Longs Peak

We left Rifle just over a week ago. We could have stayed, but we were getting pretty tired. We had a successful last day when we both managed to send our projects so we thought we’d better leave before we acquired any new projects (as there has been a request for some actual numbers, I will tell you that Innes’ project was 12d and mine was 12a). We treated ourselves to a slap up meal in a nearby town, and got drunk for the first time on this trip (on two pints of beer – either it was very strong or we’re not used to drinking anymore!).


Then we headed east to Rocky Mountain National Park, where we planned to have a go at climbing Longs Peak, 14,259 feet. Longs Peak is famous for a sheer rock face on its eastern side called “the Diamond”, which has lots of hard climbs on it. We started by thinking that we might do something on the Diamond, but as we realised how cold it was getting high up, we quickly became less ambitious. In fact, the day before we arrived at Longs Peak a big storm had blown in, and 11 inches of fresh snow had fallen down to a level of 11,000 feet. It really felt like autumn. So we decided that we’d just go up the easiest way, which is called the Keyhole Route. In summer conditions this just involves a bit of scrambling and some exposure, but with snow and ice we thought it would be quite a lot more difficult.

We went to the Ranger station at the bottom of Longs Peak to get a weather forecast and some more information. Here we met a ranger called Bob, who was very pleased when we told him that we were British as he had spent three very happy years living in Chester. He offered us a place to stay for the night in an empty cabin next to his house. For once we got over our British reserve and politeness and accepted. We thought when he said cabin it would be fairly rudimentary, but it turned out to be luxurious – with a hot shower, a large double bed, comfy sofas and heating.

This is the outside of the cabin

And this is the bed!
Unfortunately we didn’t have much time to enjoy the luxury, as we had to get up at 3.30am for our attempt on Longs Peak. We spent the first couple of hours walking uphill in the dark, but were rewarded by a beautiful sunrise. Longs Peak is the last mountain before the Great Plains start to the east, so the sun comes up over a totally flat horizon.

Sunrise on the Diamond, East face of Longs Peak

It was very cold, about -5 degrees, with significant windchill. For some reason it reminded us both of walking in to the Northern Corries in the Cairngorms in winter – something to do with the shape of the mountains and the fact that we started from below the snowline.

It was cold – me at 13,000 feet

Once above the snowline the route traversed some exposed ledges and then went up a snow gully. It wasn’t difficult but we were glad to have our ice axes and crampons. We met a bloke who not only had no ice axe or crampons, but was also wearing trainers. Luckily he had seen sense and he had decided to turn back when we met him, but he seemed to be planning to descend the whole mountain on his bum.

Me in snow gully

Now Longs Peak is pretty high – high enough that the altitude can make you ill. I knew it was a bit of a gamble to try and climb it without doing anything to acclimatise first. Unfortunately the gamble didn’t pay off for me. At about 14,000 feet, very close to the summit, I started to feel ill and decided to stop. I felt very dizzy and not quite in control of my legs, so was afraid that I would slip crossing the next section of exposed ledges. I waited while Innes carried on to the summit, which was only about 10 minutes further on. I was a bit annoyed with myself later for giving up, because of course as soon as we started going down I felt fine. Then Innes showed me this photo of me that he’d taken at the point where I’d decided to stop, and I thought it had probably been the right call – I looked pretty ill. One thing I’ve learnt on this trip is that I do acclimatise quite slowly, certainly compared to Innes.

Sick Ruth (I wasn't even aware that Innes was taking the photo)

The next day we set off east again. Our destination was the Red River Gorge in Kentucky. To get there we had to drive across Eastern Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. It was 1,300 miles and it took us 3 days. My god it was boring, especially Kansas. Kansas is totally flat, and there is mile upon mile of cornfields, plus another crop that we couldn't identify.  There aren't many towns, but the motorway has petrol stations, fast food restaurants and (curiously) porn shops at fairly regular intervals.  It got less monotonous as we got further east, as the country got hillier and more fertile, so more densely populated.  However I think that the most interesting thing that happened in the whole three days was crossing the Mississippi River, which is enormous.

