Longs Peak (Spring)

The trip report on this page represents the 23rd time I have been to the summit of Longs Peak.

I can see Longs Peak from my living room window, and one of my favorite ways to spend a day is an adventure to the summit. I have put together a "Longs Peak Page" summarizing the routes I have done on Longs Peak. Check it out by clicking the link above.

Category: Colorado (RMNP)Summit Elev: 14,259 ftRock Type: Granite
Date: May 25, 2024 (Sat)Trip Report #: 697Partner: solo

Route: The Loft + Clark's Arrow (3rd, moderate snow, spring conditions) 

Similar difficulty to the popular Keyhole Route, but less crowded and a bit more entertaining.

Intro

Previous to 2024, I had only summited Longs in the summer months (June, July, August, September). But in February 2024, I had done my first winter ascent of Longs, when Lisa Foster invited me along on an ascent of the Cables Route. It was of an ah-ha moment for me: I love my new life in Colorado, but I had been missing the snow mountaineering—crampons, ice axes, steep snow, mixed conditions, glacier travel, crevasses, bergshrunds—I had done so much of in the North Cascaedes; climbing Longs in non-summer conditions was a great way to put these skills—except for the glacier-related stuff—to good use. Following the February ascent, I had summited Longs once in March (with Lisa) and twice in April (once with Lisa, once solo). It was now nearing the end of May and conditions on Longs were perfect for another Spring ascent. Why not keep my streak going? I'd already done the Keyhole Route, North Face, and Trough over the preceeding few months, so I decided to reach the summit via The Loft + Clark's Arrow.

Clark's Arrow is an excellent 3rd class route to the summit of Longs Peak. It is far less travelled than The Keyhole Route. I had been on sections of the route a couple of times in the summer (on the "Estes Skyline High Route" in July 2020 we used it as a descent route and when ascending Longs via The Beaver in August 2022, I had scoped out Gorrell's Traverse via Clark's Arrow). But this was the first time I did The Loft + Clark's Arrow as my main ascent route. The route was still quite snowy, but the snow was in excellent condition for cramponning. I had brought snowshoes, but never needed them (I left them along with a victory Pepsi at the base of the snowslope up to the Loft and collected them on my way out).

Just like all of my ascents so far in 2024, I arrived on a sunny and calm summit and had the entire summit to myself.

The following page gives a route overlay and photos from my first May ascent of Longs Peak.

MAP

Map showing all the routes I've done to the top of Longs Peak. The Loft + Clark's Arrow is shown in light blue. Click to see full map.

Route OverlayS

The Loft: Spring* conditions

* These were the conditions on a spring day in April 2022. I had similar conditions on my ascent in May 2024. Conditions can vary.

Clark's Arrow**: Summer* conditions

* These were the conditions on a summer day in July 2022. Conditions can vary even in the summer. **The overlay shows The Beaver and Gorrell's Traverse as well, which are different lines of ascent from Clark's Arrow. Clark's Arrow is the pink line that starts at The Loft, wraps around the SW side of the Beaver and links with the final strech of the Keyhole Route (grey arrows).

Time Stats

Photos

Longs Peak Trailhead to Chasm Meadows

2nd

Start from the Longs Peak Trailhead and hike to Chasm Junction. Take the trail to Chasm Meadows. 

Just past Chasm Junction, in the dawn light (photo was taken at 4:58 am, 40 minutes before sunrise).
Chasm Meadows. I ascended the snowfield that is straight ahead in the photo, to the left of Ship's Prow.
My evil owl electric hand warmers. These are nice to have on any early morning ascent of Longs except for perhaps  the month of July.

The Loft

Mod. Snow

Ascend to The Loft (trail in summer, snow in winter and spring). The Loft is the broad 13,450-foot col between Meeker and Longs.

