This was the day to summit Longs. Great weather forecast and the Keyhole route was completely snow free. For the occasion I took a bigger day pack so that I could stash a few extra things: gloves, fleece sweater, rain gear, ankle brace (ya never know), extra flashlight, etc. It was still dark when I started hiking at 5 am, but after 25 minutes it was light enough for me to turn off my flashlight.
Per usual I passed a lot of hikers before reaching the Chasm Lake junction, but -- not per usual -- one hiker didn't stay passed. He caught up to me again about a mile from the Boulder field, and he asked me about the rest of the route as this was his first time on the trail. Since we both hiked around the same pace we decided to buddy up for the rest of the hike. The other hiker was named Daniel, a mechanical/biomedical engineering student at Colorado State. He's also a runner, which explains his quick hiking pace.
Spoiler: everything went perfect. We reached the Keyhole before 8 am, and although it was a bit windy the weather was quite mild for 13,200'. Then we went thru the Keyhole, across the Ledges
... up the Trough (first photo shows Daniel in the lime green shirt, second photo is looking back down)
... across the Narrows
... up the Homestretch
... finally reaching the large, rather flat summit at 9:40 am (second photo is looking down on Chasm lake)
We hung out on the summit for about 20 minutes, eating snacks and enjoying the view. The route down was uneventful, though we did have to wait a couple of times for hikers heading up the trail. Also it quickly got warm, so Daniel and I ditched our long-sleeve shirts. And we got to see a bunch of marmots, including the one below.
We reached our cars a little before 2 pm, so it took us 9 hours to cover 16 miles round trip with 5000' elevation gain. Outstanding hike -- really great seeing Longs summit again after many years. Bye, Longs!
Per usual I passed a lot of hikers before reaching the Chasm Lake junction, but -- not per usual -- one hiker didn't stay passed. He caught up to me again about a mile from the Boulder field, and he asked me about the rest of the route as this was his first time on the trail. Since we both hiked around the same pace we decided to buddy up for the rest of the hike. The other hiker was named Daniel, a mechanical/biomedical engineering student at Colorado State. He's also a runner, which explains his quick hiking pace.
Spoiler: everything went perfect. We reached the Keyhole before 8 am, and although it was a bit windy the weather was quite mild for 13,200'. Then we went thru the Keyhole, across the Ledges
... up the Trough (first photo shows Daniel in the lime green shirt, second photo is looking back down)
... across the Narrows
... up the Homestretch
... finally reaching the large, rather flat summit at 9:40 am (second photo is looking down on Chasm lake)
We hung out on the summit for about 20 minutes, eating snacks and enjoying the view. The route down was uneventful, though we did have to wait a couple of times for hikers heading up the trail. Also it quickly got warm, so Daniel and I ditched our long-sleeve shirts. And we got to see a bunch of marmots, including the one below.
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