For my 9th summit of Longs Peak, I wanted to do something new. I had already done an iced-over Keyhole (late fall), a winter Cable Route, a spring Notch and Kieners, a summer Stettners and Diamond, and had even done a Keyhole Ridge and a traverse from Meeker via Gorrells and a climb out of the Notch to the Longs summit ridge. This time we’d do the Southwest Ridge route pioneered by J. Alexander in 1924.
We got an early start (4:30am) but still had to park 1/2 mile down the road due to a full parking lot. I have never been able to get right with the notion that the safest way to climb Longs Peak is to do it in the dark to avoid the lightning. Shit; I like to see what I’m doing. And I’ve not been chased off Longs by lightning yet.
We passed a hundred people on the way to the Boulderfield which we reached at 7am. We needed to let the rock warm up a bit, so we lounged in the Boulderfield for a while and speculated on new routes we could put up. Big talkers.
Longs Peak from Taylor with our route marked in red
Position #1
Then we continued along the Keyhole route until we reached the top of the Tough, from which we scrambled up 40 feet to reach the start of the Southwest Ridge Route climb. We started the rock climb at 9am.
The rock was freezing. I was freezing. The rock was covered in lichen. It must not get much traffic.
Brian took the first pitch. The guide book says traverse left and up ledges until a steep gully leads back to a belay on the ridge, but I don’t remember what Brian did.
For the second pitch, the guide book says to pass an overhang, then work up to an exposed belay. All I can remember is crawling up licheny, cold rock with numb toes and frozen fingers, and then not being able to find a belay spot until I ran out of rope. Calling down 175′ in high altitude winds is impossible, so I put in the best belay I could. You should imagine a very terrible belay.
Brian finished up by climbing over some ledges and moving somewhat right.
Position #2
At noon, as we sat on the summit block just above the Southwest Ridge, we both suffered a bit from the altitude and were really huffing and puffing. Brian dared me to hold my breath for a minute, but I feared at least a stroke and at most my head exploding, so I declined.
Position #3
We then wandered over to the summit proper to enjoy the views and receive our honors.
After a short disappointing wait, we descended via the Cable Route.
Position #4
We descended past Chasm View and into the Boulderfield to get more water and then becgan the long march home.
That last 1/2 mile down the road always feels like a bit of insult on top of injury from a day of pounding. At the end, we’d used 10.5 hours and hiked 15 miles to get 3 pitches of 5.4 climbing. We must love Longs Peak, eh?
Once back at the truck, all that was left was to imagine a new way to reach the Longs Peak summit.
See all Longs Peak Massif trip reports
Tags: Brian, longs peak, RMNP
PeakMind 
Leave a Reply