My Adventure on Longs Peak

I love mountains above all things. On Sept 20th last year, my brother and I attempted to summit Longs Peak in Rocky Mt. Natl Park, CO. The only 14er in RMNP. We went to sleep early the night before the climb since it is recommended to begin your hike around 2am in order to summit by noon, to avoid thunderstorms. It’s a 15.1 mile round trip so we knew to prepare accordingly. We left our backpacks ready at night. We got to the trail at 1:45am and it was nice to see there were people on the trail because the idea of hiking in the dark was scary. We began to hike through Goblins Forest. From the start, we were hiking at an incline. After about 1.5 miles we crossed Larkspur Creek and 4 switchbacks to the Alpine Tundra. We felt the exposure and temperature change right away. For miles we continued to the Boulder field. If you do this hike make sure to TAKE GLOVES! Even with gloves on I couldn’t feel my fingers. Past the nausea and cold hands we saw the sun rise while arriving at the Boulder field. It was cold and windy but the view made me forget all that. Seeing the LP diamond under a neon pink veil was surreal. There, we stopped and refueled, the fun was just getting started.
We finished eating and headed to the Keyhole. No marked trail, just a sea of rocks. We carefully scrambled through all the rocks; many were loose and we didn't want to get hurt. It got steeper as we got closer until we reached the Keyhole. Once up there, I was breathless in every sense! The view and lack of oxygen left me speechless. It was beautiful and frightening at once. I considered stopping because the next part is scary, dangerous and not recommended for people who fear heights.
On the Ledges, we scrambled on vertical cliffs of more than 1,000 ft. Then came the Trough which was over 600 vertical ft. of steep, loose rock. There was ice on it so we had to be extra careful because it made the rocks slippery. At this point, looking down was scary and I was feeling the altitude as I found myself stopping often to catch my breath. We got about halfway up when I decided not to continue. The thought of climbing further and having to come back down, really messed with my mind. I’m glad that physically, I was fine and I wish I would’ve reached the summit but I put my ego aside and decided to use discretion. This was my first time mountaineering and I was proud of how far I got. I will try it again. This was a demanding hike but the views were rewarding enough. I highly recommend it.