Long's Peak via
The Flying Dutchman
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Long's Peak via The Flying Dutchman
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For a long time I have been trying to climb Long's Peak in winter. This Sunday, it finally happened! The four of us began this day with the intention of climbing the Loft Route to the summit of Long's. However, Lisa decided to turn around above treeline because her feet were too cold and she did not want to risk frostbite. (This turned out to be a good decision as the day got colder before warmer.) By the time we got to the Chasm Lake trail junction, Andrew, Jared, and I were thinking about changing our objective.
The Loft Route looked like a big hike. We considered climbing Dreamweaver and Kiener's but eventually decided on the Flying Dutchman. I had done this route last year and felt that it would be a good way to get to the summit of Long's and still get to do a little technical climbing. The route consisted of easy snow climbing with one short pitch of water ice. After the crux, we hiked through the saddle separating Long's and Mount Meeker and continued to the summit of Long's via the Clark's Arrow route. It was a long day (16+ hours) but we had beautiful weather.Here are a few pictures from that day.
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This shot was taken at treeline by another group that was also trying to get to the summit of Long's. |
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Note to self: Taking self portraits at sunrise after getting up at 2am and hiking 4 miles tends to make me look like Igor. :) |
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The Diamond in morning sunlight along the Chasm Lake trail. |
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This is a shot of me crossing Chasm Lake. The ice was frozen a solid 4 feet thick and the depth of the lake makes it look black. |
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Jared, kicking steps up the couloir. |
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Andrew, feeling frisky at 13,000 feet. |
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This is a shot of Andrew finishing the only technical section of the climb. A WI2+ pitch that lacked adequate protection. |
