Keyhole Route

Long's Peak Trip Report (trip 6) - Keyhole

Trail: Keyhole, Class 3 (AI1/AI2?), 14 miles, 5000 ft elevation gain

I have just come back from a couple job interviews as my doctorate is nearing completion and I figured heading up Longs would be a nice way to decompress. So far I have interviewed at Lockheed Martin in Virginia (I flew out the prior week) and ITT here in Boulder. I'm keeping my fingers crossed while writing this because a job is precious in the current economy.

I soloed the Keyhole June 30th, 2009. Only one other person seemed to be trying to get to the top via the Keyhole although there were parties on the East Face routes and several parties turning around at the Keyhole. Maybe it was a high gravity day but I wished I had a ice tool instead of a mountaineers axe and was a bit uncomfortable climbing the top of the Trough as there was a healthy dose of alpine ice up high. It took me 3.5 hours to summit and 4.5 hours to get down. A lot of this time was spent waiting for the snow to thaw (it was very hard on the way up), taking pictures, avoiding patches of ice and enjoying the weather. I lucked out on this trip and found the second ranger/guide climbers trail and made it from the parking lot to treeline in slightly more than 35 mintues with no real extra effort. All in all it was a good day and it has been too logn since I last got to the top of Longs Peak. I guess I still need to do Alexander's Chimney to the Eight Route, Stettners Ledges to the Notch Couloir, The Casual Route, and Keplingers in the winter and I'll be done the routes Iwant to climb on Longs.

Prepared For My Interview The Day Before Longs