It was a beautiful sunrise and when we woke up for breakfast we saw a marmite family sunning themselves on a rock near by.
After a little breakfast of Ramon Soup with Vienna Sausages in it we started the all day climb. Unfortunately in the early part of climb I lost my balance and fell 30 feet and it scared the living daylights out of me! Fortunately I had only a few bruises so we climbed on.
It was an exhilarating climb! I must admit that we were totally beat when we reached the summit. I think that was one of my more major climbing experiences in my life! The weather was absolutely wonderful the whole day which unfortunately can get very bad at 14,000 feet in an instant. Which reminds me of two times when we turned back on other backpacking trips due the Mother Nature having different plans!
Here's a picture of our route!
We stayed up at the top for a long time before we had to descend. There were other people up top and it was interesting to explain how we didn’t take the normal route to the summit. It made us proud to be true mountaineers!
The trip down was less tiring than the climb which is usually the case. It was home free once we got below the tree line! In the parking lot was my trusty 1959 Jeep and boy was it a site for us weary souls!
Some day I really hope you can climb Long’s but please don’t make it your first forteeneer. Trust me you have got to train for it and you would be disappointed if you were not prepared. Good luck!
