Interesting note here for those who enjoy webcams. The National Park Service has repositioned one of my favorites, the Longs Peak webcam in Rocky Mountain National Park. The previous view was from quite a distance, with pine trees in the foreground, etc. A nice mountain vista, but it didn’t really show off Longs. Now it offers a good, close view of the mountain’s East Face, featuring “The Diamond,” a sheer diamond-shaped wall that experienced technical climbers (including my brother) love to challenge. The camera here is positioned due east of the peak, probably near or along Highway 7.
At 14,259 feet, Longs is the highest peak in the park. Luckily it measured “only” 14,255 feet when I climbed it back in 1979. That extra four feet probably would have been four feet too far. No, I didn’t go up The Diamond. I took the Keyhole route, which goes around the mountain’s north flank (on the right in this view), clear across the back side, and finally up to the summit from the south side above that conspicuous notch.)
To fully appreciate the East Face in relation to the surrounding terrain, zoom in on the panoramic photo here.