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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
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    cb, co
    Posts
    5,034

    TR: Long's Peak- Loft ascent, Keplinger descent. 5.4.08

    The crew: goldenboy, mtnbikerskierchick, don pedro, agave afish, cjw, non-mag Norm. Yeah, a little large, but what the hell.

    First off, a huge shout-out for doumall's TR of last year, and Ireallyliketoski's TR from last week for all the helpful beta.



    Ah, there's nothing like a 1:30am alarm clock on a Saturday night (or is that a Sunday morning?) The cops were out in full force, it being the weekend before cinco de Mayo. It would have almost been fun to get pulled over: "You been drinking?" "Yeah, coffee, and a lot of it, and that smell is polypro, not alcohol, so beat it, Mr Ocifer." MBSC and I were off the hook for running shuttle, so we went straight to the Long's Peak trailhead while the others dropped a car off at Wild Basin.

    We were skinning by 3:45 or so, on one of the most heavily beaten paths of any fourteener. By treeline, the sun was starting to come out:



    Who the hell smiles with a lack of sleep?


    Chasm lake is an amazing place. Diamond face:


    Our route followed the obvious Loft couloir on the left:


    The bootpacking up the couloir was perfect.


    Near the top, you hit a cliffband and are confronted with a choice: right through a difficult and potentially icy step, or left onto an exposed ramp system. We chose left. MBSC:


    MBSC and cjw:


    Once on top of the Loft, the high plateau between Meeker and Long's, we made our way down through tedious boulders to make our way to the upper part of Keplinger's couloir on the mountain's S side. We purposefully dropped a little extra elevation below Clark's Arrow, having heard that it was easier and faster to do so.

    I actually enjoyed the scrambling in this area a lot. Mbsc:


    Once we were off the rocks, the climb remained exposed, but we were on great snow for our traverse across the ledges and finally the homestretch. Mbsc and agave afish:




    The huge summit of Long's:


    The skiing was quite good- some powder and some corn. MBSC drops the homestretch, a few feet below the summit:

    There were a few rocky sections to slide through, but overall, coverage was pretty good.


    don pedro:




    gb:




    cjw:


    Norm:


    aa:




    mbsc:


    Yes, the route does continue all the way above mbsc in the shot below. Keplinger's is a pretty cool route, it goes even though it doesn't look like it should or even can.


    back to don pedro:


    Long's S side:


    Our ascent traversed below the cliffs from the looker's right, near the black rock band. The couloir is fairly obvious. This ptarmigan, however, is not so obvious:


    Some guys were just getting to the base of the couloir at 3:30 , but we were happy to have their tracks to follow until we reached Sandbeach lake (Meeker right, Long's left).


    From that point on, we put the "wild" in wild basin. There is a reason that area is well-known for being a bushwack from hell, and our experience wasn't much different. Imagine this for two hours, but with less and less snow as we descended, eventually walking through the forest until we hit the trail we wanted.

    Right around hour 13, we walked off the trail and into the parking area. Woohoo, beer-thirty, we thought. But oh, no, Long's wasn't done with us yet. Dry as the road may have been, it was still gated another couple of miles down the road. It was tough remembering all the good turns Keplinger's provided us at that point, but the truck and the beers arrived soon enough.

    Long's is probably considered the preeminent climber's peak in all of CO. It has it all- Huge classic multi-pitch routes on the Diamond, great scrambling routes, ice routes, and mixed routes. Sadly for us skiers, what the park lacks in snowfall, it makes up in wind, making snow routes difficult to find in condition. The silver lining of this was that the North Face Cables route, which I wanted to ski, never filled in. That route has 800' of good skiing, whereas Keplinger's has almost 3 grand. So in the end, I feel like we lucked out and ended up having a great tour de Long's.
    Last edited by goldenboy; 05-06-2008 at 10:34 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    WHEREAS,
    Posts
    12,946
    so, gb, when are you slogging up Harvard?
    Quote Originally Posted by Roo View Post
    I don't think I've ever seen mental illness so faithfully rendered in html.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    CB
    Posts
    122
    Wow...Longs peak is LONG! Nice work. GB on the homestretch....watch out!
    "If your not livin on the edge then you are taking up to much space"

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Location
    Alco-Hall of Fame
    Posts
    2,997
    puts another one in the done bucket. CONGRATS!
    "It is not the result that counts! It is not the result but the spirit! Not what - but how. Not what has been attained - but at what price.
    - A. Solzhenitsyn

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Flavor Country
    Posts
    2,974
    Nice work, only few left for you gb. And I have one question, is she ever not smiling?

