Longs Peak via Keplinger's Couloir 4-27-2008
Longs Peak was the first 14er that I hiked with my brother, climb2ski, way back in 1998. With our lungs still filled with salt air, fresh from Rhode Island, we hiked the standard Keyhole route and needless to say we were blown away. Over the past 10 years we've spent some time climbing different routes on this peak: Kiener's Route, Stettner's Ledges, Alexander's Chimney, and the North Face. Every time I looked at that list I felt two gnawing chasms, the Diamond and a summit ski descent. We'll save the Diamond for later, today we'll focus on a summit ski descent.
Deciding on what route to attempt was actually pretty easy, I've wanted to explore the south side of the mountain after getting a good glimpse on a tour up St. Vrain Mountain several years ago, and new ground always refreshes the soul. This route is actually one of the easiest routes up Longs, it is the same route of the first documented ascent in 1868, but it's long on miles and vertical, at 16 miles 6,000 feet round trip.
After talking with climb2ski for a while, we picked a day and decided to attempt to climb and ski this route in a one day all out blitz. I picked up my brother in Littleton and we drove up to the Wild Basin Trailhead, arriving at 1:30am the ubiquitous time shot needed to be taken.
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After packing up we hit the trail, starting around 8,300 feet we hiked for about 1.5 miles before we reached snowline around 9,200 feet. Here climb2ski enjoys a brisk morning walk with the moon looking on.
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The darkness of the early morning hours has a strange way of disturbing my mind.
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A semblance of a trail winds its way up the valley, after switching over to skins, the trail disappeared and the bushwhack up into the alpine zone began in full earnest. The early morning light revealed a glimpse of the route to come, cold and cloaked in snow, my spirit was renewed.
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climb2ski found a beautiful snow shelter, with no signs of tauntauns(thanks FigureEleven) we decided to take a break after 5 hours of hiking.
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With the first 5 miles and 2,000 feet behind us, refreshed from some morning coffee, we walked some more. From the break cave it's about 3.5 miles and 2,000 feet to the base of the couloir, sublime views are included in your park pass.
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The Keplinger Couloir almost in full view.
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Higher and higher with every step, the sun's rim now well above the horizon.
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7 hours, 7.5 miles, and 4,000 feet into the day our skis begged for a break, we found a snow slope to water them and dined on sweet honey and peanut butter sandwiches.
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We traded in our skins for crampons, our fear for perseverance, and began phase 3 of the day, a 1600 foot snow 40 degree snow climb up to Notch on Longs at 9am. Let's get this done.
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climb2ski starts to make his way up the lower slopes, smiling and enjoying the perfect day.
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Majestic views of the Indian Peaks unfolded to the south as we made steady but slow progress up the couloir. The snow in the couloir was a mixed bag of conditions and somewhat laborious to climb, but stability was good and temperatures were cold.
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A rare view of Ireallyliketoski trailing climb2ski on the ascent.
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It took us about 3 hours to climb up to the notch and we were worked by this point, still 600 feet below the summit, we decided to take another break and recharge the batteries. climb2ski had a delicious chicken sandwich, I had 2 clif shots with caffeine, a starbucks doubleshot, and some caffeinated gum. I felt great so I started breaking trail across the ledge traverse, traversing across some pretty steep and deep snow.
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climb2ski starting on the ledge traverse.
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The ledge traverse eventually meets up with the Homestretch, a series of 3rd class slabs that are part of the standard Keyhole route. To say that I was overjoyed to see these slopes cloaked in so much snow would be an accurate assessment. To say that climb2ski was feeling worked at this point would be accurate as well.
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Perseverance, don't climb Longs without it.
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At 2pm, 12 hours, 8 miles, and 6,000 feet after setting out the summit of Longs was finally ours. 10 years earlier we shared this summit with hundreds of other hikers, today it was ours alone. Did someone say stoked?
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Alright let's get this skiing thing done. The snow was great, our legs were renewed and we dropped into the Homestretch. Here's climb2ski at the top of the snow covered slabs, with the summit just a few feet above him.
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At some point you have to get off the Homestretch and onto the traverse ledge, climbing the route first definitely helped as the route finding wasn't totally obvious.
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climb2ski likes the snow deep and he was most pleased.
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The upper section of the couloir was still well frozen and also the most technical part of the descent. Fortunately both climb2ski and I can side slip with the best of them.
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The snow in the bottom 2/3 of the couloir was simply amazing, climb2ski finally convinced it was all worth it.
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Down, down, down...
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Ready, set, schralp...
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climb2ski makes beautiful turns.
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When it gets steep, he just points them.
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We made it to the bottom of the couloir and took another break around 12,000 feet. Still a long way from the trailhead we started the long ski back to the car around 4pm. Where is everyone?
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We followed a lone set of tracks through some trees, quickly lost our general path of ascent, and soon found ourselves in some thick trees.
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Trending more towards the river bed for the descent we eventually rejoined the trail on dry ground, taking much longer than I had anticipated. All that was left now was a 1.5 mile walk back to the car, 17 hours later...
Oh dream of joy,
Is that my car I see?
Is that a cooler with a beer?
Is this mine own country?
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