Like this? Follow me:
A good time on Longs Peak, as always. After the NW Gully, I wanted a chiller summit, so I picked Iron Gates, which stays relatively snow-free most of the year for whatever reason – as opposed to the Loft, which looked pretty fat with snow (I also want to keep the Loft for a future summit).
The hike to Meeker was quite straightforward, except for a little overhanging V0 boulder problem I elected to do rather than traverse so steep slabby/snowy cliffs below. After Meeker, I again met up with winter with vengeance, getting myself into flurries and a lightning storm at the summit. I was holding my camera up on the summit block like an idiot, and the static in the air was so great, if feels like sparks were coming from my hand to the camera’s grip, making me through the camera off the summit block, and jump off the opposite direction. Probably destroyed the camera in the process.
Homestretch and the rest of the Keyhole route on descent was buried in deep, hard snow, and making my way down was far more than I bargained for today, but made it down just fine to great a few inches falling with a bit more effort by the Keyhole itself. Weather cleared up on the descent. Good times, and a fast ride home. I’ll remember this one for a long while.
