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The Home Stretch, Going Down (pg.2)... |
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by Jerry Cates |
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About halfway down the Home-Stretch, I stopped and took the photo on the left, below. This ridge extends from near Longs to the Loft, and is called the Palisades. It does not join to the Longs summit directly. The summit drops some 400 ft. below the ridge before reaching its base, at which point the ridge rises straight up to form what is known as the Beaver. The Beaver is the the northernmost pinnacle of the ridge (not visible in the photo) and reaches above 14,040 ft. Although not officially recognized as such, this makes the Beaver one of a number of minor 14,000 ft. peaks in the Rockies.
The gap between the Longs summit and the Beaver creates a void in the southern extremity of Longs eastern and western profile, sort of like a missing tooth leaves a gap in a youngster's (or an old man's) mouth. That void is referred to as the Notch. When viewed from afar, on either side, the Notch sometimes makes those who are not intimately familiar with Longs wonder if they are looking at the Keyhole... Beyond the ridge the terrain leading to Mt. Meeker flattens out, creating the wide, desolate expanse referred to either as the Loft or Broadway. These days, the Loft is the more common name given to this area. It is visible in the photograph as the area seen just to the right of where the ridge droops downward. It is possible to hike Longs via the Loft route, starting just below Chasm Lake, and many hikers prefer it even though it is slightly more strenuous a hike than the Keyhole route. Earlier this year, two technical climbers, a father and son team, got into trouble on The Loft when they lost their way in heavy fog. The father, in his mid-50's, lost his footing and fell over a ledge. The son secured a rope and rappelled down the cliff, finding his father still alive but badly injured. He had no choice but to leave and go for help, but when he and a rescue team returned, his father had expired. The summit of Mt. Meeker (13,911 ft.) is in the background, beyond the Palisades in the upper photo. If you look closely at the highest point in the Palisades shown in the photo, you can see what appears to be the face of an Indian. A lateral cleft in the rock next to this feature makes it look like the Indian is smoking a cigar... As the trail approached the lower reaches of the Home-Stretch, only the top of Pagoda Mountain remained visible beyond the edge of the slope. Next: the Narrows, going down, page 1... Longs Peak Menu ... Bugsinthenews ... Books About Longs Peak |
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