Alpenglow. The Loft is the saddle just right of center. 
I put on crampons at the base of the snow slope around where the previous photo was taken. The snow was perfect for cramponning up (and would have been a bit spooky without). 
Being high up at sunrise is one of life's special experiences.
To bypass a steep cliff directly under the Loft, take this ledge left. Even in the summer, people are known to miss this ledge and end up downclimbing or rappelling difficult terrain.
The steep cliffs directly below the Loft. In 2018, before I moved to Colorado, my partner and I ended up rappelling down these cliffs after climbing the Flying Buttress on Meeker in 2018. Oops.
Approaching The Loft saddle. That's the top of Longs in the distance, but to get there, you go over The Loft and onto the southwest side of the mountain and then up.

Clark's Arrow 

3rd

Clark's Arrow is an excellent 3rd class route to the summit of Longs Peak. It is far less travelled than The Keyhole Route. From the lowest point of The Loft, hike west towards Chiefs Head Peak, sighting along two cairns of white rock, and arrive at another cairn as the slope begins to drop off into Wild Basin. Do not descend this slope. Instead, contour northwest, pass beneath a small buttress, and angle up to another cairn on the skyline. Go a short ways further for about 100 feet. There used to be a big block with a white arrow in a circle painted on the west face. This is Clark's Arrow. This block supposedly slid off the back of Longs Peak during the great flood of 2012 (I couldn't find it so perhaps it did). Hike north along a vague path that passes beneath the towers of the Palisades and gain the scree-filed basin below the Notch. 

To get to Clark's Arrow route, go over The Loft saddle and make a slight downward traverse.
This cairn is a good landmark on the Clark's Arrow route.
Looking down the rocky chimney section. This is 3rd or 4th class.
View back of the chimney I descended. I kept my crampons on. This section was fun.
Cross the snowfields, heading up.
I traversed the left-right snowfield above. This snowfield terminates at the Homestretch on the Keyhole Route. I thought this was the crux of the route: steep, hard snow with a cliff below (it is steeper than it looks). Definitely no-fall terrain. Fortuately the snow was in great shape for front-pointing.
Towering granite of the Palisades. I want to climb these someday.

The Homestretch

3rd

The Homestretch is a steep ramp on the south face of Longs. It is the last stretch of the Keyhole Route. It leads to the summit. In the summer, it can be a bit slick or icy. In the spring ascent in this trip report, I booted up through deep but stable snow. 

The Homestretch still had a fair bit of snow on it.

Top!

Enjoy the view. No crowds in the spring!

I had the summit to myself.
Summit view.
Summit view.

Descent 

Reverse the route

There are a few viable options for descent: for a loop over Longs, descend the Keyhole Route or Cables Route on the North Face and regain the trail in the Boulderfield; or just reverse the Clark's Arrow to The Loft. Given the spring conditions and wanting to make use of my tracks, I decided to reverse the ascent route.

Heading back down the steep snow slope that connects The Homestretch to the Clark's Arrow route. I thought this was the crux of the route: steep, hard snow with a cliff below. In the summer this is just 3rd class rock. The snow defintely made it more difficult, but the snow was in great condition for front-pointing.
Palisades.
As I was descending, I encountered a party of two headed up the same route to the summit. They were planning to ski down Keplinger's Couloir (which sounds terrifying to me).
The party of two nearing what I thought was the crux of the route: steep, hard snow with a cliff below (it is steeper than it looks). They seemed to be debating what to do and I am not sure if they stopped here or continued up.
Following my tracks back up the chimney section of Clark's Arrow.
Descending the lower snow slope below the Loft was a couple of minutes of fun (i.e. butt glissading).
A view back up at my butt glissade track.
I am always intrigued by this piller of orange rock on skier's left / climber's right below The Loft. A route called Scots on the Rocks (5.10a, 4p) ascends the pillar. I want to climb it sometime.
I also want to climb Martha, which is the mixed route ascending the gully above Chasm Lake.
A view back of where I had spent my morning.
Some weather was developing as I hiked out (this photo was taken at 11:30am). NOAA had forecasted 40% morning, 70% afternoon thundershowers while meteoblue had forecasted 10% morning, 50% afternoon thundershowers. The meteoblue forecast (as usual) seemed a bit more accurate. I'd give up a lot of good weather windows if I just used NOAA.
Back at the parking lot. It was Memorial Day weekend, so the parking lot was quite full when I got back around 12:30pm.
While I wrote my trip report, Newt took a nap for me.

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