Kiener's Route: Longs Peak

This route is sick. I watched a video of this one and decided to do it with only a couple weeks of preparation.

I've climbed many of Colorado's 14ners and oddly enough up until about a month ago, Longs Peak was still on my "to do" list.

Long's Peak is probably the most prominent 14ner on the Front Range. I've read that it is perhaps the most attempted, and least summited 14ner (try to fail ratio) of all the 14ners. Not sure if this is true- but I do know that it's quite a slut of a mountain. If you don't believe me, read on.

I held out climbing Long's for many years due to the fact that I wanted my first summit of this mountain to be via the Diamond. In particular, I had my eye set on the Casual Route. This year I spent more time running than I did climbing, and after dabbling in the ultra-scene a bit, I stumbled across a route that paired nicely with my fitness level and climbing ability: Kiener's.

I've done several alpine routes similar to Kiener's, but none with quite the exposure. Since we climbed sans rope, it was even more... exciting? <--Probably not the right word.

Brian and I got a casual start, leaving the TH around 7am or so (don't remember exactly now). Our route took us up an old access trail that branches off of the main trail right after the ranger station. The word underground is that this trail is used by a lot of climbers and rangers. It is a more direct route to the Diamond, and it eliminates a lot of the long switchbacks on the standard trail.

We were at Chasm lake in about an hour. Once at the lake, we started up to the left of Lamb's Slide, which is a huge glacier we tried to avoid. The conditions allowed us to climb all the way up on the left side and traverse over, above Lamb's (almost without even touching any snow). This seemed beneficial at the time, but the West side of Lamb's was terrifyingly steep, and covered with loose scree. This turned out to be the sketchiest part of the route. A fall here would have dumped us right onto the glacier and sent us down a 1,000 foot slip and slide. After a couple deep breaths, we entered Broadway.

Broadway is an amazingly thin ledge that traverses toward the face of the Diamond. The ledge varies from one to three feet wide in sections and a misstep anywhere on it would send one to Mill's glacier (800 feet below) real quick. I chose not to think about this too often.

The "crux", or most difficult part of the route is a section of Broadway where the one foot ledge is blocked by a protruding boulder. We actually had to bear-hug this boulder, with our hindquarters hanging out over the 800 foot drop. Although this was a section that required mental fortitude, I disagree with it's reputation as  being the route's  "crux". I found that technically, there was far more difficult climbing after we exited Broadway.

After Broadway, we entered some pretty easy climbing up toward the Notch Coulier, then encountered a small route finding issue. We headed too high into the Notch Coulier, and found ourselves on snow and ice, unable to proceed any further. We down-climbed, and after several failed attempts to find a satisfying route, I spotted a section around a small ledge which led to what I assume is the path of least resistance. I wish I would have taken some photos or video to offer some better help to those interested in climbing it. The best I can offer is: Look for a ledge and traverse around it to the North. (Huge help, I know)

We then were back on route and heading up. This section was the best climbing- lots of fun little boulder problems (I will call them) and the rock was super stable. We kept an outcropping up to our right in view and made our way directly toward it. It's the last table-top-like ledge we climbed before making our way up a small boulder field to the summit.

 I could hear voices above us as we approached the summit. I was very surprised by the size of the summit, and the number of people there. We did not see or hear a single party during our ascent, but there were 15 (ish) people on top  and even more there by the time we left. We spent a few minutes enjoying the scenery, and then we departed towards the Cables Route. 

Summit photo.

We weren't sure what condition Cables was in, but we had lots of daylight to waste and figured we could bail off of it if we needed to. That wasn't the case. Cables was perfect (minus a few icy spots that were easily maneuverable).

I'll admit that I spent much of the day worrying about this descent, because I thought the climbing would be much more technical than anything on Kiener's. I'll also admit that down-climbing Cables turned out to be my favorite part of the day. I really enjoyed it! So much so, that I will definitely head up next year to do an ascent of it.

Stopping for a photo about halfway down Cables.

Brian on probably the most technical section.

After exiting Cables, it was a fast, albeit technical romp over the boulderfield to the standard Keyhole route. We merged in with the traffic and bombed off the mountain for a round-tip time of 4:45 (moving time). Given  our few route finding issues, and the fact that neither Brian nor I had been on Keiner's, I think it's definitely possible to head back again next year and get this route under 4 hours. I'm sure there's a much faster way to ascend Lamb's Slide too (maybe some microspikes?). 

This is an amazing route that will for sure go down as my all-time favorite mountain run/climb.

Not a bad day on the mountain!