Longs Peak

The showpiece of Rocky Mountain National Park, and the ultimate challenge for hikers and climbers is Longs Peak, which claims a formidable 14,259 feet above sea level and gives Estes Park, and much of Colorado a magnificent natural monument. Wind River Ranch, where we stayed, lay in it's shadows and everyone gazed and talked about it as if it were a pagan god or some forbidden region to be respected, in fact it was an awesome and dangerous mountain with many would-be climbers meeting their fate attempting the summit, I can remember on more than one occasion where someone had fallen to their death, or someone needed to be rescued from the sheer cliff that was called "The Diamond". I however spent most of my time looking at the peak from a safe distance miles away.

There was more than one way to reach the summit and far less dangerous routes than scaling the cliff of the Diamond with ropes and sheer guts. Dad, Uncle Bob and some of the more experienced guests would make the annual attempt to reach the top of Longs Peak the easy way, there was a long trail of switchbacks leading to a field of boulders (coincidentally called "the Boulder Field") and to the base of the peak to a less treacherous cliff where there was a series of cables laid out to assist less experienced climbers to the summit. There was also a longer but strenuous trail along the back of the peak that you would reach through a pass called "The Keyhole", and while this was slightly safer, it took hours longer to reach the top. Reaching the top required leaving early in the morning and returning later in the evening exhausted and satisfied, but more often than not they would return without reaching the top claiming altitude sickness or bad weather, or just being plain tired. One of the regular guests that would lead Dad and Uncle Bob on these treks was a well respected doctor who had years of experience with Longs Peak, Dad would often talk about him and his hiking experiences with the doctor and Dad gleaned much of his Longs Peak expertise from him. With the doctors' leadership Dad was able to reach the summit of Longs Peak on a couple of occasions taking both the cables and the keyhole route. On one of these hikes, my cousin David and I stayed behind and became concerned when our dads didn't return after a couple of hours, not realizing it would take all day to complete the trip. We got a pair of binoculars and tried to find our dads on the cliff worried they were stuck, or we just wanted confirmation they were okay and tried to see them from the ranch. However we didn't see anybody on the mountain. Dad and Uncle Bob returned from reaching the summit one time a little disappointed and confused, they made the very strenuous and dangerous climb to the top, only to find that there was a bunch of people already there, no different than any other hike in the Park, there were old people who didn't seem fit enough to make the climb as well as young kids. Dad and Uncle Bob couldn't figure what they were doing wrong to feel so challenged and exhausted by the climb only to find mere tourists had easily accomplished the hike ahead of them. Later they surmised that most of them took more than one day to make the top and that they would camp overnight along the way. Both Dad and Uncle Bob deemed this as cheating.

