Rappel down Longs Peak

JPVallone wrote:Jordan, Your sense for adventure should not be discouraged by the Naysayers in this thread. Don't listen to the negativity from the punters in here. The Diamond is by far one of the best rappels in the world and is a top three in my new book that shall be out soon. "50 classic rappels in Colorado." Although the book is not ready for print yet, I am attaching a detailed beta topo for you from the book as a preview of whats to come. The Topo is not to scale but provides great detail on how to find the Rappels. As you can see I have not included all the anchors, because I want to leave some adventure for you. But this topo should get you to the first set of anchors and then you can just execute your craft from there. Pretty straight forward if you use my topo. Once you hit broadway if you have had enough, follow my walk off arrows across broadway until you hit the snow in Lamb Slide. Pretty straight forward from there, just cruise down the snow. There is a cruiser trail across broadway that should get you to Lamb Slide. If you want the ultimate Rappel link up , continue to the second set of anchors on my topo and you can rap all the way to Mill's Glacier. Enjoy and Bon Chance! Would love to see a trip report when your finished.

Joey, that's awesome! We sure could've used that topo for blind rock! Your "50 classic rappels" book should be in the same series as Celin's "50 scariest topropes of indian creek."

Jordan Moore wrote:So I knew I would get some naysayers about this. But I was more interested in the people trying to give me some advice of how to rappel.

Oh, why didn't you say so. They can teach you that at R.E.I.

justin dubois wrote: Oh, why didn't you say so. They can teach you that at R.E.I.

Oh god please don't come to the store asking us to teach you that. For the love of god.

HA ....... Go to Neptune's and tell them there (ask for Dan Hare) that REI sent you over for advice on how to rappel...........

The Casual Route's only 5.10a. I toprope those in the gym all the time...what could go wrong?!?

No No I didn't mean I want instruction on how to rappel, but how to find the rappels from the summit of Long's. Why would the D7 rappels be suicide? Is the down climb too difficult to be reasonably safe?

Jordan Moore wrote:No No I didn't mean I want instruction on how to rappel, but how to find the rappels from the summit of Long's. Why would the D7 rappels be suicide? Is the down climb too difficult to be reasonably safe?

Jordan, what would you do if you get your rope stuck on the rappel?

The downclimb is about 5.4 with lots of loose rock to knock down on climbers on the diamond. It would be very irresponsible to rap the diamond itself without the proper full trad rack and skill to climb it. It would be dangerous to the climbers around you.

Rapping the cables route on the north face on the ohter hand would be reasonable and you would have a great close up view of the wall.

Hey Jordan,
I am all for adventure but I have to agree with others that rapping the Diamond is not the best idea. The raps are all there but not super obvious and there is the issue of climbers potentially trying to climb up where you are going down.

I think a much better plan might be to hike the Keyhole, descend the Cables route, then if you are feeling adventurous rap from Chasm view to Broadway and traverse over to the Crack of Delight rappells. This is still a pretty adventurous outing, with lot's of loose rock but most likely would not get you in the way of other climbers and should be more obvious to locate.

Of course it's important to consider the fact that once you pull your first rope you are fully committed to your course of action. Have gear available to make your own anchors and know what to do if your rope gets stuck.

Another adventure might be to climb the Keyhole, descend the N. face, then go down the Camel gully to Chasm lake and hike out that way.

There is lot's of potential adventures on Long's Peak, just realize that sometimes the "adventure" is not quite what you were expecting. When the thunder starts booming and the sleet falling being in the wrong place will feel like a real bummer.

Good luck.

Alright, I just read through all of the comments, and had a great laugh. You guys are so funny. On the serious note, I appreciate the climbers that suggested safety first. I hope this man did not pass away rappelling off of the Diamond. 

this thread is six fucking years old.....

Haha this is pretty hilarious. Thanks for bringing it back to life from 7 years ago. 7 years later, I would tell myself or anyone with the same idea that downclimbing Keiner's to find the D7 rappels isn't suicide, but just fucking stupid. Go get a partner to climb the Diamond. The Casual Route is pretty casual. 

So did you try it ?!? 

Well...no. I've climbed the Diamond 8 times and hiked to the summit from every aspect of the mountain I don't know how many times since this forum started. But I haven't gone to table ledge with the sole purpose to rappel the wall.