Thursday, August 4, 2011

They Call it Longs for a Reason

Weeks before we left on vacation to Estes Park, I had spent hours upon hours of researching one of the most famous 14'ers, Longs Peak. At 14,255 feet, this 14 mile round trip hike draws hikers from near and far. Most of the articles or blogs I found mentioned things like "high degree of exposure" and "not for those who fear heights".
I had it in my head that I was going to do it, or at least attempt it. That is until we took Macy on a 6.6 mile round trip to Estes Cone. After finishing that 5 hour hike with a 20lb baby on my back, I was telling myself that Longs Peak was probably not in the cards this year. But the thoughts of tackling this peak flooded my head for the next day until I finally made up my mind.

I was doing it. If I didn't do it now, I would surely have to come back and do it some other time. So why wait?

I set my alarm for 12:30 a.m. and after what was probably only two good hours of sleep, I woke and ate some oatmeal and finished packing up before giving Kristie a kiss goodbye and heading out to the Longs Peak Ranger Station which was about nine miles south of Estes Park on Route 7. I was the only one on the road at that time of night. Not even a wild animal made an appearance.

I arrived at the trailhead parking lot at about 1:45 a.m. They suggest leaving for this hike between 2:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. so you can be off the summit before noon which is when thunderstorms tend to roll in quickly. My plan was to join up with another group of hikers so I wouldn't have to make the trek alone. I grabbed my Camelbak, which had about 132 oz of water, four protein bars, four pouches of trail mix and two energy gels. I also had a drawstring vinyl bag filled with a jacket, a water filtration pump system and a banana - turns out that banana should not have been in there - more on this later. About five minutes into the hike, I caught up to a group of four hikers (two guys - John and Ilia, two girls - Laura and Miranda) that were stopped on the trail. I took a quick breather and then asked if they minded if I joined them. "Sure, if you don't mind hiking with some flatlanders," said the shortest female hiker. Turns out, most of them were from Chicago, with one of them living in Cuyahoga Falls area. What were the chances?

It was good to have company on the trail. We took a lot of breaks, mostly to catch our breath or to add or remove layers. It was surprisingly warm to start the hike - in the low 60's. But as we climbed, the air got thinner and cooler. During one of our breaks, I shined my flashlight out to the horizon and in doing so, discovered that there were 20 to 30 elk in the field right next to us, with one about 20 feet away!

Laura was having some problems with the elevation and was belching about every minute. It was really funny. She was quite embarrased by it, but I told her that it would make for great blog material! Our conversation helped the first four hours breeze by and before we knew it, the sun was rising over the horizon and we no longer needed our flashlights. We were quickly approaching the first difficult obstacle of the final approach: The Boulder Field.


Miranda doing a handstand in the Boulder Field.




The Boulder Field is just that, a HUGE enormous field of boulders. It looks like a giant explosion happened and threw these enormous rocks everywhere. It's tedious hiking as you need to watch every step carefully. A rolled ankle at this point could end your day. After what seemed like an hour of boulder hopping, we finally reached the Keyhole. This is the most recognizable feature of the Longs Peak hike and you can just make it out in the photo above.

Once you cross through the Keyhole, everything changes. Before I even got up to the Keyhole to catch a glimpse of the rest of our journey, I heard other hikers gasping and discussing whether they were going to continue. As soon as I crossed through the Keyhole, the temperature dropped and the wind picked up. I decided that I needed to sit down and put on my jacket before I made my decision on whether to press on or end the hike here. After standing up and getting a good look at the next stage of the hike "The Ledges" I realized this is something I could do. My group was eager to tackle "The Ledges" and actually pressed on a couple hundred feet in front of me. I found myself standing with a few other hikers at this point - two guys in their early 40's - Dave and Ed. They were having some second thoughts about the treacherous road ahead and I convinced them to come along with me. During the next 10-15 minutes, we saw about a half dozen people turn around because they got pretty rattled and decided it was not for them.


The Ledges is a section that hugs the side of the mountain, typically giving you six to eight feet of rocky path and then a significant dropoff on the other side. At some points, there is only about four feet to work with, but at no time did I feel like one wrong move spelled the end. I've been there before with Angel's Landing and I did not feel nearly as intimidated. There are red and yellow bulleyes painted on the rock that give you a general direction to point yourself as you negotiate the rocky terrain. After working through The Ledges for a good 20-30 minutes, we reached the next phase of the hike: The Trough.

I didn't get any photographs, which probably tells a good story of how much I was focusing on my footwork and eliminating distractions. I included a photo I found online above. The Trough is a long steep climb up a narrowing section. I stress the word "Long" because it takes forever. If the exposure and heights don't get to you, surely the physical toll of climbing this never ending rocky steep incline will. To make matters worse, there are a lot of very loose smaller stones the entire way up which makes each step a gamble. If you do happen to knock a smaller rock down the incline, the proper ettiquette is to yell "Rock!" so that those below you can either brace for impact or try to avoid the incoming trajectory. I probably yelled "Rock!" a half dozen times in this section. At some point, I passed my original group of John, Laura and Miranda (Ilia decided the pace was too slow and pressed on earlier in the morning). After what seemed to be an eternity, we reached the top of The Trough.

