Saturday, August 28, 2010

Longs Peak


As I sit here Saturday morning to report on the trip up Long's Peak on Wednesday, I learned that the mountain claimed a climber on Friday, when he fell 800' from a ledge. Along with the climber that was blown off the top in June, this makes two that I know of this year, along with at least one climber being struck by lightening.

In chronicling my trip up I videoed a number of the different areas. Because the start was at 2:30am and I was using my little Cybershot point and shoot camera the first few videos are pretty dark. All of the embedded hyperlinks are to the videos which are loaded on Picasa.
Speaking of dark, we planned this trip for a full moon to have more ambient light. In fact Phoenix really reveled in it, but after almost twisting my knee I decided that the chance of a injury out weighted the coolness factor of hiking in the moonlight, so on went the headlamp. The headlamp worked really well. I bought it at Harbor Freight for a whole $4.99. This may have to be added to the HF Gems list.

Knowing that we needed to get out early, since we anticipated a 14 hour trip, we slept in the campground in out cars on Tuesday night. I woke up at 1:45am and the operation moved over to the trail head, I want to say so as not to bother the other campers, but really because the toilets were closer over there.


The trail had an incredible amount of horse crap on it, making watching your step import, beyond even the possible twisted limb. It took quite awhile to work out of the trees, and we were passed by several groups.

In the Trees, as we got closer to treeline the trees were fairly stunted, testifying to the amount of wind that can be present on Long's. The forecast was for 5-10mph and decreasing, so we weren't really anticipating the wind being a factor in the climb.

Once out of the trees the lights of the Front Range came into view. You can be so isolated on these treks, yet when you see the lights it brings up the paradox of the thousands of people not really that far away.

As I moved higher out of the trees the headlamps of the people ahead of me could be seen weaving their way up to Granite Pass. The wind also started to come up and blocks some of the things I am saying.
After three hours the sky started to lighten, but the head lamp was still needed. It also was the about this time that I stopped waiting for Phoenix and decided that I would move on alone. I thought about this decision more after I made it, then when I made it. I figured that I felt good and at this point had waited a couple of time. Phoenix had said he was going to move slowly to savor the experience and stop to take pictures. I figured that I would have just so many hours of reasonable activity in me and I was concerned that I would use them up in waiting, leading to a collapse either before summitting or on the way down. I also rationalized that there were a number of people on the trail to provide support, if needed. I don't know if this was right or selfish, but it is what I did.

About this time the sunrise finally got into full swing and I could start to see the terrain around me.

As I climbed through Granite Pass, Long's came into view and the timing was perfect to see it bathed in alpenglow. This was my first really good view of the mountain and the Diamond big wall on its east face.

This was also the beginning of the Boulder Field, that featured prominently in most of the route and trip narratives I had read. I have to say that it lulled me in, in that it didn't seem so bad at this point.

About half way through I came to the campground for the folks that come up the evening before to shorten the trip a little. Speaking of the trip length I figured on 14 miles according to the route guide, but Google had it at 14.5 miles and after adding up the mileage on the trail signs I had it at 15. This may seem trivial, but after hours on the trail, I becomes very important.

At this point the Boulder Field got pretty serious. The trail had competing cairns on it, so as I watched different group moving through it, it kinda became everyone for themselves. I followed a group that seemed to have confidence in the cairns they had targeted...until about halfway through when their creditability came into question and I set off on my own. Seemed to work out OK until topping the field and trying to figure out the climb into the Keyhole, the transition to the backside (I wonder if a mountain has a backside) of Longs and the next stage called the Ledges. At this point I thought it would have been nice to be following someone to see how they got into the Keyhole.

I was feeling pretty good and according to the route guide at 14er.com it was less then a mile to the summit. The challenge of the Ledges brought me back to reality as the trail was narrow, hard to identify and had pretty serious exposure. At one point, I was reaching around a badly placed boulder to continue on. I started to realize that the step from a Difficulty 1 hike/climb, to a 3 was pretty serious, and although this was not considered a technical climb it wasn't for those with little to no experience, even though I would overtake a group from Ohio that had chosen Longs as their first 14er.

