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The Keyhole, Going Up (pg. 1) |
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by Jerry Cates |
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The lawyer from North Carolina and I continued up to the Keyhole, reaching it around 7:55 a.m. We stopped to rest for a minute and take a few photos. That was the last we saw of each other until we met at the top of the Trough some three hours later (the lawyer was already returning from the summit, but I was still ascending). My first and only prior visit to the Keyhole was on July 3, 1978, two days prior to the date when Janet and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. On that first trek, more than 21 years earlier, our oldest son Patrick accompanied me. He was 9 years old. Altitude sickness was kicking my 36-year-old butt, but it didn't affect Pat... Now I was seeing the Keyhole for the first time with a clear head. It was awesome... On that first trip up from the Boulderfield in 1978, a humiliating incident occurred. Somewhere along the way, the gruesome details may come out... Or they won't...
The wind whistled through the Keyhole out of Glacier Gorge at gale force. The sound of the wind was so loud it was impossible to carry on a conversation. The Keyhole is on a sharp ridge whose eastern slope descends gently down to the Boulderfield, but whose western slope drops steeply into Glacier Gorge.
The photo below was taken from the Keyhole, looking southwest. It shows the southern extremity of Glacier Gorge, with an unnamed lake in the lower center of the photo (the black, keyhole-shaped object), just above and to the left of the larger Green Lake (11,530 ft. elev.). Green Lake is 1,600 ft below the Keyhole (13,130 ft. elev.) The peak in the center of the photo is Chief's Head Peak (13,579 ft. elev.); the Continental Divide snakes its way through the Rockies here, making it to Chief's Head Peak before jogging west again.
Next: The Keyhole, Going Up, pg. 2... Longs Peak Menu ... Bugsinthenews ... Books About Longs Peak |
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