    "They don't think it be like it is, but it do."

  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Eagle County
    Posts
    12,612
    GB, you and your gang= KILLING IT!
    ROLL TIDE ROLL

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Posts
    189
    You did the loop? Awesome man! Great TR as usual. Have fun down there
    You smell that?

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Boulder, CO
    Posts
    527
    Another fantastic outing.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Posts
    3,173
    mtnbikerskierchic: Your TR's are sick and you are so fine!!! Thanks for all the stoke. Keep on killin' it. Great work from all you guys.
    "The skis just popped me up out of the snow and I went screaming down the hill on a high better than any heroin junkie." She Ra

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Carbondale
    Posts
    12,478
    Good work guys... that seems to be a bit of a slog, but very cool none the less.
    www.dpsskis.com
    www.point6.com
    formerly an ambassador for a few others, but the ski industry is... interesting.
    Fukt: a very small amount of snow.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Boulder, CO
    Posts
    66
    Quote Originally Posted by goldenboy View Post
    The silver lining of this was that the North Face Cables route, which I wanted to ski, never filled in. That route has 800' of good skiing, whereas Keplinger's has almost 3 grand. So in the end, I feel like we lucked out and ended up having a great tour de Long's.
    Ya, but it is a killer 800' (update: Boulder field is 12,700, so I'd give the NF more like 1200') I'm glad to have done both routes now. They are both great.

    ...I've been in Wild Basin twice now, and both times I swore I'd never go in there again.

    Fun day for sure!

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Denver, CO
    Posts
    6,866
    So when do you guys plan on doing the Notch?

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    Eagle, CO
    Posts
    2,271
    Nice one crew! Must have been wierd skiing so close to the city for you all.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Location
    Denver
    Posts
    703
    love the teener stoke!
    We hold daggers in the side of the Moon...

  15. #15
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Boulder, CO
    Posts
    66
    Quote Originally Posted by Kya View Post
    Nice one crew! Must have been wierd skiing so close to the city for you all.
    The weird thing is that Long's is one of the few 14ers with no cell reception. I can see my house, but can't call it.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Jackson, WY
    Posts
    5,642
    nice!
    this shot gets me stoked for spring touring & volcano season


  17. #17
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    bozone
    Posts
    945
    that looks like a fun day, thanks for sharing.

    also, is it me, or does this have eric roner's name written all over it?

    Quote Originally Posted by goldenboy View Post
    Chasm lake is an amazing place. Diamond face:

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    The Ranch
    Posts
    3,792
    Nice work, I feel like I'm finally part of popular culture now.

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Not in the PRB
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    32,776
    excellent!
    "fuck off you asshat gaper shit for brains fucktard wanker." - Jesus Christ
    "She was tossing her bean salad with the vigor of a Drunken Pop princess so I walked out of the corner and said.... "need a hand?"" - Odin
    "everybody's got their hooks into you, fuck em....forge on motherfuckers, drag all those bitches across the goal line with you." - (not so) ill-advised strategy

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    2,787
    Brilliant climbing photos. Nice work.

  21. #21
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Where the Butte is Crested
    Posts
    3,338
    I have to say that I definitely underestimated Long's Peak. Long's Peak lives up to it's name. It's LONG! It just seems like everything takes longer than you expect. Nevertheless, Keplinger's was in good shape. I really enjoyed the ski!

    The slog out through Wild Basin really wasn't fun at all. The icing on the cake though was showing up to the parking lot where there was no car (gb says it was hour 13, but it was more like hour 14), and we still had about a mile and a half to go!

    For beta purposes, anyone interested in this line should hit it VERY soon. There were a couple of spots higher up on Keplinger's that will certainly be melted out completely soon. We did quite a bit of billy-goating in that area.
    -
    14erskiers.com

    "Don't be afraid of the spaces between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it, you can make it so." - Belva Davis

    "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle"--Albert Einstein

  22. #22
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Ogden
    Posts
    9,103
    You guys are killing it lately!

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    denver
    Posts
    1,863
    Amazing pictures. It must feel really good to be almost done.

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Reno
    Posts
    2,434
    Nice work.....I am very stoked there was snow for you guys.

    Longs is long in the summer too.....despite being so popular 15 miles is a big day (not sure what your point to point was).

    Keep it up!!!!
    Donjoy to the World!

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Location
    Golden
    Posts
    6,383

    Talking

    Bushwacking? Shiiiiiit. We call that treeskiing where I'm from.
    Drive slow, homie.

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