| Kieners Solo on Longs Peak (Colorado) Trip Report |
| Kieners Solo on Longs Peak (Colorado)   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Colorado, United States, North America Date Climbed/Hiked: Jul 24, 2008 Activities: Mountaineering Season: Summer | Page By: conorsmyth Created/Edited: Aug 20, 2008 / Aug 20, 2008 Object ID: 433520 Hits: 1803  Loading... Page Score: 88.51% - 27 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
PreparationI must be an impressionable guy. My focus on the Kieners Route on Longs Peak was the result of an off-hand conversation with an REI employee: I asked, "What's a good mixed route for a relative novice?" The reply was, "Kieners Route on Longs Peak in Colorado." And so the dreaming and prep began, about 3 years ago.
I set my sights on a solo when it became increasingly apparent there would be no takers among my regular climbing partners, or schedules would be impossible to match. Guide? Nah...can't share something this personal with a person you've never shared a climb with before, and likely won't again.
Didn't do a ton to prepare for this. I'm fit--I run a 5K most days, bike a fair amount--but I never pulled a long day of hiking leading up to this (3-4 hours at most). Kieners took me better than 16 hours to complete.
Approach I was nervous and slept very little before I headed off for the climb at midnight, about an hour after checking over and packing my gear for the final time. I was in Colorado with my family, and when we took a drive from Boulder to Estes Park the day before and I spotted Longs for the first time from Highway 7, I wondered about my plan, to say the least—pretty imposing for a first-timer.
I parked my rental car at the Long’s Peak Ranger Station, signed the register, and set off at 1:00 am. I noted that a woman from Iowa had set off not long before me on a solo of the Keyhole Route. I could see her head lamp up ahead after hiking for a while, and I gradually reeled her in—she wasn’t in the mood to talk, so I hiked on by.
The hike up to the cutoff for Chasm Lake seemed to go pretty quickly, although I tried to be careful not to go too fast in my excitement. Stopped at the cutoff for a break: 3 guys resting, but not too talkative, the woman from Iowa who kept on moving, and a guy from—of all places—Clintonville, Wisconsin, who said “which peak is that?” The three guys seemed incredulous that this guy had no idea what he was looking at or, really, where he was going (given his lack of information and preparedness, I encouraged him not to follow me!). Nice guy, though, and plenty game.
I headed toward Chasm Lake, still in the dark, for what was one of the best parts of the day—sunrise while sitting by the Lake. The hike by Columbine Falls—which you have to cross at one point, in the dark—was amazing. At this point it became like meeting a famous person around every corner. I’d been looking at pictures of all these landmarks for so long. Amazing…simply amazing. Bit of a slog, though, once I actually started the traverse of Chasm Lake. Loose rock, darkness, and the lack of a very well established path made it take quite a while to get around. I was not in a particular hurry at this point, though, since I didn’t want to start Lamb’s Slide before sunrise.
Came across some guys sleeping under boulders near Mills Glacier (“Sorry guys,” I said, as my head lamp flashed across them unexpectedly), and saw head lamps on Mount Meeker as I moved toward the start of Lambs Slide.
Lambs SlideI sat down on some flat rocks just below Mills Glacier to gear up for Lambs…crampons, harness, and a mountaineering axe with a sling for a leash, which I clipped to my harness. Waited for good light, stowed the head lamp for the day, ate and drank, and headed up Lambs.
I wore 5-10 Exum Guides for this climb, which worked out great, including with the Black Diamond strap-on crampons I wore for Lambs. In my novice opinion, wearing mountaineering boots for a summer climb of Kieners would be unnecessarily burdensome.
I’ve done vertical ice a few times, but never snow. This was a new experience. It took me about 90 minutes to get up the slide—800 feet of about 50-degree snow, so they say. I feel like I’d have gone much faster if I’d left behind a lot of the rock gear I ended up never using, and brought along my ice tools instead of an axe. There were many steps kicked for me, which I used to the greatest extent possible as I crossed from left to right during the ascent. Nobody in front of me, so no worries and no rockfall during my climb. I was concerned the boulder sleepers may come up behind, so I kept checking back for them. At one point I saw them crossing Mills and heading for the lower east face, presumably for Stettners Ledges or some other route.
I was now on my own—wouldn’t see anyone else until the summit.
