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The Ledges, Going Down (pg.1)... |
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by Jerry Cates |
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See? The knob is now a shovel (in the photo below on the left). With a notch in its blade. That notch is the cause of a lot of confusion for some hikers, who mistake it for the Keyhole. What gives? It seems any time there is a notch in this mountain's profile, somebody takes it for the Keyhole. Well, they do. It's a common mistake. Everybody fixates on the Keyhole, because that is the jumping off place for the trek to the summit. The route is even named for it. But it helps to know where the real Keyhole is. And I happened to know that it was impossible to see from here because it was at the base of the knob, below the spire, way off in the distance about where that other thing juts out...
That other thing is the summit of Storm Peak (13,326 ft. elev., 200 ft. higher than the Keyhole, and about 3/10ths of a mile beyond it). It is in line with the ridge the Keyhole is on. And, since that ridge is perpendicular to the line of sight in these photos, there is no way the Keyhole could be seen from here, even if it was not hidden by the Dove... Do you notice the variations in the coloration of the upper portion of the knob, and all of the spire? The darker banding moves horizontally toward where I was standing, but peters out just after reaching the slickenside in the right portion of the photo. Below it, the rock is noticeably lighter in color. The darker rock is a closely banded schist. The lighter rock is porphyritic granite. Look for the same banding on the Boulderfield side of the same ridge. It's there, too... As the photo on the left shows, the Ledges get more interesting, and more tricky, as you get closer to the Keyhole... Next: The Ledges, going down, page 2... Longs Peak Menu ... Bugsinthenews ... Books About Longs Peak |
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