Longs Peak Winter Grand Slam FKT
Last year, Joe, Kyle and I were interested in finishing a Longs Peak Grand Slam in winter. The Grand Slam is a classic route which climbs Longs Peak along with its four satellite summits (Meeker, Pagoda, Storm and Lady Washington). After one bailed attempt all together, Joe and Kyle put together the first completion of the route with a creative twist by ascending Longs by Northwest Gully. For my birthday this year, the weather was looking divine and I was anxious to have another go at the winter Grand Slam with Kyle.
Starting up through the trees we were excited to see the shortcuts apparently stamped out by a herd of snowshoes. With the aid of the hard-packed snow we were able to take the efficient direct winter line straight up alongside the creek. The shock of the cold morning air was no surprise, from experience we know that you can either be comfy for the first 15 minutes then have to stop and take off layers – or just tolerate cold hands for 15 minutes and not have to stop. We opted for the latter.
Breaking through treeline the mountain looked bone dry, the sun was shining and the air was still. This was to be my 45th time up Longs Peak, and the enormity still gives me a chill the same way it did on my first time. The cutover to Chasm Lake was typically snowy but with steps already cut across the slope, poles were sufficient traction to stay balanced across the catwalk.
The Loft couloir can be a very cold place in winter, so we were ready to break out heavy gloves and down. We began the march towards the sky and Mt Meeker, a couple thousand feet above us. Of all the routes on Longs, I can never get entirely behind the Loft, it just seems to be a weird route to me. I always feel as if I’m missing some secret to connecting everything together and you inevitably add a few hundred feet of extra vert to the ascent. Sticking mostly to the left edge of the couloir on dry rock the exit ramp set our trajectory towards the Meeker summit.
Mt Meeker’s summit ridge is one of the best ridges in the state. The rosy granite is far more stable than the overhyped Capitol Peak “knife edge”, and the ridge itself may in fact be even narrower. We took a quick pause here to take in the views across Wild Basin, the LA Freeway and beyond. We were comfortable in the shade before, and now we were frankly quite warm up in the sun.
Taking Clark’s Arrow from Meeker to Longs Peak is, in my opinion, a tedious affair. Meeker’s summit sits only 300ft and a half mile from the summit of Longs, but due to the pesky Notch, you can’t straight-line over without navigating some technical bits. Clark’s Arrow being by far the simplest option descends an easy gully before traversing alongside the base of the Palisades, crossing Keplinger’s couloir and finally ascending the Homestretch. Normally the Keplinger crossing requires crampons, but today we were able to rock hop the whole way. The homestretch had now been baking in the sun for a few hours and to someone working hard dressed for winter in the mountains, the temperature felt more like an August afternoon than a January morning.
With the tag of Longs complete, the remainder of the route could be viewed on paper as wandering net descent with a handful of bumps along the way. In actuality, though, there was a good bit of ascending left to do. First, we descended the Homestretch to the junction with the Narrows. I always feel awkward going down the homestretch with snow, never knowing whether to smear down (often wet) slab, kick down snow or zig-zag along dry rock. We dropped straight towards the Pagoda saddle from the bottom of the homestretch and eventually finding a short 4th class downclimb ramp to the Longs-Pagoda saddle. Pagoda is a far more seldom done mountain; despite being only slightly more distant than Longs, the feeling of remoteness is complete on its airy summit. To the North, the mountain drops sharply to Glacier Gorge and to the South, Wild Basin. The 3rd class East ridge (this route in this case) offers easy passage while the toothy West ridge provides access to only those who can uncover its secrets. For me, the winter summit of Pagoda was the most proud in the Grand Slam linkup.
We retraced our steps back up our access ramp and then took a direct scramble up to the Narrows rather than reversing all the way back towards the bottom of the homestretch. The trough was full of hard snow, sugary snow and dry rock. Kyle had some hobnails in his shoes for added traction on snow and was able to leverage the extra traction here. I had standard rubber outsoles with crampons in my backpack, but because of the amount of dry rock crampons seemed as hazardous as my normal shoes, so I opted to just slip and slide down the gully, using dry rock whenever possible. The gullies crossing the ledges made for a few snow crossings, but steps already cut in, it was simply a matter of marching along the existing track.
Getting to the Keyhole, Storm and Lady Washington looked disappointingly high above the Boulder Field. To get to Storm from the Keyhole, there isn’t much of an obvious line as much as an obvious scramble through the talus just below the connecting ridge. The rock was dry with sugary drifts of snow in between. After we accidentally summitted the false summit, we reluctantly made our way over to the proper summit.
Our final summit lay just across the Boulderfield. The direct to descent off of Storm was covered by a large snowfield that we preferred to walk around for safety’s sake. Fatigue and laziness got the better of us, though, and we next thing we knew we were glissading down the snow, axes in hand. In an instant, the snow went from soft to hard so we both self arrested, found rocks poking through the snow and put on our crampons. We hadn’t needed axes or crampons all day, despite the irony of getting them out for what should have been one of the easiest sections, we were happy to have them. In retrospect, we should have just hiked around the snow, even with it seeming so tedious – after all, one could argue that the entire day was intended to be tedious!
The final surge over Mount Lady Washington was quick but painful. The view of the Diamond from the summit may be the best around, so we sat on the summit just long enough to catch our breath and stare at the fantastic granite face in its winter coat.
Descending directly to the Chasm junction is a simple route which was the final test for our knees and ankles. A long day of talus had taken its toll as we wobbled back down, excited to reach the soft and groomed snowy trail below treeline. Running this trail in the winter is incredible. Steep chutes of packed snow link together the switchbacks and the added cushion makes floating back to the trailhead after a long day feel fun and effortless. We both dream of some mythical day where these winter conditions exist below treeline while the alpine scrambling above lies warm and dry above. Such conditions seem generally impossible.
Rounding the final turn we know so well we surge to the edge of the asphalt, setting a new FKT of 7:48:23 for the winter grand slam. With only two known completions (both including Kyle), it’s less of an FKT and more a celebration of our love for Longs Peak and exactly how we like to play in the mountains – light and fast on big and beautiful routes.