It would be a few years before I was allowed to attempt Longs Peak, and I had to succeed at a number of other mountains before I was considered worthy to be allowed to try Longs. One of these mountains was Twin Sisters, a mountain directly behind Wind River Ranch, a simple 11,428 feet above sea level. Twin Sisters is actually 4 peaks, and as a kid I never understood why they called it twins when it was 4, it should've been quadruplet sisters. But on a later trip when I was older, during a casual conversation with Dad, he explained the meaning of "twin sisters" to my innocent and naive sensibilities: if you view the peaks from a certain vantage point the peaks resemble a set of two women's breasts... Oh... yeah, now I see it. It was like the explanation of "Teton" during our trip to Mt. Rushmore, and just as embarrassing. But from that time on that's what I see when I view Twin Sisters. But again, I digress. So the year I went on the trip with Dad by myself and shared a cabin with David was the year we all attempted Longs Peak, me, Dad, Uncle Bob and all my cousins. The hike started out as usual, long, boring and very uphill. Dad and Uncle Bob knew of a shortcut that the rangers take when they need to hike the mountain, that would be to cut through the switchbacks and follow the telephone poles up to the boulder field. While the shortcut did shorten the distance, the terrain was far more rough and the incline noticeably steeper, the hike was fast becoming unpleasant. I was the youngest in the group but not the biggest complainer, (although I did my share of complaining). Most of the harsh words came from the girl cousins, Gail and Sarane, who didn't plan on such an involved hike and wanted to get back to the comfortable cabin life. However we all had an goal and Uncle Bob pressed us on. We got to the Boulder Field, which was exactly like we expected, a vast field of boulders. For me and my size, navigating the boulders was more difficult and time consuming than for the rest, but having David and my Dad along made it worthwhile and I continued on trying to make the next milestone; the cables. Dad told me that once we reached the cable it would be an easy jaunt to the top, but we had to get to the cables first, and that was proving to be more difficult than expected for everyone. The boulder field was the remnant of an ancient glacial flow and left behind a huge pile of strewn rocks, at that altitude there was nothing green or living except for lichen and the occasional marmot, a large beaver-looking squirrel that would emit a loud squeak and disappear before you could get close to it. So some of us kids were distracted by the marmots and this prolonged us getting to the cable route. Dad encouraged me to make a hard push toward the cables and when we arrived everyone else had already been there for some time waiting for us. My cousin Gail was a teenager and preoccupied with getting back to a date she had made with one of the wranglers later that evening, This annoyed Dad immensely and he complained under his breath that our very important objective of reaching the top was being undermined by Gails love life. Uncle Bob was also not very enthusiastic about making the last leg to the top and despite Dad's arguing that it was only a few hundred yards to the top, Dad got voted down and everyone decided this was more than far enough to consider it a successful climb. I was only slightly disappointed but very tired and I knew that the distance I came up, was the same distance I needed to come down, Dad tried to convince me that I basically made it to the top, that we were only minutes away and that I could consider it "the top" if I wanted, but I always knew better, that this wasn't the summit and that I didn't really make it to the top - this time.

It wasn't until I was 15 and was in Estes Park with my Dad one Summer, we had decided before we got to Estes Park that we were going to make it to the top of Longs Peak this time, although Dad was always concerned about "acclimation" and warned me about the altitude and it's effects, I was determined to reach the summit, and I think Dad was also. Dad prepared me with buying me a pair of expensive hiking boots, just like the ones he got when he hiked Longs Peak the first time. Dad considered it was time to buy proper boots since my feet had seemed to stop growing and the investment wouldn't be wasted when I outgrew them. We made a few preparatory hikes and then one day started out early to make it to the top. At the ranger station at the base of the trail we found out that the cables had been removed and it was considered no longer a novice trail, that if we wanted to reach the summit we would have to take the Keyhole route. Dad went to the car and brought along a pair of cleats that you strap on to your boots for gripping ice, for some reason he thought they would be useful. Concerned about not being able to use the cable route we started off to the top. Now, the reason you need to start early is to beat the weather, I found out much later that more people die on Longs Peak from lightning than from falling, especially up at the boulder field above the timber line. This was something we were unaware of at the time, but we pressed on. We also could no longer cut off the switchbacks and take the shortcut through the trail like we did before, they were trying to re-grow where the telephone poles used to be and forbid hiking off the trail, fortunately my age, size and strength had matured and hiking the trail wasn't as strenuous as the last time, also the boulders in the Boulder Field had become smaller to me making them easier to manage. I was full of energy and in no time we reached the base of the mountain where the old cable route used to be.

