Keyhole Route, Longs Peak – August 2, 2011

Pat and Dale Ralston, hailing from Louisville, KY, heard about me and the Colorado Mountain School through a mutual friend.  They’d been thinking about attempting the Keyhole Route on Longs Peak but were apprehensive about climbing it on their own.  The Ralstons contacted me early in the summer to set up a climbing date and ask a few questions.  Through our correspondence, I figured them to be fit, athletic hikers with lots of previous experience hiking around RMNP on other hikes and peaks.
We met in Estes at 1am to grab the technical gear and then drove to the TH.  We started hiking around 1:30 and were soon above treeline.  A large group of teenagers were leap-frogging us throughout the morning as we made our way up the trail.  As we neared Granite Pass, a few of the kids asked me what I thought about the weather.  Clouds obscured the stars and certainly looked foreboding enough but I felt confident in our pace.  We kept going.
We enjoyed a beautiful sunrise at the Keyhole itself but the mists moving over the Diamond and summit suggested that we keep moving.  The route overall was dry but heavy rains from the day before made things more wet than usual.  Where this would have the greatest impact was in the Trough where loose rock is already an issue.

We put on our technical gear at the Keyhole and were soon roped up as we passed through the Ledges where the passage of thousands of climbers has polished the rock.  A fatality here last year has prompted me to treat this section of the route more cautiously so I gave Pat and Dale an attentive belay as they climbed.  The Trough was as loose as usual but being early on the route had its benefits.  Aside from a few other climbers, we were alone and without to need to worry about climber-generated rockfall.

We roped up again at the top of the Trough and carefully crossed through the Narrows.  Soon we were scrambling up the Homestretch but the altitude forced a slower pace.  Nevertheless, we reached the summit at 8am, 6.5 hours after starting from the TH.  There are few pleasures greater than helping my guests realize a goal, especially one they’ve been focused on for so long.  It it such a joy to share a summit experience with people like Pat and Dale.  After hugs, handshakes, photos and 20 minutes of soaking up the 360-degree summit views, we once again roped up and began our long, and thankfully uneventful, descent down.  After a vertical mile of climbing, descending 5200′ can seem like an eternity but the Ralstons’ hiking skills and fitness kept us moving.  In fact, I think that we went faster as we lost elevation!  We reached the TH, and respite for the knees, at precisely 12.5 hours after starting our day.  Thanks goes out to Pat and Dale for sharing a summit and a beautiful day in the mountains with me!

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