Longs Peak

Route: Other
Posted On: 6/19/2026, By: GreatGlissader
Info: Lambs Slide: Started couloir at 5am. Mostly half to full boot steps, some sections of only crampon points, probably in skiers tracks.

Clarks Arrow: Dry until the traverse from Keplingers to the homestretch. Unavoidable steep and firm snow to get to homestretch.

Cables: Sucks. Lots of snow on the north face, deep unsteady steps, or tiny bit of snow over ice. Only eye bolts exposed are the belay bolt at the top of the 5.4 section, and 2 below that. others still buried under snow. 5.4 section is a snow ice mix. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 6/19/2026, By: Troyister
Info: Summer conditions to the boulder field. Boulder-field small snow fields easily avoided. Ledges a couple small snow fields easily avoided. Trough full of snow the whole length. I climbed the snow with micro spikes and a shorten trekking pole with no issues in the early morning. On the descent I stayed climber right (descent right) and was able to avoid all snow and descend. It was much more challenging and easy to get into class 4 plus moves if not careful. Narrows clear of all snow. Homestretch snowfield a the top easily avoided to climbers right when ascending. Not very busy this morning (probably due to the snow in the trough), but will once the trough melts out some more over the next couple of weeks. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 6/6/2026, By: wombat
Info: Summitted at 7:00 AM. Trough filled with plenty of snow that the sun doesnt hit until late morning. Recommend ice axe and crampons on the trough and possibly homestretch for quick ascent and safety. Most other stretches may be managed with boot steps and ice axe for protection. 

Route: Up Loft down Cables
Posted On: 5/31/2026, By: slawrence2011
Info: Thanks to Luke for Keplinger beta and Joseph and Eric for Cables beta. Went up Loft in hopes of seeing if Keplinger was in with Cables as a backup. Mostly dry to where loft turns off from chasm lake. Pretty continuous snow from there to the top of the loft. It looked like the direct loft finish could be in, but I couldn't verify, so took the ledges out left which were a snow covered traverse over cliffs, but good snow conditions for crampons. Clark's arrow was dry, transitioned back to hiking boots, managed to keep those on until a 50 foot firm shady section right below snow ramp to Keplinger from Homestretch, which was in great, and very soft around 11. That ramp doesn't link to homestretch any more by 100 ft or so, and homestretch is well covered, but not continuous, with a 50 foot gap in there. Does go down about 200 ft right off the summit. The fatal blow was Keplinger has a 200 foot gap at the top and doesn't connect to the snow traverse from homestretch. So I went for cables. At 2 pm, combination of breakable crust and very firm until below the Crux where it went straight to mashed potatoes. Skiing would have been very fun and much more casual if the snow softened. The breakable crust caught me off guard and pulled me down off my very first turn. I reascended to the ridge and followed the tracks, and at least that was firm rather than breakable. 

Route: The Cables
Posted On: 5/29/2026, By: ericahlstedt
Info: Skied the Cables Route on Longs Peak off the summit, a 5.4 rock climb that’s currently in as a snow climb and skiable, with Tyson Daboxer.

14.25 miles
5,030’ gain
9h 30m

Ski start at 1050am.

The snow was… not good lol

We put in a fresh bootpack and while the surface was softening in the sun and punching mid-boot deep on the way up, and seemed like the surface might become something like hot pow. I was hoping it would soften more, but a cloud rolled in, it started snowing, and things refroze just enough to make it literal dust on crust above the crux cliff band. Would have likely been glorious spring hot pow/slushy if that cloud hadnt come in. A half hour later, it was back sunny on the mountain. The mini snow storm squall made the ski more exciting and adrenaline pumping. Was able to cross the boulder field on skis, making it about 12,500, for about 1700 ft of vertical skiing.

It was edgeable and punchy, but definitely scary skiing above the Diamond like that. The exposure is very real there, an uncontrolled fall would certainly be fatal.

We made it back to the car just before the skies opened up and started dumping rain and sleet, so decent timing all things considered.

