The previous weekend, Nate and I had spent two nights and two days in Upper Glacier Gorge, climbing two routes:
Refugium (5.10a, 5p) on Arrowhead and
East Prow (5.9+/10b, 6p) on The Spearhead. We had such a good weekend that we decided to return the next weekend and climb two more routes. I secured a bivy permit for Upper Glacier Gorge (need to be climbing a route that is at least four pitches to qualify for a bivy permit), and Nate and I bivied up there for two nights (Friday and Saturday nights) at our favorite bivy location below Spearhead. On Saturday we climbed
North Ridge (5.6-5.8, 8p) of Spearhead and on Sunday we climbed
Step-in-Stein (5.10a, 4p) on Dark Tower in the Keyboard of the Winds.
The Keyboard of the Winds is the name for the sweeping, serrated southwest ridge of Longs Peak. This ridge presents a very dramatic skyline from the Black Lake Cirque. There are seven towers, ranging in height from 250 to 700 feet tall, and all above 13,000 feet. There is at least one route up each tower. One unique quality of the Keyboard of the Winds is that they poke through the interface between the two main rock types in RMNP: gneiss and granite—climbing a tower begins on granite and ends on gneiss.
On this trip, we climbed The Dark Tower, also known more mundanely as Tower Three. The Dark Tower is located some 1,500 feet down and southwest from the top of the Trough on
The Keyhole Route. The route
Step-in-Stein ascends the west side of the tower.
This page gives a trip report for our climb of
Step-in-Stein. I also give some photos of our two days and nights hanging out in this spectacular area. Enjoy!
