Longs Peak

It had been about 3 weeks since I arrived in Colorado and I had not yet climbed a fourteener. So on Satuday I got up at 4:30 and drove to Longs peak. I went up the Loft route which is the less traveled of the 2 non-technical routes on the peak. The route leads right up between two massive cliffs. When starting up the valley it looks as if the route runs right into a wall. But as you get closer up there is always a ledge that lets you angle up to a higher point. I got stuck once when I walked to the left along a narrow ledge and it came to an end. But from this vantage I could see clearly the place I should have switched back about 15 ft straight below me. It took only a few extra minutes to go back across the ledge to where I could get down and back on track. Near the top the route I was on joins the Keyhole route, the standard way to get up the mountain, the last pitch is called the Home stretch, It is not as steep as the cables on Halfdome, but just as busy, there are a couple of wide cracks angling across a broad slope of granite. It is not that difficult to go up, if you trust your balance, but many people don't and you can see them crawling or sliding along on their butts. On top there were dozens of people. I asked to get my picture taken and ended up talking for a while with a group from Colorado Springs.
On the way down I went through the Keyhole. Long's peak is pretty spectacular from both sides. Although the view from the downward half of the climb that sticks with me is when I was standing in the Keyhole notch and seeing the lines of hikers stretched out across the boulder field below.

Photos: First- The summit shot, as you can see it was not lonely at the top. Second- the keyhole that give the keyhole route it's name, again there was no way to get a picture with out capturing the bystanders, on the other hand he adds a sense of scale to the picture.