Stroms on Longs

For my dad's 50th birthday, which occured this May, we decided to climb Long's Peak as a family. It would be my two youngest sisters' first time and probably summit #25ish for my dad. The rest of us were somewhere in between. Here is a play-by-play of how the day went.

1:00 am I fall asleep on the floor/couch because with a full house there are no extra beds.

3:00 am Mom wakes us up and I am well rested :-)

4:00 am We arrive at the trailhead, only to find that we have to park about a mile below on the road because there are so many cars. Apparently all the cool kids start hiking at 11:30 pm these days.

4:00-5:00 am The worst hour of the day! Hiking in the dark woods with flashlights, all uphill, switchbacks, 4 miles in one hour. I think my body tried to reject this new reality-I started sweating buckets, I felt like I was going to puke the whole time, I couldn't eat anything and every time I closed my eyes for even a blink, I felt like I could fall asleep.



5:00 am Sunrise. Just as we broke treeline, the sun started to rise. We were sandwiched inbetween a great view of the sunrise to the east and the early morning glow of the light hitting the east face of the mountain. At this point I could finally eat and felt much better.

5:00 am - 8:00 am More normal trail hiking, only we are now above the treeline. We get to the boulder field, which includes a pit stop at the privies. At the end of the boulder field is the key hole, which is when you start hiking on the west side of the mountain, so the views are incredible.

8:00 am-10:14 am Our "hike" turns into lots of rock scrambliing where we use all fours. Through the key hole, around the back side, up the trough, over the narrows and finally over the home stretch. By the time we got to the trough, my pace was "take ten steps, breath for ten seconds, repeat". Rachel and I coined the slogan "Holy Trough Batman!" for this section.

10:15 am VICTORY! All 6 of us made it to the top. Becca and Sarah did an awesome job, especially for their first time. My dad of course, was gracious to stick with us, as he could have been up in back in the time it took me to do the trough.

All in all, it was an awesome experience, especially since I'm moving away in just a few months. I won't be back to visit the summit for a few years, I imagine.