RT Length: 8.85 miles
Elevation Gain: 3869’
Side note: Mt Lady Washington is no longer a ranked 13er, but it does have 271’ of prominence. It would be a nice addition to anyone doing Longs Peak, as it’s directly on the route. This peak has been on my bucket list for years, so I’m including it on my website.
I started on the well-marked Longs Peak Trailhead at 4:30am, glad I’d put on microspikes in the truck.
Snow levels increased as I hiked, but they were firmly packed down in the morning. After .65 miles I came to a well-marked junction, and followed it left.
I followed the trail a total of 2.5 miles to treeline.
At treeline the trail became difficult to follow, so I headed west, looking for the trail I knew I’d find in the upper basin.
Once above treeline I turned left at this sign
Here’s an overall view of the route. It was very straightforward.
I made my way on the class 1 trail to the junction for Chasm Lake. I’d hiked a total of 3.4 miles to this point.
I then turned right, and headed up the east side of Mt Lady Washington
This was a class 2, choose your own adventure, 1 mile with 1700’ of elevation gain trek from the Chasm Lake turnoff to the summit of Mt Lady Washington. Here are some pictures of the hike to the summit, which included a lot of rock hopping. I just kept heading west, to the obvious summit.
Here’s the actual summit, which is a class 2 rock scramble
I summited Mt Lady Washington at 8am
Mt Lady Washington:
Mt Lady Washington has arguably the best view of the Diamond on Longs Peak, so I sat for a bit to enjoy the view
Now to head back. This was an out and back hike for me, so I turned and headed east, following my tracks back down to the trail.
Here’s an overview of my route back to the Longs Peak Trail
And some step-by-step pictures of the terrain
Once back at the junction of the Longs Peak/Chasm Lake trail, the trail was easy to follow back down to treeline
Here are some pictures of the route back to the trailhead. It was only 8:30 in the morning, but the snow was already softening up. There was evidence others had postholed at least 4 feet in this section. I was glad I’d gotten an early start.
I made it back to my truck at 10am, making this a 8.85 mile hike with 3869’ of elevation gain in 5.5 hours. On to the next trailhead!
Wild Wanderer 