Amungmiak

Last week was a fun experience.  I was back spending a few days in Boulder, supporting Scotts book tour, seeing friends, etc.  Part of this involved getting out on Kieners on Longs Peak with Buzz and Peter.  Last fall, when my shin injury gave me time to rekindle my interest in technical rock climbing, Buzz started taking me out on the Flatirons for some scrambling--soloing on moderate terrain.  After a few times up the uber-classic Third Flatiron, Buzz commented that we would do Kieners in the summer.

So, last Friday we did.  Im working closely with Buzz and Peter (and Scott) on developing a series of new packs with Ultimate Direction, and one of them is dubbed the "Adventure Vest". Kieners would be a perfect line for testing the performance of this kind of pack.  Kieners is a classic mountaineering route on an even more classic mountain.  "Mountaineering" meaning that it isnt just a simple walk up a Class 2 trail, like most standard routes on 14ers around the state.  Instead, K offers a spicy and engaging mix of standard trail; talus and boulder hopping; the ascent of an almost 1000, 50 degree snow field; and then Class 4 & 5 scrambling along the edge of the Diamond before summiting and descending the 5th Class North Face. Kieners consensus grade is 5.4, due mostly to some moderate crack-like climbing after the Broadway traverse.

Up the red, down the blue. Photo: summitpost.org

It can be a fairly long day (I think we were out for around 6hr on Friday) in an exposed and prone-to-quick-changes true alpine environment, so usually its necessary to carry food, water, and an extra layer or two along with an ice axe, crampons, and--because our planned slabs descent on the North Face was still soaked with meltwater--a rope for rappelling.  As such, the packs would be tested doing exactly what theyve been designed to do--mix running with mountaineering, or just carry a slightly larger-than-normal load.

Buzzs post re-capping the day is here, but from my perspective it was simply a joy to be with such experienced friends in such an exhilarating landscape.  So much so, that as we were negotiating the moves that Buzz and Peter deemed the crux, I pronounced that I was going to come back the next day and hit it all again.  The line is that good.

Peter works his way up Lambs Slide. Photo: Buzz Burrell.

Traversing Broadway. Photo: Buzz Burrell.

The crux move on Broadway. Photo: Buzz Burrell.

Climbing onto the Diamond Step, ~200 below the summit, with Chasm Lake almost 2000 below. Photo: Buzz Burrell.

Happy to share the summit with a pair of pioneers. Photo: Buzz Burrell.

So, I did, along with my oft-partner-in-crime for such alpine adventures, Joe Grant.  At the last second, Joe decided to bring his Go Pro Hero headcam for pics and video, which turned out to be a good idea; he got some good stuff, per usual.  On this particular outing--inspired by Buzzs stories about leaving behind the hardware and just scrambling the 3rd-4th Class ridge next to the Lambs Slide couloir instead of heading up the snow--we tried that ourselves and it worked out great.  There was a lot of stop and go on the day as there often is during a tandem adventure, and especially because of the digital documentation that Joe was performing.  However, I clocked my moving time from East trailhead to trailhead at only 2:38, so knew immediately that I would have to come back very soon to give it an honest, non-stop, FKT-style effort.  Why not the very next day?

A critical piece of beta that wed taken advantage of the previous two days was that a climber working a project on the Diamond had fixed a rope on the North Face descent slabs.  This little fact meant that, even in the current water-slick conditions, I could do the route in nothing more than a pair of shorts and sticky shoes (with climbing rubber) and carrying only a 3oz shell (always a good idea in an alpine environment, even if you dont use it), one gel, and a pair of tent-pegs for crossing the snow-filled couloir.  A unique opportunity, indeed (at least until the Cables slabs dry out later this summer and I can just downclimb them).

Here is a quick synopsis of my day out looking to set an FKT, that I posted to the Satans Minions listserv.

Just got back from Longs Peak (for the third day in a row :).   Worst conditions of the four times Ive been up there, with crazy winds between treeline and Chasm Lake.

Today was a concerted see-how-fast-I-can-go effort on the up, but, unfortunately, my climbing legs were way flat today and then the wind above treeline was extremely discouraging/slowing.

At any rate, going up Kieners and down the Cables and taking every short-cut I know of, I went 2:28:31 car-to-car with a 1:41:37 ascent and a 46:54 descent.  I sat behind the summit rock catching my breath for ~20sec before leaving the summit at 1:42:00.

On the way down I ran into none other than Andy Anderson (the absolute RT record holder on Longs at 2:02:54, Cables up and down) hiking up the Jim Grove trail w/ another climbing ranger, and I stopped and chatted for 90sec-2min or so with him mostly because I didnt feel like I was actually on that quick of a descent pace (the wind had been throwing me around a lot whilst descending to and then crossing the Boulder Field); I really got after it, though, below treeline again (only a few navigational mistakes) and was really surprised to see my high-46min descent.  Just w/o the stop to chat, I think I wouldve been approaching Andys 44min descent from his record run.  Of course, I batmanned down the still-there fixed rope on the Cables, which I imagine more than makes up for the ~2min I spent talking with Andy.

I also lost a couple minutes by absent-mindedly climbing too high on the Lambs Slide ridge before traversing the snow over to Broadway.  This put me at a wider part of Lambs Slide and also meant I didnt get to use the steps Id kicked yesterday, as Id planned.  I shouldve just dropped back down the ridge 100ft or so, but was stubborn about not losing any elevation, and I think it cost me as I got into some pretty slow icy snow and actually climbed up to the rocks for handholds before dropping back down to the Broadway entry.

Other than that, I look forward to coming back with fresh legs and a more calm day.  Also, getting the trail dialed in just below treeline and between the summit and the top of the Cables will yield another minute or two for sure.

              Splits:

              Goblin - 12:30

              Battle Mt CG sign - 26:45

              Chasm Lake (east end) - 47:30

              Bottom of Lambs Slide ridge - 59:40

              Start of snow traverse - 1:12:00 

              Entry to Broadway - 1:17

              Base of Notch Couloir - 1:23:10

              Diamond Step - 1:38:15

              Summit boulder - 1:41:37

              Left summit at 1:42:00

              Top of Cables rope - 1:48

              Chasm View - 1:50:40

              Crossing Keyhole trail below Granite Pass - 2:05:40

              Battle Mt Campground trail - 2:14:50

              Goblin sign - 2:22:25

              Trailhead - 2:28:31

Overall, I was proud of the effort, but I know it isnt my best, nor most focused, so I guess Ill be having to go back in the future.

Also, as per the above-mentioned run-in with Andy Anderson, Ive become quite interested in the absolute roundtrip record on Longs (generally speaking, the shortest/fastest route involves ascending and descending the North Face slabs). Currently at 2:02:54, sub-2hr seems like a worthwhile goal.  In the meantime, I really look forward to continuing to deepen my relationship with this profoundly beautiful slice of Colorado.