Thanks/shoutout to Joseph McCarty / splitboard14ers on here, who provided super helpful beta on this route after shredding it last weekend. 

Route: Cables Route
Posted On: 5/29/2026, By: Splitboard14ers
Info: Approached via standard Keyhole Route from Longs Peak Trailhead, until reaching Boulder Field. Snow patchy first mile or so. Then more snow coverage the whole rest of way. Shortly after reaching Privy transitioned to skin a ways, then transitioned back to boots to climb up and over Mount Lady Washington, then transitioned back to skins and kept them on past Boulder Field straight toward the base of the Cables Route. Once too steep to skin, transitioned back to boots and put crampons on to ascend. Snow was deep fresh powder. I began to boot pack, and after about 400 feet reached the small rock band which was not fully covered in snow, so kicking in steps did not work. I kept the line straight, and scrambled the rock until back on to snow pack. There was no ice surrounding the rock, and this section is only a few feet in length. Just above rock band I did encounter a short section of firm snow, and the crampons were vital. The rest of the face booted beautifully until I reached the Summit ridge. From there it was an almost flat walk over to stand on the Summit. Conditions had been perfect, but some fog clouds snowing were rolling in. So I dropped off Summit and snowboarded back down this line. The face skied very well with nothing but beautifully edge-able snow. At the rock band I slowed down, positioned, and aired over the rock, then rode the rest of the way back down the lower run out making tasteful turns. Rode all the way back across the flats until Lady Washington. A short unstrap, and few feet walk, then strapped back in and rode back through the rocky flank of the hill towards the Privy. A few hundred feet before the Privy the snow coverage was too thin to continue riding, and I transitioned back to boots and hiked the rest of the way back down. Approx: 11.84 miles, 4975'ft vertical. 

Route: Loft Route
Posted On: 5/16/2026, By: gmarcotte
Info: Did not summit. I left Chasm Lake around 7:30am heading to the couloir and the snow was just starting to soften. Made it up to about 12,400' where the slope angle starts to steepen around 8:15am and turned around as the snow quality was quickly deteriorating. Lots of postholing on the way back to Chasm Lake, pretty sketchy since there are big rocks just under the snow cover.

In hindsight, would have wanted to be a couple hours earlier to be topping out the couloir by 8am, given how much morning sun it gets. Snow coverage was pretty good for ascending, but probably too thin to glissade - the rocks are barely covered in a lot of places. 

Route: Trough from Black Lake
Posted On: 5/9/2026, By: daway8
Info: Did not attempt to summit, just did a conditioning hike to Black Lake as I'm recovering from foot problems that have had me mostly out of action since mid-winter. Posting to share some photos and conditions for this approach.
Despite big recent snow dump, did not bring nor need snowshoes. Things are melting fast. A lot of the trail is either a stream, a mud pit, or slush pit. GoreTex footwear highly recommended. Didn't use spikes since the icy spots were so crunchy and uneven that traction wasn't necessary. Most of the trail was already well packed with snow often not above the top of my boots. Closer to Black Lake it got deeper but still good tracks and usually didn't sink more than halfway to my knees, but I was down below Mills before noon so might sink more later in the day.
Only faint hint of old tracks past Black Lake. I put in fresh tracks to the far side of the lake. Coverage above looked fairly spotty but with freeze, thaw cycles going I would expect icy spots up higher. 9.7mi, 1,430ft in 5hr 41min for average speed of 1.7mph. Not bad for sitting out most of the season. 

Route: Notch
Posted On: 4/26/2026, By: vermontster
Info: Snow is still dry and wintery in the notch and on most of Broadway. Very time consuming to move through. Only a few non-snow moves to get to the top of the notch. The staircase is a nasty mixed pitch to the summit. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 4/25/2026, By: Jschramm87
Info: Started at 3 am. There were about a dozen cars in the parking lot when I got there. Some snowy patches to cross in the forest and above treeline. Can be tricky to find the trail in spots in the dark. No need for traction before the Keyhole. I didn’t summit. Turned around at the Keyhole due to weather. Boulderfield was mostly dry. 

