The grapple soon got thicker and the wind still blowing hard on us and the ground began to change to white. I realized that the early morning storm which I thought would come during the night was actually just now hitting Longs Peak. The 1 to 2 inches of snow in the forecast decided to wait until 6 am to begin. We pressed on. We all bundled up a bunch because of the cold wind and snow and kept moving forward. Josh and I took a pit stop at the boulder field outhouses. I must say, this was my first time having to take care of some business with snow falling on me. Brrrr. ;)
We continued. With more snow on the ground now, the two groups in front of us decided to turn around at this point. A father and son. And a separate group of two others. I knew that with the current conditions we could continue. I had crampons if needed, but none of us had micro spikes to us. These would have been helpful. The snow was fresh and grippy still. We could make out the Keyhole in the distance for a moment which allowed me to guide our group of 3 in the right direction. I knew we could take shelter in the rock hut just next to the keyhole if conditions were too bad to cross through. I sped ahead and made sure to check on my partners to make sure they were still ok and moving. As we made it to the rock shelter, I knew the wind was whipping way to fast through the Keyhole to even think we could cross through. All we could do was wait it out a while before making a decision to head back. So we did. We hung out in the hut for about 45 minutes before we saw a guy coming up the boulder field towards the hut. We welcomed him once he made it! This was Jason. Jason was part of the two man group we pasted below. His partner decided to head back to the car and he decided maybe he could catch up to us to continue on if possible.
With this, we began our gradual decent on about 1-2 inches of snow covering the boulders below. As we crossed the boulder field we began to get to know Jason our newest partner a bit more. He's a fairly experienced Colorado hiker who is a husband and a father of twin girls. He was happy he found our group so he wouldn't be hiking alone. Since it was only about 9:00 in the morning now, I made the suggestion that we could hike up Mt. Lady Washington from the west where we were and then hike down the east side to rejoin our trail. Given the horrendous wind, the sleet pelting us constantly, and the scary fast moving clouds over the peak, I was half hoping the group majority decision would be to follow the main trail out instead. My suggestion gained traction and everyone seemed up to the adventure. We all knew it would be about a 600 ft. boulder hopping climb to the summit assuming the wind wouldn't blow us away.
We stopped for a lunch break to bask in the sun and enjoy or food we brought and talk about the days happenings. We were all happy to finally be out of the crazy wind and snow although it was still chilly. From here, we carefully made the decent down the boulders and continued all the way back to Chasm lake junction. Once we all made it to this point, we saddled up our bags once again and began the downhill slog back to the car. This remaining couple of miles always makes for some great bonding conversations between fellow hikers. Josh and Jason talked just about all the way down to the car. Fr. Luc and I had some good conversation as well as today was just another one of our adventures.
Back to the car at last meant for quick exchanging of email addresses with Jason and best of all, a short nap before hitting the road back to Denver. One more hike a success. One more mountain summit gained. Four very satisfied fellows, sore and hungry and ready to catch up on sleep.
Making the summit of Mt. Lady Washington is my 23 peak summit of calendar 2015 in Colorado.