Granite Pass

With the decent weather of the weekend, we decided to head up Longs Peak. The trail above the keyhole is rated technical above the Keyhole so we added crampons and ice axes just in case we got that high. We headed out at a good clip - probably too good. It wasn't long at all until we were good and sweated up. The trail had some snow but not bad at all.

Once we broke from treeline, the wind started howling down from the top. We had to lean into it just to keep going. A few people were already heading down but it was certainly not a crowd.

A couple hours and we were at the trail split overlooking Chasm Lake. After a quick lunch we needed to make a decision on whether to keep going up. Why not.

Another mile and about 600 feet elevation brought us up to Granite Pass. If we thought the wind was bad at treeline, it was 10 times worse at the Pass. Looking up, the clouds started only about 500 above us. We could keep going toward the Boulder Field but we wouldn't be able to see anything so we decided it wasn't worth it. Try for the summit another day.

The hike down was obviously a lot quicker. We were pretty wiped out. Needed a bite to eat so the obvious place was Oskar Blues. A beer and a pizza was the perfect ending.