to give Longs a shot on Tuesday.

We go home and start preparing our packs. We set out all of the food and divvy up the weight equally. We fill our water camelbacks 3/4^th full and pack the water purifier and additional small packs of powder Gatorade. Gloves, ear headbands, fleece, rain gear, map, gps, compass, first aide kit, ice /snow stabilizers (things you put on your boots almost like crampons but less severe and lighter). We think our packs are lighter due to taking less water and off setting with a water purifier.

When going up to Longs Peak, the park suggests that you let a family member or friend know your time frame, route, and return time and emergency number. We decide to call Penny's sister Polly. We burden her with the info and she takes notes. Her lasting words were, "I'll pray for you." We take a 20 minute soak and bubble in the hot tub and off to bed by 8 pm. While crawling into bed I remember there is a time difference between Minnesota and Colorado! I had not taken that into consideration when telling Polly if we had not called her back by 6:30 then she should call the emergency number. Back to the cell phone to take care of that miscalculation. I would sure hate to have her getting nervous and make that emergency call! When I call her back I make a time correction and add an additional hour just for comfort.

We wake up at 10 pm to thunder and lightening. This causes some disappointment, but it is not time to make the go or no go decision yet. Go back to sleep.

The alarm goes off at 12:45 am. (I know our nieces and nephews are most likely just going to bed at this hour, but seriously this is usually the time I get up and make a trip to the bathroom before heading back to dreamland.)We get out of bed and are greeted with a starry, starry night with a three quarter moon beaming down. Don’t know where the storm blew over too, but this looks like a great start to a hiking in the dark adventure. We are out of the house by 1:30 am and registering at the trailhead by 2 am. No other cars on the road at this time but look out for the elk as they like to play on the road when there are no other cars around. We found four elk having a play session. They did not have their lights on, good thing we were going slowly!

Kathi looks like she is wide awake!

@2 in the morning I look like I am sleeping!

Signing in, we see that two groups of hikers left for the summit at 1:15 am. And two groups left at 1:55 am., we signed in at 2am. Turning on our headlamps we hit the trail.

Kathi has a new headlamp this year that we picked up at REI just days before our trip. It is like having your high beams on your car. It is so bright I think we could both hike by it. Lucky for Kathi she needed to use her old headlight to see something in Hattie’s ear about three days before leaving for CO. It seemed like it had a short or something. As a nice little advertisement for REI, they have a 100% return policy for whatever reason. So Kathi returned the light and upgraded to a new beacon in the night. Now that I think about it, REI must be really happy that Kathi and I go hiking every year as we seem to find all sorts of new things we need to improve our hiking experience!

Our first land mark is at 1.5 miles, Goblin Forrest camp ground. Ooohh… scary. The pine trees in this area are very spooky looking and in the darkness lighted by two headlamps can look very ghoulish. We stop and take some fun pictures.

Scary

What was that I just heard?

Nice warning...

Next landmark is at the 2 mile mark. It is the National Park’s kind reminder that being above tree line during a lightening event is a bad idea. So they posted some helpful hints. Leaving the forest at this point always seems to me like you are cruising through a forest and suddenly you are walking on the moon. All of the shorter and shorter pine trees called krumhotz are on this trail. These are regular pine trees but due to the severe winter conditions they grow short and are usually very wind blown looking with all of their branches on one side like a flag blowing in the wind. Sorry I got side tracked there, we are now 2 miles into the hike and stepping out on to the Alpine tundra. In the glow of two headlamps it looks like the moon; add in the light from a three quarter moon and the landscape was very other worldly.

Kathi and I are making good time. We can see the headlamps from the groups in front of us. Occasionally we can get a glimpse of what seems to be either a really bright flash from a camera or the flash of lightening up over Granite Pass. We have a hard time believing that it could be lightening as the skies above us are mostly clear, some clouds, but the starry night appears to say all is good. We keep on going just assuming it is a camera flash…Our words are few but we talk about how much further we are this year compared to last year. The one hour earlier start was a good start time for us. We are up over Granite Pass and up the shoulder of Lady Washington before the sun rise. The skies continue to look good, I bet the flash we saw several times saw was just a camera. We get to the Boulder Field in 4 hours. Kathi heads to the pit toilet and I get out the water purifier and capture 24 ounces of fresh Longs Peak mountain water for each of us. We also have put on our rain coats as there is a strong cold breeze blowing down the Boulder Field with occasional gusts. I think this is a bit more than forecasted. Kathi thinks out loud that maybe since we had that surprise thunderstorm at 10pm the weather pattern has changed and we might be having Wednesday weather rather than Tuesday’s…Ahhh that does not give me any boost of confidence. Wednesday’s forecast included wind gusts up to 24 miles per hour!

Sunrise

Sun shining on Longs Peak

It takes 56 minutes to boulder hop to the top of the boulder pile and be sitting at the Keyhole. These boulders are the size of cars and trucks. There is no laid out trail everyone just has to find their own way. As Kathi and I are picking and choosing our path, two guys wearing shorts and low cut shoes just fly by us on their route up the Boulder Field. I can see with my eyes that they are on the same type of rocks as we are, but my mind says there must be some easier route over there. Perhaps the truth is they are 20 something and practice the extreme sport of trail running. As Kathi and I enjoy life in the slow lane of boulder hopping, we watch the fast lane two-some go up Longs Peak on some route off to the left. Not sure what that route is, but it is not where we are going.

Up at the top of the Keyhole Kathi and I are facing a good strong “breeze”. Ok, let’s just call it wind. We know that there are three reasons to turn back now: wind strong enough to blow you down, a storm coming, or wet rocks. If you are considering turning back because of the wind you should go down the ledges some 100 feet and see if the wind is within your capabilities.

Last year we made it to the second bull’s eye before turning back as there was a storm coming. This year we move down the ledges some 100 feet to evaluate the wind. Is this something that we really want to do or should try to do?