Keyhole Route On Long's Peak

This summer I climbed Long's Peak in Colorad via the Keyhole route. It was a peak that I have often seen and wanted to climb before the summer was over and conditions became unsafe.

I started out from the trailhead at midnight on a Saturday and began walking up the hill. I passed on other hiker right away and met a party of four coming down the hill which seemed unusual due to it being 1:00 am.

It's hard to tell how far you have gone in the dark, each step seems to look very much like the next, especially in a wooded area.

At the second trail intersection I found a pair of abandoned waterproof pants and at the third I stopped and talked with two other hikers and watched some shooting stars go by.

At this point I could finally sort of tell where I was, and once I reached the campground right below the Keyhole I stopped and filled up on water.

From this point on the trail ends and the scrambling begins.

It was still dark when I passed through the Keyhole and began following the ledges up across the side of the mountain. In the darkness it was impossible to tell the exposure, there was just blackness down below.

Once past the ledges, it was a number of switchbacks up the Trough and then some short rockclimbing moves to move out of the Trough and onto the narrows. This was the one section where I really could have used better boots.

Then you must cross the Narrows and then up the Homestretch. While the Narrows has greater exposure, it was easier than the Ledges since the sun was beginning to dawn.

The Homestrech was pretty easy climbing, some hikers did turn around at this point due to the lightning in the far distance, but that was a long ways off in my opinion.

Finally I reached the top,

stayed for 15-20 minutes to take pictures and then headed down.

Getting down was fairly miserable, I had a headache and nausea from the altitude and the weather turned nasty once I was through the Kyehole. Going down the Trough someone knocked two basketball sized rocks loose and they flew down the gully past 20-30 people, it would have not been good if the rocks had hit someone.

There was a marmot that wanted my lunch when I sat down to rest, but other than that the hike out was uneventful, if long and tiring.

I got back to my vehicle and slept for several hours before heading out.