| Peak: | Crestone Peak |
| Route: | Northwest Couloir |
| Range: | Sangre de Cristo |
| Posted By: | thebeave7 |
| Date of Info: | 9/12/2015 |
| Date Posted: | 9/18/2015 |
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After climbing the standard route on Humboldt (dry in good shape), I followed the direct ridge to the Bears Playground. From there I took the traverse around to the NW Couloir on Crestone Peak. The lower section of the couloir is snow free as of 9/12/15 up through the first elbow. The upper Y of the couloir is still choked with snow and ice and made for tricky scrambling (no crampons/ice axe). I climbed the headwall to the climbers right to get around the rock hard snow/ice (low class 5) before scrambling back to the headwall that leads directly to the summit. Overall there is about 100-150ft of snow that needs to be bypassed, but it runs wall to wall right before the Y, so requires some tricky class 4 to low class 5 scrambling to get around. The Red Gully was completely clear of snow, easy travel. The traverse from Crestone Peak to Needle is all clear and well marked with cairns. The descent off Crestone Needle is also in good shape, just be careful with rockfall. |
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