Longs Peak Keyhole Route

The Front Range classic and the only 14er inside Rocky Mountain National Park — roughly 24km round trip with 1,480m of gain, and a genuine class-3 mountaineering scramble above the Keyhole, not a hike. From the Longs Peak Trailhead (2,866m) the East Longs Peak Trail climbs through Goblins Forest to Chasm Junction (view of the Diamond), over Granite Pass to the Boulder Field camp (3,890m). Through the Keyhole notch (4,011m) the route crosses to the west face: the bullseye-painted Ledges, the 170m Trough couloir, the wildly exposed Narrows ledge, and the slabby Homestretch to the summit. Afternoon lightning is the killer hazard — NPS doctrine is to be off the summit by noon, which means a 2–3am start. The route is 'non-technical' only in the few snow-free weeks of high summer (mid-July–September); the rest of the year it is a winter climb.