Climb Longs Peak! The SE Ridge (a.k.a. The Staircase) Rocky Mountain National Park

Well, hello! Good morning. Welcome to the Longs Peak Trailhead. I'm here at the start. It's a busy day in the middle of August, and I had to park down the road a little ways and then hike up to the trailhead, and I'm here now. And I'm going to head up Longs Peak today. I'm going to take you with me, and our objective for today is the southeast ridge of Longs Peak. It's something I like to call the staircase, and some of the locals call the staircase, and it's a really fun exciting route. Just really beautiful. I think you'll love it. So let's go check it out together, This goes to the Battle Mountain Campsite, that way, over there. Beautiful campsite, if you ever want to camp there. And then this heads toward Longs Peak and Chasm Lake. We're headed right up there. Lots of people out on the trail today, having fun. This part of the East Longs Peak Trail is so well maintained. They put these flagstone rocks in here. Very nicely done. Here's your hard-working trail crew on the job. Hi guys! Good, how's it going? Do you mind if I pass? Okay, wonderful. Thank you very much. Thanks for all your hard work on the trails. Beautiful trail. Enjoy. Thank you. Nice job on the trail, guys. Thank you. Have a great one. You too, thank you. Beautiful work on the trail, guys. Do you mind if I pass? Yes. Okay, thank you. Going around that big jumble. Okay, sounds good. Thank you so much. Thanks, guys. Have a good one. Yeah, you too. Well done. It's like you're on the chain gang. That's what goes into building our trails, huh? Really grateful to these guys for what they do up here, making the trail nice for everybody. I'm coming up on Chasm Junction, a major intersection of the trail. Lots of people hanging out. The trail to the Keyhole Route goes this way around the slope of Mount Lady, Washington. But I'm going toward Chasm Lake, which is that way where all those people are going. There are some bathrooms over there. You can see them here at Chasm Junction, in case you're up here and you need it. They're not open in the winter, though, but they are open in the summer, which is nice. So I started at 7 35 a.m. and a lot of people wouldn't start that late to go up Longs Peak, and you really shouldn't unless you know the route, can go fast, and can get up there before the afternoon thunderstorms come in, which is what I'm going to do today. So yeah, that's why so many people out here on the trail are headed toward Chasm Lake, because when you get sort of a later start, it's a good destination to go to Chasm instead of the peak. So just wanted to point that out. Hi guys, want me to get a picture for you? Yeah, no worries. Happy to. Thank you. One, two, three. Wow, it's so scenic. The trail to Chasm Lake goes right up those rock slabs there. We are going up into the loft up here. I'm kind of a time crunch today, but should I run up to Chasm Lake and show it to you? Maybe I should. All right, so I made it to Chasm Lake. A little detour. I probably shouldn't have taken the time to do it, but I can't help myself because it is so beautiful up here. Just incredible. Yeah, you've got some people coming up to enjoy the majesty. You've got Mount Lady Washington right there. You've got Chasm Lake. Mills Glacier is the snow. The Diamond on Longs Peak, this upper 1,000 foot rock face. Amazing rock climbing up there. And the Ship's Prow here. North face of Mount Meeker there. Yeah. All right, that was enough of a detour. I gotta get going if I'm gonna make this today in my time frame, so I gotta get. Let's get over toward the loft and get on our way. All right, I'm back on track heading up above Chasm Meadows toward the loft. You can see Chasm Lake behind me there. Just gorgeous. I took a little detour over there, as you know, and now I'm back on my intended route going past this big boulder, kind of a landmark boulder in this valley between the Ship's Prow and the north face of Mount Meeker below the loft. There's two of these really big rocks like this one in front of me here that I use as landmarks for where I am in this big broad gully that goes down to Chasm Meadows. I'm in the upper section of that gully that comes up from Chasm Meadows, as you can see. Yeah, beautiful. I wanted to show it to you. Mount Meeker behind me there. You can see the loft route going right up there. That spire there on the ridgeline is Ship's Prow Tower. This is Ship's Prow going all the way down. It's a big long ridge to that blunt buttress that I showed you from Chasm Lake. You can see Chasm Meadows down there. You can see the Iron Gates really well now because the shadows are being cast from it. You can see that area between those two spires or gendarmes where you go up the scree slope. That's called the Iron Gates. There's the flying buttress. Yeah, and Longspeak above me. Not too shabby. Getting there. Going up. Elevated to the top. Pretty awesome going up here. As you get closer to the top of the slabby section, it gets a little the top of that gully that goes up to the loft. It's so pretty in here with the water flowing down the