Longs Peak Summit Ski Descent
For a few weeks now Carl and I have been discussing a ski of Longs‘ infamous Keplinger‘s Couloir, the original ascent route used on Longs by John Wesley Powell in 1868. One of the most solidified goals I maintained throughout the spring was a summit ski of this great peak, well we got it on Saturday. Initially, conditions hunting was frustrating. Posts at 14ers.com and over at TGR yielded little helpful information and, as Carl found out in March, Longs is not a peak to carry skis to the top of without a just payoff. Keep reading…
I managed to finagle a half day at work on Friday for the purpose of hitting up an afternoon Bierstadt ski with Sam and Carl. I was eager to get back at this one after carrying skis to 13,900‘ in March and being aced by too little snow cover. I left at 11:00am and met Carl at the T-Rex lot 25 minutes after a short stop at Good Times for a Bleu Cheese Bacon Burger duo (5 bucks for 2 right now). Carl and I hightailed it up to Guanella Pass where we were hoping to beat the work crews on their afternoon construction closure, turns out we had to wait for 30 minutes but it was time well spent on gearing up. Sam met us at the upper closure and we were skinning up the road at 1:30pm. 
A little sick of long drives to remote corners of Colorado, Ryan and I decided to continue our training on a mountain closer to Denver. Longs seemed perfect for the task. We decided on the North Face to mix up the climbing a bit and take another baby step towards Kieners (we‘re getting there). After a bit of research we discovered a gulley that starts at Chasm Lake and spits you out right at the base of the North Face; we thought it would make a great outing to link these routes together and descend the Keyhole, making for a full traverse of the mountain with Chasm Lake as the starting point. It turned out to be a great day, although very physically difficult. We departed from the TH at 6:00am on the dot, fully prepared for the -20 temps the weather service was calling for. We ascended above treeline as the sun was coming up, arriving at Chasm Junction roughly 2 hours after our departure.