Sunrise from Peak to Peak highway
As we drove up the Peak to Peak Highway, the sky turned a fiery orange. Looking to the east, early morning clouds mixed with the sky brightening minute by minute with the early September sunrise. Just a few minutes later, we pulled into the parking lot for the Longs Peak Trailhead. At 6:30 a.m., it was already packed with cars and we were forced to park on the road. By the time we began our 15-mile round trip, 5000-foot ascent, it was 7 a.m. What? No one begins a Fourteener hike of that magnitude at 7 a.m. That flies in the face of what every mountaineer knows – you need to done with your climb/hike by noon at the latest.
Six years ago, we climbed Long Peak for the first time. It was a perfect day for a Fourteener ascent, with a crystal clear blue sky and just a few wispy clouds. No sign of the mid-afternoon thunderstorms that usually roll in. One of the benefits of having a husband is a meteorologist is his ability to personally forecast the weather the day before. Rather than getting up at 2 a.m. for a 3:30 a.m. start, we were able to sleep in to the relatively late time of 5:30 a.m.
Longs Peak Summit
Instead of hiking for four hours through the darkness using headlamps to illuminate our path, we instead were treated with a breathtaking sunrise before we even set foot on the trail. Instead of finishing our hike at noon, we reached the lofty summit of 14,296 feet at noon and gazed around us, feeling as if we were on top of the world. We didn’t need to rush off the summit for fear of stormy weather, but instead could savor our achievement by having a picnic lunch on top of one of the highest peaks in Colorado and the lower 48.
Such is the joy of waiting until September to bag peaks. September weather usually brings stable weather — cool, crisp and clear nights, followed by sunny, mild days. Even the winds often stay at bay in early September. We’ve had the same kind of week this past week with last three days filled with sunshine and clear skies.
Had we not been hosting a Labor Day barbecue, we probably would have gone for yet another summit run of Longs Peak, our goal being to summit one Fourteener a month. But you have to take advantage while you have it, because our run of good climbing weather is about to come to an end, and it might just be the end of Fourteener climbing for the season. Forecasts for next week tell a different story of cold and wet weather coming in with snow expected to fall as low as 10,000 feet.
Well, there’s always next year…
