This is the most intimidating mountain along the northern Front Range of the Colorado Rockies and the deadliest of the state's 14ers (mountains above 14k feet/4200m). The keyhole route involves class 3 scrambling on a mountain face, walking along a 3ft/1m-wide ledge above a sheer cliff, and lots of time above the treeline in tundra where you're the tallest thing on wet rock and storms come out of nowhere. Even being comfortable around the mountains in that park, it's the kind of hike where I see sections like the narrows/homestretch in a photo and my hands start shaking. But if I can conquer a mountain like that, it's a big step up in wilderness confidence. The path to it has some of the most beautiful columbine patches I've seen in super delicate tundra ecosystems that are fascinating to walk through.
I will shitpost on this mountain. The highest shitpost anyone has hopefully made.
Here it is from the ground. The main photo is probably taken at about 12k'
My first time looking at the Rockies I hit the soyface so hard-- it was impossible not to! Looking at it from Boulder, the Rockies splay out like a massive row of teeth as far as the eye can see. Sunset out there can make even the most oblivious person stop for a moment and take in the beauty. End of day crowns the mountains in an orange halo of light. It's like watching them be set ablaze (but in a good, artsy way).
Shit description, I know, but I've got those puppies seared into my brain and it would be impossible for me to forget them. In a just world we would be doing pilgrimages there and to all the other natural beauties of North America.
They're a remarkable place, Rocky Mountain National Park especially. The moment I visited it I knew I had to move to within daytrip distance because a place like Mills Lake or Sky Pond or Chasm Lake (that one being right below the keyhole route, Longs Peak in the middle of the shot) is a naturalist's cathedral. There's nothing like a low dose of psilocybin surrounded by wildflowers 12.5k' up while the sun rises over Glacier Gorge.
I also can't wait to go further north. I've only done southern Wyoming so far so the really wild sections of the Rockies are going to be a whole new level. At most we have one or two grizzlies in Colorado.