Rocky Mountain National Park - 2011
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This would be my first attempt of Longs Peak. This would involve the Winter Route, using The Glacier Gorge Trail to reach an ascent to the The Trough. From The Trough, one continues the standard Longs Peak route to The Narrows and Homestretch.
Although we stayed in Boulder the previous night, the altitude was affecting me this morning. As we took the winding road to the park office, I was straining to avoid throwing up. We got out of the car to pick up our permits, and the cool Winter air and some water helped clear my head. Finally, we reached the Glacier Gorge Trailhead and we could get out. Unfortunately, the leader of our party broke his new Garmin GPS while mounting up in the parking lot. This would prove to be an issue later. We left the trailhead and headed south on the Glacier Creek Trail. It was snowing quite a bit. Not whiteout, but pretty strong snow throughout the morning. While heading south on the trail, multiple times we returned to the same spot. We went circles. Considering the time we’ve spent, how little progress we made, and the consequence of the resulting snowfall on Longs Peak, we elected to pull out of the park and attempt a peak with less avalanche risk.
That afternoon we decided to attempt Quandary Peak in the White River Forest. I would return to Rocky Mountain National Park to attempt (and fail) this approach in 2017.