Broadway Because it was taking longer and was more tiring than I anticipated, I wanted off of Lambs. This resulted in a somewhat premature exit onto what I hoped was Broadway (it wasn’t …too low). Took a great picture from here…one of my favorites from the climb. After some fumbling around, and having one of my crampons come off before permission was granted, I was at the start of Broadway. Man, oh man. I had read about this and, frankly, was fearing it somewhat. Narrow ledge, possible snow…
The Broadway traverse ended up being somewhat easier than expected, taking me only a bit more than 30 minutes. The infamous “step-around” move wasn’t too nervy, and looking down from this spot to Mills Glacier about 800 feet below didn’t bother me. Looking up was somewhat worse during the climb overall, as my first experience with altitude left me somewhat fuzzy in the gut and head from time to time.
I must have been “in the zone” at this point, because as I look back, I honestly don’t remember too much of the traverse, other than the step-around and very small “step over.” Before I knew it, I was at the Notch Couloir and snapped a picture of Upper Kieners and one straight up the Notch. Because the snow in the notch did not reach all the way to the edge of Broadway, I stayed out of the Notch completely to avoid having to put on crampons again, which I had stowed after Lambs.
Kieners Chimneys and Upper KienersLoved ones would have wanted to avert their eyes at this point, as I was now starting out onto the route that was 5.4+ “with consequences,” (an 800 footer) as my cousin and climbing buddy Shannon would say. So…wearing a heavy pack, harness, helmet, and rock shoes, I started up Kieners directly from Broadway. I had two slings attached to my harness and a few pieces in case I got into a tough spot and needed to clip in to rest/think (I also had a few rap rings and two 30m, 7mm twin ropes).
I didn’t have too much route-finding trouble during the climb overall (rare for me, some may joke), but I did blow the exit from the chimney to Upper Kieners. I went straight up, rather than exiting right, and had to down-climb a bit to get back on route. Not too big a problem, but part of the time-consuming nature of the ascent for me.
Got some nice pictures during this part of the ascent, including one looking back at Lambs Slide, looking across at the top of the Notch, and looking straight across at an amazing solitary rock formation (check out my images elsewhere on this site).
The chimneys and Upper Kieners took a bit more than 2˝ hours, which didn’t seem terrible. It was pretty fun rock climbing, and I never felt nervous about it…just trying to stay on route was the focus. I had brought some laminated “beta pics” and written beta to help with this.
I found the “Diamond Step” without a lot of trouble, and the move wasn’t too tough at all. After the Step, I turned around and took a picture looking straight out, and one straight down (about 2,000 feet, down from the highest point of the Diamond). The sheer scale of the mountain landscape was something to behold for a person with no mountain experience. Pictures really don’t do the angles or the scale justice…at all.
Summit Before long, I could hear voices on the summit. As I approached, folks seemed somewhat surprised to see me coming from somewhere other than the Keyhole Route (walk-up). There were maybe 10 others on the summit while I was there, and all had done the Keyhole.
My voice was hoarse…I felt somewhat dehydrated at this point, and fairly fatigued. It had taken nearly 10 hours to get here. I talked with the other summiteers for a while and took the obligatory summit shot, a picture of the summit marker, and a picture of my entry in the summit register.
Descent Death march indeed. Seven hours for me to get off this mountain. I did the North Face (Cables Route) descent. Unless you have something to prove to yourself or somebody else (I’m not sure what it would be, if you’ve already climbed the mountain!), I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND IT. Take the Keyhole Route down. I left the summit about the same time as two first-time ascenders who were headed back down the Keyhole, and they made better time than me, and had less of a slog.
The “path” down the North Face is hideous and it takes an eternity to get to the Boulderfield. I rapped off some of the Cables eye-bolts, but it sure didn’t make up for the time I spent picking my way down the other parts of the descent.
I didn’t bring enough water, so I was dehydrated, exhausted, and somewhat frustrated on my way down. But…I was ready to do another climb like this by the time I got back to the car, nearly 17 hours after leaving it.
Epilogue I did this climb for myself, no doubt. However, I dedicated it to my brother, friend, and climbing partner, Randy, who died last December…too soon. I thought of him regularly during my climb, wore his pack, and had his “blue-tape” ‘biner clipped on my shoulder strap to keep me company (which I grabbed from time to time as me and Randy “talked”). Thinking of my sister, too, and how she might throw a goal out there for herself in similar fashion.
I was also thinking about my brother, who was the rock-hopping adventure buddy of my youth. Can I talk him into being a tame version of that buddy again? Time will tell…we can start with something easier than this!
“…there was nowhere to keep this; it would never again be as real…awareness sputtered and lapsed between moments of astonishment.”
Clint Willis Images
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