Longs Peak

Ice Climbs to Side of Martha, RMNP

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Lacee Ankeney and I went up to Chasm Lake in the Spring of 2024, planning to make a spring climb of Alexander’s Chimney. When we reached the lake, we spied two ice flows on the cliffs of Mount Lady Washington which we had never seen before. It was a cloudy day, the perfect chance to climb these south-facing lines. We changed our plans and popped over to take a look. This was fortuitous for us, as RMNP SAR was searching for a lost hiker, and they ended up locating his body at the foot of Lamb’s Slide that day. We would have been the party to discover the body if we had continued with our original plan.

The ambiance in the cirque was moody that day, both due to the unusual grey weather and the repeated sweeping turns from the search helicopter.

There were two distinct lines formed. We climbed the right-side line for one 30-meter pitch, finding it around M5+. The second pitch looked yummy, but we passed due to extremely poorly-bonded ice, warming temps, and disappearing protection. We wrapped a cordalette around a boulder and rappelled from there. We saw no other fixed gear. I was not able to track down firsthand accounts from anyone who had climbed this before, but probably some old-timers have. It’s not mentioned in any printed guidebooks or online sources.

Some pics:

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Self-Portrait Atop a Mountain in a Lightning Storm

Daniel 3 Comments

This photo was taken above 4,000 meters on Long’s Peak, after a climb of the Notch Couloir, June 2020. My partner and I had dawdled on the way up, and we got caught up high in a light afternoon thunderstorm. Deciding our best option was to wait the storm out, my partner and I stashed our ice axes, crampons and other metal gear fifty yards uphill, and took refuge in some small talus “caves.”

In reality, my boulder was barely large enough to provide shelter. My legs, pulled up into my chest, were still getting wet. My partner, a few yards away in a better cave, described themselves as on the brink of a nervous breakdown.

I shot this photo on my 35mm film camera. The storm soon passed. We summited an hour later.

Crowds, Covid, and the Casual Route

Daniel 4 Comments
Alpenglow on the Diamond face, Longs Peak

“Dr. Tony Fauci would be so pissed if he could see us,” the climber to my left says. He imitates the USA’s top Coronavirus expert, a well known figure in recent days: “‘You’re all the way out there, on the side of a mountain, and you fuckers still can’t stay six feet apart!?’”

All three of us at the anchor laugh.

We’re in tight proximity, for sure. Me, my climbing partner, and a stranger are in what’s called a “hanging belay”: literally hanging off the side of the Diamond, a huge alpine wall in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. There is no ground below us — just thousands of feet of air.

A few pieces of climbing gear stuck into cracks in the rock and some short nylon tethers are all that keep us from dropping to the glacier below. We aren’t all attached to the same gear — but our anchors are built around each other, at the only possible stance. The wall is too smooth and vertical to spread out much.

We are climbing the same route, chasing each other up. There are two climbing parties in front of us, and one behind. It *is* a bit ironic: we are more remote than most people will ever get in their lives, and yet… our new acquaintance is right. Dr. Fauci would not approve.

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