OUTDOOR AWARENESS

Longs Peak is one of those peaks that keeps drawing me to it. Having failed with my son to summit in 2016 and 2017, I of course wanted to try again, but with a more difficult route, and in winter. We would attempt the Trough Route of Longs Peak. We left Chicago Wednesday morning. Once in Colorado, we sought to have lunch and pick up fuel in Estes Park, and head right to the trail. Given the low elevations in the Midwest, this was ambitious. At 3 p.m. we left the Glacier Gorge Trailhead and headed south toward Mills Lake. We arrived at Mills Lake at 4:15 p.m., and given the diminishing light, elected to setup our tent and rest. Recognizing the strong winds, we setup our camp near some trees and an over-sized boulder. Either we picked a good site, or guyed our tent well, or perhaps both. Everything held up pretty well. On Thursday morning, we set out shortly after first light, and continued south toward the trough and a summit. However, shortly after Mills Lake the outline of the trail disappeared. This is a narrow topology, where it appeared spring floods washed out large sections. Many downed trees and deep, deep snow banks frustrated our progress. I can never recall a time when I could not plunge my trekking poles into the snow and obtain some purchase. Nothing. This was deep. After two hours, and not yet reaching Black Lake, we had to consider our options. We did not believe we could ascend Longs Peak without descending or returning to camp in a dangerous situation. Furthermore, pushing our camp further south would only make our exit more difficult. Without other climbing challenges here, there was no purpose remaining. We packed up our gear and headed out. Once we exited, we stopped by the ranger office. The ranger indicated that excessive winds were occurring in the region, and areas above treeline are 50-70 mph. These were further reasons to not attempt a summit at this time.

Trying to make some elevation and achieve something on this trip, we chose to tackle the easy go-to, Twin Sisters. Although we expected the trail to be firmly packed and established, there was considerably more snow at upper elevations than we expected. Some areas could have even used crampons. Overall, it was a very pleasant hike, with some steep sections. We ascended Twin Sisters West and hit some very large gusts of wind. Pretty exciting. Then we descended, and scrambled up Twin Sisters East. Fun to do some scrambling, and now the winds were lower. We spent some time on the summit, and descended after cooling down. We saw some beautiful scenery of the clouds and mountains. A fun, safe day in the mountains. Wonderful.