The next section was called "The Narrows" and if "The Ledges" were not intimidating enough for you, then this surely would take care of that! The Narrows was very similar to The Ledges, just , well, narrower and shorter. And since we were much higher up now, close to the summit, the drop offs looked even more menacing. At this point, I had come up behind two hikers from Japan. One of them appeared to be in his 40's or 50's while the other one looked a little older. They didn't speak english very well, but I tried to give them universal signs of encouragement like thumbs up and big smiles to let them know they were doing just fine. Once past "The Narrows," I turned the corner to see the final obstacle: The Home Stretch.


The picture above is from more than halfway up The Home Stretch. Don't let it deceive you as it kind of looks like the whole thing is only 10 feet tall. Click on the picture and look at those little people way up there. It's steep and insane. It also felt very long and never ending and honestly, there were times I would look up and think that I might not be able to do it. It had been nearly two hours since we went through the Keyhole and I felt exhausted and finally the altitude was starting to get to me. But sure enough, we pressed forward and by about 10:00 a.m. - eight hours after starting from the trailhead parking lot, we made it to the summit!


Below is a picture of Dave and I on the actual highest point of the summit.


And here is a picture with one of the Japanese hikers I mentioned before. It turns out, he was 72 years old!


Below is a picture of my original group - from Left to Right: Laura, Miranda and John.

And one final shot of me before heading down.


As I mentioned before, the altitude was finally getting to me. I had a slight headache and food did not sound good to me, although I did eat a protein bar at the top just to make sure I replaced some of the many calories that were burned off on the hard climb up.

Dave, Ed and their other friend, John-Michael also wanted to head down, so we began the descent. Going down The Home Stretch is actually a lot more difficult than going up. Most of the time, I found myself sliding down on my butt to the next foothold. As Ed cleverly stated "The South Face of my pants were struggling." I wasn't sure if my new North Face hiking pants were going to survive the hike down with all of the butt-sliding I was doing, but at this point, I just wanted to get down safely. If they were a one-and-done purchase, so be it.

Ed and I led the way down and at one point, I ran out of water so Ed let me have some of his. I learned the hard way that I packed too much food and not enough water. It took about the same amount of time to get back to the Keyhole as it took to get up to the summit from the same point. Mostly because every step needed to be placed with extra caution. A lazy move at this point in the game could mean a serious fall.

After going through the Keyhole, I was getting desperate for water. Ed's supply had run dry too so I knew I had to find a water source that I could pump from. I zeroed in on a big patch of melting snow to the left of the Boulder Field and followed what would likely be the path the melting snow would take down through the Boulder Field. I could hear the water running underneath me, but could not see it quite yet due to the mulitple layers of boulders beneath me. After chasing it for about 20 minutes, I found a nice water hole that had a pretty good stream of water coming through. I summoned a nearby camper to help me and within about 5 minutes, I filled my Camelbak hydration pack as well as a 16 oz bottle of water.

I caught up to Ed and gave him the bottle of water, although by this time, they found another friend of theirs who had Gatorade left. I insisted he take the bottle of water as a repayment of what I had borrowed. He accepted but I think he was a little uncertain about the filter I was using and rightfully so as Giardia can be a nasty, nasty thing to pick up from a water source. Just to assure him and me for that matter, I pulled out the little instruction book and it stated that the Katadyn Hiker filter was 99.9% effective at eliminating bacteria and 99.99999% effective at removing protozoa. I liked my chances so I drank away and man did it taste amazing. Maybe it was because I had gone the last 45 minutes of a strenuous hike without water, but it seriously tasted so pure with no aftertaste.

At this point, I realized it was getting close to 1:30 p.m. and I wanted to get back to Kristie and Macy by 4:00 p.m. if possible so we could do dinner that night. I said my goodbyes to Dave, Ed and John-Michael and took off down the path.

I flew down very quickly. In fact, the section that had taken us four hours early that morning only took me about two on the way down. By 3:45 p.m., I was cruising into the Ranger Station with a huge sense of accomplishment.

14 hours, 14 miles and 4855 vertical feet (9710 if you count up and down) later...I did it! I hiked my first 14'er!

So about that banana in my vinyl bag. I forgot about it and it got smashed up and all brown from getting banged into the rocks. It ripped open and I had brown mushy banana all over my jacket and inside the bag. Gross.

Looking back, this was by far the most physically challenging thing I have ever done and I am so glad I attempted it and never gave up. If anyone reading this is thinking about doing it, I highly recommend it.

P.S. - John, Ilia, Laura and Miranda - if you are reading this - I never got to say goodbye. Thank you very much for allowing me to join your group. It was a pleasure hiking and sharing an awesome experience with you.

P.P.S. - Make sure to click on all the photos to see an enlarged version to really get the sense of how high this peak was!

2 comments:

amandapetrak55 said...

Congratulations, Jeff! That is quite an accomplishment. Thanks for sharing with me.

katie said...

Good work! Bring flattened bananas next time - they're at Trader Joes!!