Crestone Needle

Route: South Face
Posted On: 6/26/2025, By: clando
Info: Day 2/2 in the Sangres. Knocked out the Crestones and subpeaks. 4/4 for the traverses. I attached pictures of conditions. So they’re not pretty but should give some useful beta. Overall, very little snow. Almost total summer conditions on all parts. BHP has snow below the crux in some traversable or avoidable fields. The crux has a little bit of ice on one side, but doesn’t affect it much. No snow above the crux. Crestone’s red gully is almost snow free. All water and snow was avoidable. If doing the traverse, you’ll likely have to cross a few snow filled gullies to reach the route on the way back done. There is a bit of snow in the Crestone/EC notch, but avoidable. If anyone is planning on doing NEC, the gully down to the EC/NEC notch is full of frozen snow and ice. Not doable with spikes. I would prob want crampons and an axe or two. I ended up doing a diagonal down climb to reach the notch, not a great idea. Very few holds. The scramble up NEC from the notch is clear and solid. My only realistic option back up was the 4/5 climb up EC east face from the notch. I’d advise waiting for it to melt or preparing for a real interpretive scramble to get to that notch. The traverse from peak to needle is in good shape overall. No spikes or axe needed, unless you wanted it. Besides the aforementioned snow in the red gully to start the traverse, there wasn’t any snow until just below the 5.2 crux bulge. It’s frozen pretty well with steps kicked into it. I walked right up it, no issues. There is also more snow and some little bits of clear ice above the crux and below the knife edge. Plenty of rock to grab onto, but worth mentioning. That is the last snow I saw. Crestone Needle is essentially bone dry. Cairns are well placed, didn’t even need the 14ers guide for it. Ran into lots of great people out in the area, had a blast. 

Route: Ellingwood Arete/Ledges
Posted On: 6/23/2025, By: Dbearie
Info: Route is completely dry. No spikes needed. Get it. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 6/16/2025, By: HokieTom
Info: Crestone Needle has a lot of snow in both gullies. I will post photos shortly. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 6/16/2025, By: tylerdaniels
Info: Took the standard route up on Saturday. Snow was mostly stable until just before the class 4 crux, where it got pretty icy. The guys in front of us took a rock rib down from this section (on climbers right, descender’s left), will post a photo of that. Above that section, snow was avoidable. Broken hand pass was very icy/sketchy in that last steep section, I only had axe + spikes but I really don’t think it would’ve been safe with crampons either, that was definitely the worst part of the day up and down. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 5/19/2025, By: mmontello1
Info: Summer conditions to the lakes. Then, all snow from bottom of Broken Hand to summit via East Gully. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 1/23/2025, By: bigfoot1
Info: Yep you guessed it, another attempt, but this time from South Colony! Originally planned to do Marble but decided last minute to send it to Needle. Road is medium packed, sinking down 1-3" in soft snow. Bare booted up and snowshoed down to trench out/smooth the skin tracks so there is a soft packed snowshoe trench now. I underestimated amount of snow again heading up to BHR (this time I checked sat images from cal topo though so I at least tried) and some of the wind drifts were pretty sketchy. In some sections, there are 4-6" thick hard packed wind slabs on top of loose faceted snow and I was hearing some hollow whumps. There are about 3 meh level slab crossings and then the last bit up to BHP is all slab (I rate ehhhhhhh level slab) at ~12.5k ft. I didn't want to stick around to see that one let go, and I had lost my sunglasses, so I turned around to find them. I put on snowshoes at around 11k and dropped them just past South Colony Lake around 11.8k ft and switched to crampons once the slab crossings started. While this approach is easier than Cottonwood, I think the slabs on this side are much sketchier than the ones on the west and I think Cottonwood is the overall easier option to grab the Crestones. The east valley is mostly shaded so it is really really cold. Time to BHR is probably about the same for me from either Cottonwood or South Colony though, so pick your poison. Ended up clocking 14.5 miles and didn't even make it to BHR. On my way up, no obvious tracks to Humboldt. Wind must have blown over the tracks from yesterday already. On way out, someone had dragged a sled heading to humbolt but I don't think the sled people summited either lol. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 1/15/2025, By: daway8