Now we’re in Kentucky, where we are staying at a very nice campsite called the Lago Linda Hideaway, run by a woman from Liverpool. It’s very different to the West. The weather is much milder and more temperate, and it’s greener and lusher with more trees. This bit of Kentucky reminds me a bit of the wooded parts of Southern England, except that here the forests are much more extensive.

We’ve done three days climbing in the Red River Gorge so far, and are having a rest today. More soon on what it’s like – what we’ve learnt so far is that the climbing is steep!

This is where you normally end up when lowering off from routes here

Best wishes

Ruth

Utah into Colorado

Having left the High Sierra for something a little more laid back, the first place we stopped off was Maple Canyon, a little south of Salt Lake City.  We had been to Maple Canyon before as it was the last venue that we visited before flying home at the end of our last trip to North America, so it was interesting to go back to a venue that we knew, and try some of the climbs that we had done before.

Ruth and I both left Maple Canyon last year with 'unfinished business', i.e. routes which we had tried to climb previously, but were unable to get up without falling off.  We were both dead chuffed to get up our respective routes very quickly, and quite easily this time.  This can only mean one of two things: a) we are both climbing better than we were at the end of our last trip, or; b) we were both completely knackered at the end of our last trip, and should have just gone home!

Maple Canyon

Maple Canyon was a perfect antidote to climbing in the Sierras.  No days of approach marching carrying rucksacs here; at Maple we could park the van up within a few feet of the crags, and stroll over to do some climbing after breakfast.  So we parked up and did just that for several days.

Rain doesn't stop play at Maple Canyon - climbing at the Pipeline during an afternoon thunderstorm.

We would have stayed at Maple Canyon for quite a while, except I managed to fall off and bruise my arm in the process... but that's a story for another time.  As an alternative we decided to do some proper tourism and joined the queues to enter the Arches National Park, which was only a few hours drive away (which is the equivalent to 'just around the corner' in America).

The desert scenery in Arches is superb and made both of us want to come back and spend more time in the Utah desert.  However, if we come back it is going to have to be much cooler.  It was 37C when we were there, and that is way too hot for Ruth and I.  It was too hot for us to stay long, and I seem to remember our tour ending by Ruth and I lying flaked out in the back of the van and saying "let's go and see this bloody arch and get out of here". 

State symbol of Utah - Delicate Arch (previously known as 'the cowboy's chaps')

It was still clearly too hot for us to do anything anywhere except up high in the mountains.  With this in mind, we continued our drive east and entered Colorado, where we have remained.  We are currently staying near a place called Rifle which has an excellent little local park called Rifle Mountain Park with excellent climbing in it. 

Rifle Mountain Park is quite high at an altitude of around 7,000 ft, so it's nice and cool during the day and we've actually already had some light air frosts at night.  The climbing is also in a deep gorge which runs pretty much north-south, meaning all the cliffs face either east or west allowing you to chase the shade or the sun at anytime during the day depending on what you want.  Perfect!

Rifle Mountain Park

Rifle is a steep sports climbing venue with no easy climbs, and a lot of hard ones.  The general standard of the climbers here is probably the highest I have seen anywhere.  A few of the climbers are just 'above average', most are good or very good, and some are brilliant or even legendary (Lynn Hill is sieging a project at the moment).  Like several other venues we've been to in the US, the standard of the female climbers puts the UK scene to shame - there are so many women climbing hard routes here.

The 'Wasteland' Sector

We've been in Rifle for just under 2 weeks now.  In that time we've managed to climb for 9 days.  This means that ruth and I have actually been taking quite a few rest days, which is not like us at all.  The reason behind this is that Rifle is such a physical and brutal cliff to climb on that our poor arms are destroyed after only 2 days.  It's hard here!  You either climb 11+ or go home... 

I think that we will stay in Rifle for another few days, do a bit more climbing here and then move on.  I'm sat in Rifle Library at the moment contemplating the unthinkable: taking 2 consecutive rest days off climbing.  Yep, we are pretty weary!

We are trying to formulate some kind of plan to snatch another little alpine adventure in Rocky Mountain Park.  Something before the autumn starts to shut down the high peaks, and something that will be an antidote to all this overhanging limestone.  A bit more research is required though. 

All the best

Innes