Post #59 WINDY on the LEDGES
of Longs Peak
Winter Ascent! January 23
2013 
Chris and I teamed up for a fun and Challenging Winter Ascent of Longs Peak on Wednesday.
It is alarming just how little snow we have right now in Rocky Mountain
National Park.
We got started from the Longs Peak
lot at about 7am, and made our way up a very well packed trail. It was so windy that when I came out of the Latrine at the Chasm Creek cut off, a gust of wind swept me clear onto my arse!  Even off the trail there is less than a foot
of snow in most places.
Once you get above timberline the snow is almost NON-Existent.  It was very windy all day with gusts of up to
60 mph and consistent sustained winds of 35 mph. 
We casually strolled up to the boulder field by about 10am after a
few stops to shoot photos and videos. The boulder field is completely barren this time of year, only a little
snow blown into the nooks between the rocks. We headed up above the Boulder
field from the campsites and soon began the moderately technical rock sections
for the North Face, instead of taking the standard route.   Chris Led the first pitch and
we swapped some leads on the way up, roping up on some parts.  Because it was so windy, the summit was not that fun, but the views
were stunning. We retreated quickly in
the frigid conditions.   But a bit more snow to the East for Sure! The North and
Northeast face was actually shielded from the wind, so climbing the face and
then retreating via some rappels was out of the wind and much more
pleasant. Here is the view down into Chasm lake...makes that stomach drop!!!   I got some sweet Shots of
Tomer as he came down of a few of the sections. By 2pm we were back down to the Boulder field and starting the long trek back
to the Car, arriving at our vehicle at 4:06pm sharp. As we move forward into February, hopefully we get some snow....and stay tuned, I will be camping on some more summits getting ready for my book sequel in the coming months! Check out my schedule as I have upcoming stops for Sleeping on the Summits and Mount Everest Ranging from Colorado to San Francisco, to Washington, Oregon, Kansas, and Indiana in the next 3 months. |
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Categories2012 Travels and Book Events2013 14ers and Everest 2013 Skiing off Summits 14ers/13ers Colorado 14ers: High Bivys Project 2011 Everest 2012 Sleeping on the Summits II CA 14ers |
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