Help
Sign In »
Register Now!
This topic is locked
9:45pm Wednesday: drove into the Long's Peak trailhead parking lot. My original plan was to catch a few hours of sleep in the back of my car, and be on the Long's Peak trail at 3am. This worked fine until about 12:30am, when cars started arriving in the trailhead parking lot. It was impossible to sleep soundly after 12:30am with all of the car doors slamming. So, I dozed fitfully until about 2am. There is a sign at the entrance to the parking lot stating that car camping is forbidden. It's not clear whether I was car camping, but in any case, you would be foolish to do it in the trailhead parking lot if you want to get any sleep. If I had to do it again, I would park somewhere else more quiet and then drive to the trailhead about 2:30am. When I arrived at the trailhead at 9:45pm there were about 5 cars in the parking lot; when I began hiking at 2:45am the parking lot was 2/3 full. The place must really be a madhouse on the weekends
2:45am signed the register and hit the trail. It was clear, 40F, with little wind. I had plenty of company. After gaining around 800 feet, I could look back and see headlamps bobbing all along the trail. I started with 3 liters of water.
6am arrived at the Keyhole. Still clear with little wind.
8:30am arrived at the Long's Peak summit. Clear with a light wind.
9:15am departed the Long's Peak summmit. Clear with a light wind.
11:30am arrived back at the Keyhole. Clear with little wind.
3:15pm arrived back at the Long's Peak trailhead. Clear, 80F, with little wind. Ended with 1/4 liters of water.
Additional Notes:
+ the trail between the Long's Peak trailhead and Keyhole is no different than any of hundreds of other hikes in Colorado. The Keyhole to Summit trail (the "Fried Egg" trail) is a different animal altogether.
+ the Fried Egg trail is conventionally divided into four sections: the Ledges, the Trough, the Narrows, and the Homestretch. When evaluating the risk associated with traversing a section of rock, I consider two things: the consequences of falling (ranging from none to certain death) and the quality of foot- and handholds (ranging from outstanding to non-existent). The risk associated with an entire climb equals the highest risk associated with ANY section of a climb. It doesn't matter if 990 feet of a 1000 foot climb is safe - if 10 feet are unsafe the entire climb is unsafe. Sadly, I consider the Fried Egg trail to be unsafe because there are two places where the traverses were outside of my comfort zone. The first is at the top of the Trough. There is a large boulder blocking access to the ridge, and it's necessary to scramble around it. The quality of the handholds/footholds here were marginal, although a fall here would most likely only result in moderate injury, not death. The second section was certain places along the Homestretch. In these places, a fall would almost certainly be fatal and again the quality of the handholds and footholds were very low. I don't go into the mountains to take unnecessary risks. There are plenty of great hikes in Colorado where you can get some exercise and enjoy the natural beauty - why take risks if you don't need to? For this reason, I won't climb Long's Peak via the Fried Egg trail again. Of course, there are plenty of adventurous folks who thrive on taking unnecessary risks - more power to them. I am wired more for safety than risk.
+ since I was climbing in near-perfect conditions and felt great physically and mentally, the Ledges, Trough (excluding the top), Narrows, and most (but not all) of the Homestretch were well within my comfort zone. However, this could change quickly if something was wrong. Some examples: having to rush to beat an approaching storm, suffering from altitude sickness or excessive fatigue, presence of wet rock, or nearby lightning. For many dayhikers, the key go/no-go decision will be at the Keyhole. Keep in mind that although the view from the top of Long's Peak is great, there are many other peaks in Colorado with views equal or better that can be reached with far less risk of personal injury or death.
+ For what it's worth, I'm a Colorado Mountain Club hike leader (in training) with a fair amount of hiking experience. If you decide to tackle Longs via the Fried Egg trail, best of luck to you
Back to top
MultiQuote
Great way to start out posting 
Thanks for the report as well!