Dad and I were watching some climbers descending the old cable route with ropes. As we sat there watching them Dad and I thought that it really didn't look all that difficult to climb up without the cables. Part of the reason the cables were there in the first place was to be able to cross a patch of glacier, which wasn't there anymore. So with a little discussion, Dad and I convinced ourselves we could climb up to the top and avoid the lengthy Keyhole route. And up we went. Silently we passed the climbers on their way down and they didn't discourage us from attempting this way up, so we thought it must have been okay to climb up. A little ways up one of us loosened some rocks and they came tumbling down toward the climbers, we yelled out a warning and the climbers seemed to overreact, panic and dive for cover. We could tell they were not pleased with us and I could guess they were cursing us under their breath. Dad thought this was a silly reaction and they looked funny running for cover like that, I started to get a little concerned and doubted our decision make it to the top this way, but continued to climb up. Along the way climbing the cliff, every so often, we would come across metal eyelets embedded in the rock, these were originally used to attache the old cables to the side of the cliff, and now climbers, like the ones we just kicked rocks on, would use them for climbing with ropes, so we used these eyelets as guides to the top. We didn't get far, but far enough so we couldn't get back when we realized we might have made a mistake by taking this route, the rock climb was quickly becoming more and more difficult and dangerous and it got to the point where we were unable to climb down without slipping and falling. Falling at this point also would've meant certain death down off of The Diamond, we were between a rock and a hard place and essentially we were trapped realizing climbing the cliff looked easier than it actually was. We considered calling out to the climbers for help, who were far in the distance, but we were too embarrassed now, considering how stupid we must have looked to them dropping rocks on their heads. So we both hung on there for a few moments and tried to decide how to get out of this predicament, it was a go up or stay situation and staying wasn't an option, (and it seemed going up wasn't much of an option either), so we guessed we just had to go up. Dad realized that he had those strap-on cleats for his boots, which seemed useless right now, but he took them out and told me to tie one of the straps to one of the eyelets just barely in reach above us. I was able to reach that high but Dad had difficulty stretching that far, so I tied the strap around the eyelet, and hoping my knot held, pulled myself up to a better position. Hanging on to the eyelet strap and to Dad, I awkwardly pulled him up to a better position and we both inched ourselves up to a safer point on the cliff. The worst part seemed over and it looked a little bit easier from that point on, but we really couldn't tell, but we did know one thing for sure, we couldn't go back down the same direction less we risked falling to our deaths, so Dad and I nervously continued up the old cable route, sans cables. Thankfully the rest of the climb was not as treacherous and became easier, but I also noticed that it was considerably longer to the top than I expected, not the few minutes and couple of hundred yards dad indicated to me the last time we attempted Longs, but the worst was over and gradually the incline became less steep, until finally, we reached the summit.

This was truly a momentous occasion, not only had I finally reached the top of Longs Peak, but I didn't die in the process. I too noticed the amount of people at the top, obviously they took a different way up, but I was a bit surprised at how many people there was at this remote and difficult place on the Earth. The summit really wasn't what I expected and from the base, the peak looks pointed with not much area at all, but in fact it was flat and rocky and covered a few acres and resembled the landscape of Mars in those NASA pictures. Dad and I didn't say much about what we just went through, but we did silently say a prayer and promised never to do anything like that again. And since we did work very hard getting up to the top we made the most of it and spent as much time exploring the summit before we made our way down. There was no question about it, we were taking the long and difficult Keyhole route back down and fortunately it was downhill. There wasn't really a trail and you had to scramble and climb over rocky terrain, following painted bulls eyes on the rocks marking the way to the Keyhole pass, and back to the Boulder Field. It was easier going on the way back but we were tired and clumsy, and to make matters worse the threat of lightening loomed before us. At the Keyhole there was built out of rock a shelter to stay in case of lightning, we took a quick look but was eager about getting back and clueless about the threat of lightening. On the way through the Boulder Field we could hear thunder in the distance, and felt slightly vulnerable, but chose not to think about it and continued down. Once at the treeline the trail re-appeared and the hiking got easier, I tended to hike faster than Dad, (which he always mentioned and warned me about overdoing it), so I put myself on auto-pilot and went straight down to the parking lot without hardly stopping to rest. About a half-hour later Dad appeared and we got back in the car and went back to town, successfully conquering Longs Peak.

To celebrate we had dinner at Pizza Hut, this was before I became a regular beer drinker so I rested on my laurels with a pitcher of Dr. Pepper and half a large pizza. I proudly told the waitress we just finished climbing Longs Peak, but she didn't seem impressed.