Here's a rough breakdown of our times too. Pretty slow compared to the
record holders... Our descent time is particularly horrible, but we were
really out for completion rather than a record.
0215 (00h00m) - My House in Gunbarrel
0245 (00h30m) - North Boulder (Lee Hill & 28th)
0315 (01h00m) - Lyons
0600 (03h45m) - Arrive Long's Peak TH and toilet
0630 (04h15m) - Depart Long's Peak TH and toilet
0900 (06h45m) - Arrive Chasm lake toilet
0930 (07h15m) - Depart Chasm lake toilet
1030 (08h15m) - Rope up on Broadway (Roger Briggs is already at home eating
dinner...)
1330 (11h15m) - Table Ledge
1400 (11h45m) - Summit Longs
1700 (14h45m) - Arrive Long's Peak TH
1730 (15h15m) - Depart Long's Peak TH
1900 (16h45m) - Arrive Lyons
2000 (17h45m) - North Boulder (Lee Hill & 28th)
2035 (18h20m) - My House in Gunbarrel
Howdy climbers-
Alan has written up another little trip report. I didn't think we could
squeeze this adventure in before work, so I took a day off yesterday just
for this. ;-) I was a little disappointed that Alan didn't go into more
detail on his "stomach bug". It had him sitting on the toilet probably 90+
minutes out of our whole day! (Gave me a chance to rest and hydrate myself
for a change.) He didn't even mention the 3rd toilet visit at the boulder
field or the one in Lyons...
BTW, Alan's high school physics teacher was Roger Briggs.
Cheers,
Stefan
From: Alan Doak <doak@umail.ucsb.edu>
Subject: trip report: Long's peak triathalon
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 11:04:09 -0700
I first became aware of the Long's Peak Triathalon when I heard that my high
school physics teacher had done it over 12 years ago. It involves biking
from Boulder to the Trailhead of Long's Peak, running to the base of the
Diamond (the 1000' sheer East Face), free climbing the Casual Route (5.10a),
summiting (14,255'), running back down, and riding back to Boulder. All
told, it's 90 miles of biking, 10,000 feet of elevation gain, 15 miles of
hiking/running, and 8 pitches of climbing. When Stefan suggested that we do
it this week, I was a bit wary.
I spent Wednesday afternoon scoping the conditions and stashing shoes and
food at the trailhead and all of our climbing gear at the base of the wall
which is 4.5 miles from the trailhead. On my way up to Chasm Lake, a woman
encouraged me by saying "You're almost there.", instead, I was thinking "I
haven't even started yet!"
The next morning, we got up at 1:45am and had an inauspicious start: Stefan
hadn't slept at all because of the kids playing in the pool under his
window, and I was suffering from a stomach bug that was to plague me
throughout the day (luckily the privy's were nearby every time things became
urgent). We started the bike ride at his house at 2:15am and reached the
trailhead by 6am. We took 30 minutes to change over and eat then hit the
trail. The going up to Chasm Lake was slow for me as my stomach was really
cramping up. The 50 year old ranger hut just below the lake had been
obliterated by an avalanche last March, the only thing left was the concrete
slab. Miraculously, the Shitter of the Gods (named due to the fantastic
views from the seat) just 80 feet away from the hut was saved. We picked up
our stashed climbing gear and sped up as soon as things went vertical. We
started the Casual route at 10:30am and did the 800' of climbing as 4
pitches in a respectable 3 hours. We continued up to the summit and were on
top by 1:45pm.
We lounged around until 2 pm and then started down the North Face. My knee
was really bugging me by now as we made our way back to the trailhead. We
rested at the trailhead, then hopped on our bikes for the coast back down to
the town of Lyons. We made it to Lyons at 7pm, my knee was killing at this
point and Stefan had most of the weight on his bike paniers so we weren't
looking forward to the last 20 miles back to his place. We rested and then
soldiered on. We rolled up to his garage at 8:35pm, an 18hr20min day. Maybe
next time we'll turn it into a quadrathalon by swimming across Chasm Lake to
reach the base of the Diamond.
-Alan