Info: Finally reached the summit despite some navigational blunders that put me into different bits of spicy class 5 terrain on the way up and down, and also onto to some crazy steep snow by accident. Thankfully all the snow stayed stable. Once again new snow partly covered my previous tracks - anywhere from half an inch to 6 inches to a few spots where the storm stalled and dumped a foot or more. Also, a snowstorm that I didn't see in any forecasts hit as I was starting up the East Gully. If you drop far enough you can find continuous snow - just barely in spots - from the start of the gully to the summit ridge, but huge variation in quality. Some spots bulletproof where crampons were greatly appreciated, other spots where I'd sink knee deep or more and pray nothing started sliding. There was also snow covered rock next to the gully and I eventually decided that made for better upward progress in places. On the way down I glissaded a good chunk near the top, triggering lots of mini slides, but nothing ran more than about 10 feet. Later switched to a rapid reverse front pointing on steep sections I wasn't confident glissading. Due to my accidental detours and the time and energy spent extracting myself, including an unintended class 5 downclimb in the dark, this climb totally wiped me out, and left me practically dragging my body back to the trailhead a little over 24hrs after I started, but that means I'll shortly upload photos of a rare winter sunset on the summit. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 1/9/2025, By: daway8
Info: Bailed just after 13k. Started solo in bitter cold with enough fresh snow to cover all previous footprints. Trail was still easy to follow except a couple spots where the new snow made me briefly lose the trail. Also some areas with boulders and fallen trees that filled in just enough to hide trap doors. This all contributed to making me much slower than when I did this same approach for Crestone Peak. Bigfoot overtook me at Cottonwood Lake and led the charge up to BHP. We did it in snowshoes but in retrospect microspikes may have actually worked better. Surprised to find more snow above the pass than what I encountered below. Found one spot with a wind slab several inches thick suspended over soft fluff. Some areas I sank to my knees or more. Tried to go high on the rocks but that just added a lot of scrambling before needing to risk steep snow slopes anyways. Had burned enough time and energy by this point that I didn't want to risk having to deal with possible class 5 bypasses on the descent in the dark. Next time will give myself more time and go with crampons straight from the pass. Adding some photos. 

Route: Cottonwood Creek
Posted On: 1/8/2025, By: bigfoot1
Info: Attempt. My excuse this time for not summiting is that I don't like finishing in the dark and altitude sickness. Lower trench is less nice, has about 1-2" of new fluff. Caught up with David, who re-broke out most of the trench this time. I put snowshoes on after the rocky bit at treeline. Stable wind slabs up to broken hand pass. I was already over an hour behind schedule so I sat there and enjoyed the view for a bit and then abandoned David who continued on to the summit. This is my third time going up this trail and the few nasty bits keep holding me up a lot longer than expected. I will probably not attempt this again until I am sure I can summit (something) by noon. 4.5hrs to Broken Hand Pass, total 7 hours. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 1/6/2025, By: Skimo95
Info: Tough day on the needle yesterday. Boot pack is in with a dusting to tree line. After tree line to BHP and beyond previous tracks have been filled in. I carried snowshoes to the base of BHP and dropped them. Wore micro spikes up the pass before switching to crampons. A few inches of sugar and sometimes wind loaded snow made things interesting and very time consuming. At times going up central gully I would kick steps to my waist and wallow out of it with my axe on rock. Tried to nail the best route on descent but it was still slow going with plenty of class 4+ to be had. I hardly remembered the route from 5 years ago. I wouldnt recommend following my booter unless youre ready to get into some low 5. Storm came in on ascent, and I made it back to tree line by dark. Hell of a day for me personally. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 1/4/2025, By: Wildernessjane
Info: We did our part to keep the Cottonwood Creek trench in place :). Summited the Needle and did the more challenging portion of the traverse. We underestimated how long it would take, especially with carrying snowshoes, and were running out of daylight so we bailed down a gully and did not do the Peak. There is a very new looking anchor for the rappel off the Needle and we left a little bit of webbing for a hand line off the 5.2 section. It was windier than expected so I did not take any good beta pictures. I used crampons and an ice axe but my friend used microspikes most of the day, lol. You are on and off snow and rock a lot. Microspikes were also really nice to have on the approach trail as there is a ton of ice. We did use snowshoes on and off on the way in from about 11,200 to Broken Hand Pass but not at all on the way out. Also, we did see someone over on the summit of Crestone Peak. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 12/29/2024, By: daway8
