Estes Cone Climber's Log : Climbing, Hiking & Mountaineering : SummitPost

Estes Cone Climber's Log

Jowzynkyn - Aug 27, 2022 10:42 am Date Climbed: Aug 25, 2022

Beat the Afternoon Thunderstorms, caught in the pouring rain

Much to the chagrin of the park ranger at the Longs Peak visitor center, I made it up Estes Cone in the afternoon, 4 hours C2C. Really easy up to Storm Pass, almost moderate difficulty to hike from there, and some class 3 scrambling to stand on the actual rocky summit. Rock looks like a metamorphosed granite, or syenite. Missed the summit T-storm by an hour, but got caught in pouring rain from Moore Park all the way to the Longs Peak/Chasm Lake junction. Def worth it, on a good day the views of Estes Park and Longs Peak must be phenomenal!

JesseSumrak - Aug 9, 2021 12:56 pm Date Climbed: Aug 5, 2021

Radical Slam

10 Peaks of Longs Peak (Nesotaieux’s Ten Tadasanas, Radical Slam Deluxe, “Sick Concoction”) — 17 hours and 10,000 ft of elevation gain. Yesterday, I completed the most demanding physical and mental challenge I’ve ever attempted. Started at 2:30am up the Iron Gates route. Climbed Meeker Ridge, then traversed the amazingly terrifying Knife Edge (I’m so scared of heights, especially 100% fatal ones) to Meeker. I continued on my lonesome to Southeast Longs, and then I got dangerously off route trying to take the Loft to Longs. I miraculously made it with sections of Class 4 (definitely 5 when I got off route) down climbing and met up with the Homestretch portion of the Keyhole. Bagged Longs Peak, then on to Pagoda. Again, off route on fatal ledges before I wasted valuable time back tracking. Found the right route and made it to Pagoda with only a brief Class 4 exciting moment. Traversed below the Trough to the Ledges, passed through the Keyhole, then meandered to Storm. Found some water to filter at the base (thank goodness) before bagging Mount Lady Washington. On to the easy stuff with Battle Mountain and Pine Ridge, then a heartbreaking hour-long bushwack to connect to the Estes Cone Trail. Climbed Estes Cone, cried for a while, and then finished the last 3 miles to the truck before doing 10 pushups (90 less the Gerry Roach demands) and finishing the most epic adventure of my life.

JesseSumrak - Oct 18, 2019 9:54 am Date Climbed: Oct 18, 2019

Estes Cone via Eugenia Mine Trail

Started at 5:30am from the Longs Peak trailhead and was surprised (for some reason) to find I was the only car parked there. Made my way to Estes Cone via Eugenia Mine trail and summitted close to 7am. Snowed on the way back. Didn't see any other hikers this morning.

McCannster - Jan 23, 2019 8:33 am Date Climbed: Jan 19, 2019

quick bag

Quick outing with Jesi. Snowshoes for most of the way. Windy on top.

Foxfulness - Aug 24, 2018 10:11 pm Date Climbed: Aug 17, 2018

Great little summit for this year's RMNP trip

Started from East Portal campground where I was staying. Took Wind River trail to Storm Pass trail and then up Estes Cone. 12 miles roundtrip. Gorgeous day. A little hazy at the start, but clear enough to see great views into Estes Park and of Longs Peak from the summit.

BKiser90 - Jul 7, 2018 10:36 pm Date Climbed: Jul 7, 2018

Estes Pre-Storm

Woke up late because we helped some friends move into their home in Colorado Springs on Friday. Arrived at the Longs Peak Trailhead at 10:30ish to find a packed trailhead. Luckily, we found a good spot on the road to the campground. Bagged the peak rather quickly and returned to the car as the sky began to light up and thunder shook the area. Great day in RMNP!

Scott - Apr 12, 2018 7:12 am Date Climbed: Apr 10, 2018

Estes Cone

After work, I headed for the Longs Peak Trailhead to climb Estes Cone. The snow was fairly firm so I left the snowshoes in the truck. I hurried in order to make the summit just after sunset. Unfortunately, I found out that somehow, I left the headlamp behind, so I would have to do the descent in the dark. It was cloudy so there were no stars or moon.

I made my way down to Moore Park in the dark OK, but lost the route there. I got stuck in waist deep snow, so I decided to head east and down to the highway. I walked down the cabin roads and then the highway and the Longs Peak Road before arriving back at the vehicle. I didn’t get back until almost midnight and I was very tired.

ToTheHeights - Feb 13, 2018 8:09 pm

Estes Cone

07/15 w/Cory Martin

technicolorNH - Aug 27, 2017 12:28 pm Date Climbed: Aug 24, 2017

From Lily Lake

A couple hours to ascend from the lake and ninety minutes back down. My last hike out west on this trip (which was mostly spent in Wyoming). Nice rocky summit.

Walkoutnow - Jul 13, 2017 5:26 pm Date Climbed: Jul 8, 2017

Extra day before Longs climb

Fun scamper up some rock at the summit, watching the storms roll in, chomping' on pringles...

danegarreau - Jun 25, 2017 2:43 pm Date Climbed: Jun 3, 2017

Estes Cone

6/3/2017 ----- Estes Cone: Colorado --- 11,006’
Josh Abbott met Scott and I at the Long’s Peak Trailhead and we departed towards Estes Cone at 7:05am. The trails begins in a forest of short pine trees and for the most part is a gentle grade upwards. That’s until you get to near the top of the cone. For a bout the last ¾ of a mile the trail is extremely steep and has really right switchbacks through twisted pines and beach ball sized boulders. Josh was way more in shape than we were, or maybe just fresher, and set the pace for the entire trip.

The best part of the entire hike is the scrambling that is required to climb the final 50 vertical feet to the true summit of Estes Cone. It isn’t exactly climbing, but it’s certainly another level above hiking. Once on top there were the best views of Long’s Peak, Twin Sister’s Peak, and several other mountains in Rocky Mountain National Park, as well as the town of Estes Park itself.

The weather was perfect and luckily there was a little bit of lingering snow on the sides of the trail almost the entire way. According to the altimeter on my phone we summited at 11,030’ at 9:02am.

Fun Fact: After we got done with this hike we wanted a little something else, so we found Ouzel Falls down in the Wild Basin of RMNP. We had to park at the farthest away parking lot so it ended up being a 7.5 mile roundtrip hike, on top of the 6.5 miles we had already hiked, for a grand total of 14 miles today. Pretty sure that this is a PR for one day.
o Begin at 9405’ and summit at 11,006’
o 6.5 miles round trip
o 1800’ of elevation gain (800’ of which are in the last 2/3 of a mile)

belexes - Dec 3, 2016 11:47 pm Date Climbed: Dec 3, 2016

Estes Cone Trail

With Sarah Maurer and some of her friends. This was my 2nd time on the Cone. It was pretty cold and very windy at the summit, not so bad in the trees. There was some recent snow (maybe last night?) on the trail. Snowshoes not necessary, but microspikes would have helped. We didn't see anyone else going toward the Cone, there weren't even any tracks in the snow. It looked like everyone else was headed up the Longs Peak Trail this day.

svenjo - Mar 19, 2015 7:09 pm Date Climbed: Jan 27, 2004

Winter Fun!

We snow-shoe hiked as far as we could, then ditched the snow shoes for the steepest final climb. A great little rocky top with nice views of the valley and Longs Peak.