I thought I was prepared for the next section which in my mind represented the crux of the entire climb...The Trough. Phoenix had warned me that it was a straight up climb for about 600 feet, but the sliding scree with each step really brought it home. Looking up the Trough at the climbers already up it set a scale to this place that was pretty overwhelming. As I looked at a couple of the boulders pretty much teetering on rim along the top, the term "act of god", came to mind as a possibility.

Up until now this was the hardest part of the climb for me and it seemed to go on forever, then on reaching what I thought would be an easy exit from the Trough to the Narrows, I realized that there was no clear exit and I had to climb to an extent that I was grabbing cracks in the rock and pulling my 190#s up and over the upper rim. My thought during this was how the hell would I get down and back into this gauntlet on the way back. I was so happy to reach the end and the entrance to the Narrows . This traverse across a rock face to the Homestretch was pretty intimidating, even more so then the Ledge and it was hard to see the path once across.

I just wanted to get through the Homestretch and on top. The surprise of the Homestretch was unexpected in that I figured it would be a walk up some cracks in a rock incline to the summit. It was more of a crawl using the cracks for handholds to another 10-15 foot climb at the top onto the summit. A miss here and you would be sliding a pretty long way. Which again brought up the question of how to transition back on to this stretch from the top when returning.

The Summit was pretty enormous, with about a dozen folks already there. The conditions were prefect, no wind, severe clear sky, all in all a good place to recoop a little before getting back on to the task of getting down.
I arrived here at 9:30, 7 hours after leaving the trail head. It normally takes me about as much time going down as, coming up. So I figured on a 14 hour round trip.

This picture is looking to the northwest.

I stayed on top for about 1/2 hour waiting to see if Phoenix would arrive, but at 10am I started down figuring I had 7 hard hours ahead of me.

The beginning being getting back down on to the Homestretch. I waited a few minutes to watch a couple that looked experienced and they slide on their butts most of the way down the stretch. I did the same and at the bottom they called this 5 pointing (hands, feet and butt).

Even though I had been across the Narrows, I didn't go fast back across it, the entrance to the Trough or down the Trough, because now I knew what I was in for and the exposure always looks greater when going down and generally facing away from the slope. On the way up you tend to fall into the terrain, while when going down you tend to fall away from it.

At the bottom of the Trough I finally ran into Phoenix, where he snapped this pic. He said I looked strong, but I don't know about that.

We talked for a while and he figured he had another 90 minutes before hitting the summit. I figured he was about 2-3 hours behind me at this point.

He continued up and I headed down. I still had misgivings about separating earlier, but he seemed to understand that we were moving at two totally different paces. Hindsight would say that a preliminary hike would have been in order to gauge our pace compatibility. Maybe some radios would have been of use in helping us stay in contact.

I got down through the Keyhole and back to the upper campground about 12:30. At this point my Camelbak had been drained of 3 liters and I refilled it with the only 2 liters of additonal water I was carrying.

The road apples in the trail question was also answered as a Ranger was checking out the camp and had 3 llamas in tow. Sorry horses.

The rest of the way down was long, but uneventful. It took me just under 14 hours.

Phoenix told me the next day that he summitted at 2pm, and reach the trail head at 11:30 that night for a 21 hour trip.

Although in past hikes the group had been separated somewhat by pace, usually in the 5-10 minute range, this separation made feel very guilty. Although it didn't seem to bother Phoenix, as the instigator it bothered me.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Long's Peak Tomorrow

The forecast is looking good for a climb (this is a class 3) up Long's Peak tomorrow. I am going to head up to the trail head campground later this morning with an anticipated start at 1:30am tomorrow morning. We have a full moon tonight, and I have my $4.99 LED headlamp from Harbor Freight.

This is a 14 mile round trip with 5000' of altitude gain. I am not the fastest person, so we are figuring a 14-17 hour trip.

Phoenix (a old hang gliding buddy) and I will meet up at the trail head campground and crap out in our cars till the jump off time.