slabs. Snow melt and the snow up higher. Okay, I want to show you this. It's tempting to continue up this little gully that the snow melt is coming down, but what you're looking for is this little exit out onto this grassy ledge. So I wanted to show it on video so you can kind of see. I came up from Chasm Meadows down there. If you can see the greenery down there. Came up this gully up to this point below Ship's Prow Tower, and you're looking for this grassy ledge that comes over here. It's a pretty prominent ledge, but you have to be looking for it, and it is the key to accessing the easiest way up the loft route. The grassy ledge has some beautiful flowers on it. You can see it goes horizontally across up that way. I came from this way to get onto it. You can see where I scrambled up onto this ledge right there. Here's the namesake grass of the grassy ledge. Grass and moss, just beautiful. The ledge comes up to this little pinch point here. You can go on the outside of it, but I like to go on the inside and then cuts back up on that ledge system to that big boulder. So the ledge comes right up to here and then cuts back on the next section of grassy ledge that you can see right there. So you can see where I came from up here and then cut back here. There's what's left of what was once a permanent snowfield on the loft. You can see the top of the and the snowfield right below it. You can see the southeast aspect of Long's Peak looking down on Ship's Prow Ridge all the way down to the buttress of the Ship's Prow down there. And where I came up and where we're going. I'm going to climb to the top of the loft here to that saddle and then scoot around to where I cut up onto the southeast ridge here. Now I'm on the loft, this flat area here, this saddle. And you see that little tower over there? That's called Zumi's Thumb. It's a really fun rock climb. The loft is a pretty impressive saddle. A nice flat area between Mount Maker, which you're seeing right there. That's the Western Summit. Eastern Summit's over there. Eastern Summit's over there. And Long's Peak. Yeah, which you're seeing right there. The loft is pretty easy movement, easy to walk across, nice and level. Nice big boulders, relatively stable. So it's easy to cruise up here. Once you catch your breath from coming up, or at least me, once I catch my breath. So over the ride I'm going to do the staircase. You can either go up this southeast rib of Long's Peak and then rappel down the notch. There's a prominent notch, like a cleft, between the summit that you can see and this slope ahead of me. That if you go up that way, you can rappel down. It's a long rappel, pretty sporty. Or you can go around on the Clark's Arrow route, which I've covered in a different video. Go up to the notch from that way, which I'll show you as I get there. And then cut over to the southeast ridge from there, which is what I'm going to do today. Because I didn't bring a rope. So this route I'm going to do, even this way, is a technical route. It's easy fifth class, so most people would want to rope on it. And I have roped up on it before, but I've done it many times and I know the way and I'm very confident with my feet and my hands and the climbing. So I'm going to solo it today. But again, I don't recommend this for most people. But it's kind of fun to see on video, right? Even if you're not going to come up here, or if you do come up here, if you come up here on a rope, this will still give you the information you need to know what the terrain is like. So yeah, so I still think it's worthwhile. Plus I'm having a blast and it's fun having you along with me to check out my favorite place on earth, Longs Peak. Yay! So from the loft you have to descend a little bit and then cut over. There's this nice cairn here that I always try to make sure is still here when I come back. I don't usually love a lot of cairns, but this one's super useful to tell you exactly where to cut through the easiest way to keep this at fourth class. So yeah, came down a little bit from the loft. Looks like I hear some people who might be coming up. We might be able to check them out. Let's go see. Oh no, they're going down. Oh no, they're coming up. Hello. Hi, how are you? Good. How's it going? Good. Actually splitting off and heading back up to the loft. Okay, did you go? I'm going down through Clark's Arrow here, yes. You know exactly where? I do. I take it, I take heart in the fact that somebody else is at this spot. This is the spot. It's a little tricky to find. If you don't find this, it gets a lot harder. How far down is it? It's a ways, maybe five minutes of scrambling down. It's so worth it though. It's worth it. This gentleman decided to continue on the Clark's Arrow route, and he is going down the class four section right now. It's not too bad. All right, so this is the cut through. He is pointing, what's your name? Kevin. Kevin. Kevin is pointing to the circle. There's a white circle with an arrow that points west, which is that way, which shows people how to come through. Up to the loft, the easiest way from coming over from the south face of