Long's Peak

Long'e Peak is one of the 53 or so "Fourteeners" - peaks over 14,000 feet in elevation. It is located within Rocky Mountain National Park, and is...
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Long'e Peak is one of the 53 or so "Fourteeners" - peaks over 14,000 feet in elevation. It is located within Rocky Mountain National Park, and is in any case a renowned climb, so there are lots of people. This is looking down the "Homestretch" section of the Keyhole Route, only 100-feet or so below the summit. While not a technical mountaineering route, there are a couple of scary places, and obviously lots of vertical exposure. Fatalities are not unknown.
Renowned because it is tough - the trail is 8-miles one-way, with a one-mile of altitude gain. No matter how far you make it up, your knees will kill you going back down.
Due to the need to get off the summit before noon - to avoid thunderstorms and lightning - most people start well before sunrise.
On Long's Peak and other Fourteeners, I have been snowed on or graupeled-on more often than not, even in July. Graupel is half-way between snow and hail. In any case, the wind is always blowing, and it is always cold.
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