Info: Basically an addendum to my last CR, but adding a new entry for visibility: after uploading and analyzing my recent tracks I crunched the numbers for how much untrenched effort currently remains to get to the top of Broken Hand Pass from either side of the mountains - these are rough numbers from sketches on the map. Figured I'd pass this along in case anyone gets to it before me. That way you can poach my part of the trench and I can poach your part, lol. Cottonwood side: TH 8,438ft; trenched to about 12,200ft; remaining to be trenched to top of BHP = ~0.75mi, ~750ft gain. SCL side: TH 8,777ft; trenched to about 11,550ft; remaining to be trenched to top of BHP = ~1.25mi, ~1,400ft gain. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 12/28/2024, By: daway8
Info: Didn't summit. Started from South Colony Lakes 2WD lot. Walking the road from there is dry at first then ice patches within about a quarter mile and first signs of vehicles having gotten stuck at about a half mile. Various messy tracks for a while that eventually become only snowmobile tracks. Thankfully those went not just to the 4WD TH but even out to the split of the standard summer trail and the shortcut route that goes to the far side of Humboldt. This made the approach a breeze. But they seemed to stop after the creek crossing - either that or the tracks got lost in large drifts. The summer trail adds too much distance and was covered with large drifts and getting wind blasted. Tried to create an alternate route through the woods but promptly sunk to my waist even with snowshoes. Backtracked to the Humboldt split just past the signs. Was a faint hint of an old trench visible. Trenched this out, losing then regaining hints of the trail from time to time. Went about 2/3rds of the way from the split over towards South Colony Lakes. But besides a late start and making poor time trenching and route finding, the wind on Crestone Needle was clearly ridiculous and then lots of low cloud cover moved in. Decided to trench the remaining 1/3rd a later day - hopefully before the next storm. Blew back down to the 2WD in about 1/4 the time it took to get up. Should be must faster next time if the trench holds. Adding photos. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 12/8/2024, By: daniel_a34
Info: Hiked up to Broken Hand Pass, took 7 hours from 2wd South Colony trailhead (DID NOT CLIMB THE NEEDLE). Road to 4wd trailhead is packed by snowcat or snowmobile tracks, no flotation needed, and we didn't use snowshoes until the trail split. We took the south route (lower lake) in and the north route (upper lake) out. South route had some ski tracks early on but they disappeared quickly and we were breaking trail through a big side hill snow field up to the mine. Snow is very inconsistent, occasionally an icy crust that holds, occasionally sinking to the hip. Route down from the upper lake to the trail split was a little difficult to find at first (I've hiked up that trail once to do Humboldt but never hiked down it before), but once we found ski tracks (it looks like someone's skied the couloir on the south face of Humboldt?) it was an easy trip out in showshoes. Ice axe is probably wise, one hiker slid down an icy stretch above the lower lake despite the spikes on his showshoes, and finally arrested in softer snow. Switched from snowshoes to microspikes after that slide, figuring that postholing was better than sliding off a cliff... The microspikes never slipped but I would have been more comfortable with crampons in a couple places (overall though, they would have been a pain 98% of the time). Underneath the three pinnacles leading up to the pass the snow was soft enough that we weren't worried about sliding down an icy slope, but it was very difficult going. Above the pinnacles everything is loose and slidey, but that's no different than summer, be especially cautious on a downclimb. On the west side of the pass the snow is much softer and more dense through melting so it held steps much better than the east side. We didn't climb the Needle but the standard gully has a decent amount of snow in it, and I'm not sure I'd be super confident that snow at that angle would hold weight as nicely as it did on the lower angle slopes of the west side of BHP. Never saw or felt anything that made us at all nervous about an avalanche, but the icy crust on top of several gullies might make things more prone to sliding after the next storm. 

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 10/14/2024, By: RolyMinusPoly
Info: I did Crestone Peak --> Crestone Traverse --> Crestone Needle and snow was a non-issue the entire route. Maybe 10 steps on snow hiking up Broken Hand Pass, but not even a dusting anywhere else.