Long's Hair. So yeah, I just wanted to show that to you. Pretty cool little route, huh? Awesome. You have to cross a couple of ribs to come over into Keplinger's Couloir from the Clark's Arrow itself. Here comes Kevin coming up. One of those ribs. And this is Keplinger's Couloir that comes up from Wild Basin and goes right up there. Yeah, so you'll come up from where you are up to where the sunshine is right there, and you'll go left above these steeper slabs across less high angle slabs, and you'll cut all the way over to the home stretch. Which you've been, yeah, no worries, and you've been in the home stretch before, so you should recognize it. And I'm going to go, instead of going over toward the home stretch and up along that way, I'm going to come up to the Notch Couloir up here and go on the southeast ridge. There's Kevin going up his way. And here's me going up right up here. You see that big notch? That's the notch. And on the other side of it, the east side of it, right over there, is the Notch Couloir, which we will look down. Pretty cool. Have fun, Kevin. Be safe. All right, I'm coming up into the notch. It's so pretty in here. A lot of loose dirt where you take one step forward and one step back, or half step back, because I am making progress after all. So it's a little scrambly to get up into the notch. I'll show you that. Pretty easy, fourth class moves. But now I have to go across this little slab right here. But let me let you look into the notch itself. Isn't that cool? Little cave there. Pretty cool, huh? You can see Chasm Lake down there and Peacock Pool. And there's the notch. I'm a little bit above it now. And that is what you would repel if you were going to repel into the notch instead of skirting around on Clark's Arrow route. Pretty exciting repel. Yeah, looking back at the Palisades, that rock formation there. Nice. Wild basin out there in the distance. So there is a a cord here that somebody left because they wanted to repel that little scramble I just did, which isn't a bad idea. So yeah, this is so beautiful. Looking down on Chasm Lake and you can see the Notch Couloir, this gully that goes down like that, comes up into this notch that I was just in. Notch of rock between the East Summit of Longs, if you want to call it that. It's not really a summit of Longs, but it's the eastern prominence and Longs Peak, which is over here. There's across this slab. It's not too bad, but you definitely don't want to do it when it's wet. So yeah, it's dry right now. So let's go give it a shot. And here's the staircase. Just have to go right up that southeast ridge and then hit the summit. So my selfie stick broke and I had to go down and get it down there. And it was in a crevice and I couldn't reach it. So I had to get out my pole and scoot the selfie stick over to a place where I could get down and reach it. The things we do for video, huh? So this is the staircase. What we call the staircase. Just some stair steps up this little gully. Really cool. It does have some harder moves though. I'm about to show you. These right here. Yeah, but the movement is super fun. So let's go do it. I'd give that about 5.2, maybe 5.3. Definitely will feel harder when wet. I have done it wet and icy and I don't love it. So there's the staircase I came up. And now it's just an easy scramble to the southeast ridge to the top of Longs. All right, now you can see everything. You can see where you'd have to rappel off that prominence down into the notch. You can see the notch. You can see the next little gully over where I came up. And now I'm on the southeast ridge. You can see the loft. See that flat area? Mount Meeker. Both the west and east summits. Chasm Lake. Beautiful. Yeah. So now I just got to scramble up here to the top of Longs. We can't see the top yet, but it's not too far. All right, this is what I just scrambled up. The southeast ridge. Looking down on Chasm Lake and looking over at the summit of Longs Peak, which is just right there. But I do have to scramble down this tiny little notch first. So let's go do that. I am cresting to the summit. Pretty cool. Wahoo. Hey, is that Kevin? Yes, it is. Hey. How are you? Awesome. How was the climb over? What's that? How was the climb over? It was incredible, actually. Awesome. It was really fun. How was yours? It was good. Good. Good, actually. Good. Glad to hear it. Yeah. Beautiful day up here. It is perfect. It looks like it's about time to get down. Yep, I agree. Yep. Well, you have a safe trip down, Kevin. You too. It was nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. There's some folks going down the home stretch. I always take my picture with this sign so I can keep track of my ascents. Yeah. To send the keyhole route, roll no rocks. Yeah. Let's go up to the very summit boulder here. Always got to touch the summit boulder, right? All right. I just wanted to say thank you so much for watching the channel. Thanks for subscribing, for liking, for commenting, and for tuning in. I really appreciate it. Another wonderful day on my favorite mountain. Thanks so much. I'll catch you on the next adventure. Bye.