I am going to try and do both pics and videos this time as some of the features are pretty spectacular, e.g. Keyhole, Narrows, Ledge, Homestretch, etc.

Stay tuned.

Pat
"Getting to the top is optional, getting down is not." - Heard or read somewhere else.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Boreas Pass Day Trip

One of the things that we missed when we moved out here was the taking of day trips to different parts of Colorado. This was something we did alot of when visiting from Minnesota. Retirement is suppose to put these trips back on the front burner.

Last week we decided to take a trip to a place we had driven by many times over the last few years...Camp Como.

Camp Como is located just north of Hwy 285, east of Fairplay. One of the reasons for going to Como was some info we had read in a book on South Park and its place in history as a railroad junction for many of the 1800 train lines from the mountain mining communities and the growing metropolis of Denver.

Como even had a round house for switching of locomotives between the different lines. The roundhouse still stands in Como today.

Using Como as the jumping off point we headed up Boreas Pass. This pass was used by the railroad for the line into Breckenridge, to haul supplies in and ore out. At one time Como being at one end of the line had a population of 6000 souls.

As we headed up the dirt road to the pass one of the mountains visible is called Silverheels.

This peak is named after a saloon hall madam that stayed in Como during an outbreak of smallpox's to look after the sick when most others had left.

This peak looks like one that will need to go on the list for next year. It isn't a 14er, but is pretty close at 13.8K.

At the top of the pass still stands the section house used by the railroad, it is owned by the Federal Government, but operated by the 10th Mountain Division Hut Association. It can be reserved for winter backcountry trips. It appears to be solar equipped and we can attest to the well outfitted outhouse facilities.

At 11,481" it still amazes me some of the places that people lived in the mountains back in the 1800's. This place is remote during the winter today, but I guess if you had a train line coming through it wouldn't be as out of touch back then.

We noticed on the drive up to the pass and the down into Breck the number of tree stumps. They were very old and didn't show burn marks, but looked sawn. We surmised that they were cut for rail ties, cabins and of course train fuel.

The sun was shining on the south side of the pass in Park County, but once at the pass and looking into Summit County the sky was dark and threatening.
You can just see the ski runs at Breck in the background in this shot.
As we moved further down from the pass the rain began and the road started to get muddy and interesting to drive on.
The road was just as wide as the rail bed. The cuts in the ridge were not the nice wide ones seen on most mountain highways today, but narrow cuts to accommodate the train and nothing else.

Sure can tell the difference in engineering between the rail companies profit motivation back then and what is now dictated by government regulations. Made for some tight squeezes.
The next stop was also a stop for the trains making the pull over the pass and that is Bank's Tank for water. It still stands along the road today.
Didn't look like it still held any water, but we didn't do that close an inspection.
The pass comes down into the Blue river area on the opposite side of the valley from CO 9. I had always wondered what was up in those hills, now driving them at least I have an idea.
This drive made for some great views of the reservoir, even in the rain.

After about an hour we reached the end of the 21 mile trip to Breckenridge.
This was a whole side of this town we had never explored, that this drive in unveiled.
Never really realized that much existed on the east side of CO 9, but it seems that this is actually where everyone lives.
People get target focused on the ski resort and the condos that populate pretty much the entire area west of 9.
The last stop was the old the snowblower used on the rail back in the old days.
Maybe we should look into this for Autumn Creek.
One more 14er is scheduled for this year, and will be the most challenging I have attempted so far...Longs Peak.

















Friday, August 06, 2010

The job isn't done until the paper is completed - Apollo 11 Moon Manifest

If you have travelled internationally you have probably had to fill out one of these on the flight back to the U.S.
It appears that the Apollo 11 Astronauts did too.


I found this in a pile of materials in the Government Pavilion at the EAA Airventures Airshow two weeks ago.



The operator of the flight is listed as "NASA" and the flight number is "Apollo 11".



They declared moon rock and dust.



All three Astronauts had to sign the declaration and the chief inspector at the Honolulu airport signed as approved.



I guess it just goes to show that no one gets a break when dealing with government paperwork.