Route: Loft Couloir/descended Keyhole
Posted On: 4/22/2026, By: andy_schlichting
Info: The Loft Couloir: this is melting out fast, but still has good snow from the base to the top. Snow was pretty supportive. Instead of taking the ramp to the climber's left as described in the route description on here, we took the snow all the way to the top and up the right of the couloir. There was one short (maybe 5 feet long) icy section of very steep ice at the choke point that required some easy mixed climbing. Exiting the couloir at the top took a couple low class 5 moves.

We then went up Southeast Longs (for my unranked/unnamed 14ers finisher!). That was basically dry the whole way. The route over to Longs from the Loft was sketchier than I expected, but didn't exceed class 4 (was mostly class 2 and 3) and was almost entirely dry. Just a lot of steep, loose rocks, and route finding. The final section up to where The Loft route meets the Keyhole route for the homestretch required us to put our crampons on again as this was steep and full of snow. Fortunately, even in the early afternoon sun, it was very stable. Thanks to the group ahead of us from New York that ascended a different route for putting this book pack in. Once on the homestretch, it was mostly dry.

Keyhole Route: honestly, no consequential snow on the entire route. The Narrows, The Trough, and The Ledges all had some snow, but it was packed and supportive. I did not use traction after taking the crampons off when we joined the standard route. Homestretch was a little slick in spots, but you can fairly easily stay on rocks the whole way up, especially if your boots have good traction.

I wore trail runners up to the bottom of the couloir and on the descent after reaching the keyhole. 

Route: Loft Route
Posted On: 4/9/2026, By: jkillacky
Info: Wanted to give Kieners route an attempt, bailed at chasm lake due to some sketchy windslabs earlier and switched to the loft. Rough conditions in the couloir, sugar snow on rock slab made it difficult to climb with any sort of traction. Me and my group all used boots and an ice axe, although in some spots crampons would have been nice. The exposure on the exit ledges was terrifying with the snow quality. From loft to summit, the climbing got much easier and drier. Rappelled the cables route from the summit. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 3/30/2026, By: Connor1
Info: Trail was dry for the first little bit. Then patchy but mostly continuous snow up to the tree line. After the treeline there rest of the route is mostly snow free. There was just 2 small snowfields that need crossing after the keyhole. After that there was still some snow going up the trough it can easily be avoided. I climbed this part without touching much snow at all. Although it would have been easier to climb the snow up that part. Then now snow after that to the summit. Overall no need for flotation at all. All snow is packed down. Spikes are helpful especially after a good refreeze. 

Route: Keyhole Route
Posted On: 3/29/2026, By: SuperMario
Info: Did Longs on Saturday, easily doable without boots or any heavier duty winter gear or flotation. Snow below tree line is off and on, and fully packed. Basically none all the way to the keyhole. Past the keyhole is pretty easygoing with minimal snow until you reach the trough. I was grateful to have crampons but people were doing it without them. Once you get past the trough any sort of tools are overkill, it’s basically dry. The trough is the only “snowy” part (again, easily avoidable).

Had a great trip and glad to check Longs Peak off the list, it’ll be getting some snow this coming week so get it done soon before it gets hit by the storms! Hope the pictures help, for more check out my insta @marios__adventures. 

Route: Cables
Posted On: 3/22/2026, By: Charliemenke
Info: Sent an overnight trip with a bivy at boulderfields. Conditions were obviously bizarre for the season because of the low snow winter and current heat wave.

Trail below tree line is almost continuous snow, but very packed and firm. No issues. Above treeline and all the way to the boulderfield is a smattering of snow drifts, but mostly dry trail.

Most of the bivy sites were snowed in, but a few of the larger ones offered more than enough space. Additionally, don't expect any running water here even with the recent heat. We had to melt snow.

The snowfield approach to Cables was "normal". The route itself was a mix of bone dry and ice. After the last eyebolt it's a few larger snowfields and some scrambling to the summit.