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Wandering up the impossible looking East Face of Longs Peak lies one of America's and the Worlds great classic climbs.
Beginning at the base of the East Face, Keiners follows Mills Glacier up a long steep snow tongue called Lambs Slide. A thousand feet up brings one to Broadway, a ledge that runs all the way across the East Face. Broadway varies from six inches to several feet in width. Exposure runs rampant on Broadway. At the edge of this broad walkway, sheets of granite plunge uninterrupted into the nothingness below. A look down encourages one to make each step carefully.
The amazing part is that other than the exposure, one simply walks across Broadway to the Notch Couloir. At the Notch Couloir, Keiners leaves Broadway and climbs up through a series of chimneys and rocky slabs. Technically, this is the most difficult section of the climb; however, each problem spot is followed by an easier section. The climbing in our Basic Rock Class is harder climbing than on Keiners.
The chimneys open out onto what is called the Devil's Staircase. Blocky steps leading from grassy ledges to more blocky steps offer an easy but slow climb up to the famous unsettling Diamond Step. Right at the peak of the Diamond and right at the top of Keiners, the mountain wall offers one more obstacle: getting off of the East Face and onto the North Face. To do this, the wall forces one to move out to the very edge of the Diamond, adjust one's balance and step out over the awesome void and onto the security of the North Face.
Lots of breathing, but a short walk and we are standing on the summit having climbed, and now knowing why Keiners is one of America's classics. A great climb, a great day and a lifetime memory will be yours.
We repeat the invitation from the Philosophy section of this website to read the trip report sent to us by Brian Phillips and his eleven year old son Mark after they had climbed the Keiners Route. We call Brian and Mark's account of their ascent:
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COST: In the tradition of one of the "Great Spirits" Enos_Mills - founder of Rocky Mountatin National Park; we are moving toward offering this course Free as a contribution to society from the Sangre de Cristo Mountaineering School as resources allow. This course is not offered at this time....
DATES: By arrangement.
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