This video is part of a two part series as Old Mountain Video films their climb to Longs Peak.

You can’t miss this mountain. At 14,259 feet, Longs Peak towers above all other summits in Rocky Mountain. The flat-topped monarch is seen from almost anywhere in the park. Different angles show the great mountain’s unique profiles. Changing weather reflects Longs Peak’s many moods.

In the summertime – the season when thousands hike or climb to Longs’ summit – those moods are fairly predictable. Early mornings break calm, clear and blue. Clouds build in the afternoon sky, often exploding in storms of brief, heavy rain, thunder and dangerous lightning. Begin the trek early, way before dawn, to be back in the car before the weather turns.

For most of the year climbing Longs Peak requires technical climbing equipment. This includes crampons, ice axe, rope, and mountaineering experience. The most important is experience. Disregard for the mountain environment has meant danger, injury and even death.

The Keyhole Route, Longs Peak’s only non-technical hiking pathway, is open for hiking for only a short time most summers. In 2007 park rangers rated the route non-technical July 14 to September 15.

This eight-mile, one-way hike has an elevation gain of 4,850 feet. Typically free of ice and snow from mid-July through mid-September, this challenging route was the choice of celebrated British adventurer Isabella Bird in 1873

Visit the National Parks Serivce Web Site, for more information.