A Fine Day Indeed: Keyhole Ridge (5.6 II) on Long's Peak

    The sun rose slowly over the eastern horizon, warming the rocks beneath me as I walked across the boulder field leading up to the long slabs of the North Face of Long’s Peak. I unzipped the thin layer I had on and looked behind me to see how Sarah was coming along. We were nearly at the start of our chosen route for the day, the super, mega-classic “Keyhole Ridge” (5.6 II). I had been on Long’s more times than what I could count on both hands, but upon investigating every line that I had taken to the summit, I realized that this one was not on the list. It was only fitting that for Sarah’s first time on the big rock we would do something new for the both of us. It was even more funny to me that I was doing this classic route after moving from Estes to Leadville.

Sarah slowly came up behind me as we topped out on the large ramped ledge above the stone hut that marks the beginning of the more “semi-technical sections” of the Keyhole Route (4th I). From this point, we would continue upwards, facing a few grassy and exposed ledges until the ridge would present the more technical sections that marked the spectacularly exposed nature of the route. While being determined to be only a grade II climb, the Keyhole Ridge is longer than most routes on the North Face, and lends itself to placing climbers in a pretty bad position in the event of a storm. I was confident that Sarah and I doing this climb in late August would provide us with the great combination of stable weather and a later sunset. My assumptions, thankfully, would prove to be correct.

After passing over a few low class ledges, while moving farther and farther upwards from the line of hikers attempting the Keyhole Route, Sarah and I finally reached a small, north-facing corner system with a few old and unreliable pitons jammed into it. This seemed as good a place as any to rope up, grab some gear, and start the climbing for the day. We both opted to wear our approach shoes for the entire route on this one, as this was a popular route for low-grade soloing, the gear seemed pretty good, and the climbing overall while engaging, proved to be not so difficult in the least bit. I was happy at the performance of my Scarpa Cruxes, but I was even more happy not to switch shoes at all while we were up there. More than once myself or a partner has dropped a pair of TC Pro’s from some horrible position on the side of one of the many high points throughout Rocky Mountain National Park.

For this climb as well, I opted to bring a light single rack with doubles of the larger finger and smaller hands sizes with plenty of nuts and a few hexes. I’ve noticed during a few of my forays into alpine climbing in the park before that I seemed to prefer more passive placements for the lower-graded and therefore chunkier climbs in the area. They seemed more solid to me and less susceptible to slipping on the abundant lichen that forms on the grainy and textured rock within the park. I stretched the pitches as best I could, although with the “meat” of the route requiring a longer and exposed traverse, a few of the pitches were shorter than a full 70m stretch. At the end of the technical section, I believe Sarah and I only had to climb about 3 ½-4 pitches in total, with many descriptions, including that of the one within Rossiter’s RMNP Alpine Guide advising that many parties do it in 5-6. The experienced alpine climber with confidence can stretch many of the lengths while still providing adequate protection for their follower and mitigating rope drag. I don’t think Sarah or myself did anything but crack a giant smile the entire time we followed the ridge. The climbing was solid, the gear was solid, and the imposing vantage that one had on the ridge compared to the boulder field and valley below was incomparable. I’ve definitely had many great days and a few bad ones on Long’s Peak, but this was close to one of the best days I’ve ever had up there.

After climbing the steeper corner system where the technical climbing officially starts, one finds themselves perched on the top of the ridge proper. From there, it is a short rappel onto another smaller ledge from which Sarah and I moved across a pretty low-grade ledge (although very excitingly exposed) to where I would say the “money pitch” of the whole route starts. Beginning on the low-angle slab that runs up from the traverse pitch, there lies a system of ledges and cracks, all of low-grade difficulty, but high-grade enjoyment. I don’t think there was a single move on the second to last pitch that I didn’t like. With even a few high-quality jams, I would say this is the single best pitch on the North Face of Long’s Peak. As per what I have climbed in the area so far, at least. Topping out from there, one follows the low-angle slab near the southwest corner of the summit bloc until it reaches the broad and open summit.

Between the two of us, I don’t think there was a single bad thing to say for the day. With a relatively quick rappel from the top of the Cable Route (5.4 I) on the other end of the North Face, we got down from the summit to the boulder field in less than a half an hour. Sarah hasn’t been able to alpine climb nearly as much as I’ve had the opportunity and blessing to, but I’m happy to say that I’ve made a pretty good addict out of her. While the Keyhole Ridge wouldn’t be called a “beginner’s climb,” in my opinion, I would call it one to add to the list for anyone who values a good day out on a classic. While route finding could be challenging for someone not familiar with the mountain, most of the climbing is pretty straightforward, and hard to get lost on into harder or more choosed terrain. All in all, a fine day out in the alpine indeed.

*All pictures and media property of MountainProject.com and Trent Hillier*