Crestone Needle

Route: South Face
Posted On: 3/31/2019, By: bmcqueen
Info: My sled (not the cool kind) and I put in a trench up to South Colony Lake today. Had planned to stay two nights and do the peaks, but it turned out I left all my food at home. So I went back down. The snow on the approach from the lower 2WD TH is fairly supportive. I put snowshoes on at the summer TH, but flotation isn't critical until you leave the road. It snowed a good 8-10” today while I was up there. I'm not sure I was going to like BHP conditions tomorrow regardless, but the forgotten food and spare socks pretty well killed the attempt. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 10/5/2018, By: mrcub14
Info: Some ice and running water in the East gully, but it was avoidable. The route up Broken Hand Pass was dry. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 9/24/2018, By: AlexeyD
Info: Mostly clear and dry. A bit of frozen dirt on the shady slopes just below Broken Hand Pass, and a small trickle of water (100% avoidable) in the east gully. West gully was dry. Some snow was visible on high north-facing aspects in the area. Gorgeous, bluebird weekend with few people. Near-peak colors along the access road. Perfect weekend for it! 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 9/13/2018, By: Reverand
Info: We had a beautiful day of weather while we were climbing. Broken hand pass is somewhat of a chore at the beginning, but once you get to the pass, it is pretty fun scrambling. Loved the short hike from the pass to the east gully, great views. Climbing the East gully is fun, great rock, lots of hand holds foot holds. Crossing over to the West gully wasn't bad. This climb keeps it interesting and with the solid rock it is quite fun. Much more fun than just a slog up switchbacks to the top. This is probably my favorite climb so far. Pay attention on the way up so that you know your route coming back down. There are cairns and some pink markers to help you find the transition back to the east gully on the way down but you have to keep an eye out for them. The summit is small but has some excellent views. We had great weather so we stayed up there about 40-45 min until it started to get crowded (labor day weekend). This climb would not be fun with a late start, because the gullies are not fun with people coming up and down at the same time. Ominous clouds started moving in about 10:30am and when we got down the gullies the weather deteriorated fast. When we got down broken hand pass, people were just starting to come up, which I think is way too late in the day to be starting on this peak. 

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 8/12/2018, By: dwoodward13
Info: Traverse from Peak to Needle. Standard route up to the Peak is in good shape. Broken Hand Pass kinda sucks but goes quick enough. Make sure to note where the left hand turn to enter the Red Gully is as you approach. We were powering up and went one grassy ledge too far but wasn't too bad to correct. Gully is mostly solid but there is some loose stuff that gets kicked down. The traverse start is well marked, as is the entire route. We didn't think the bulge was too difficult, but for shorter people you might have to be more creative (both of us were 6'2"+). The knife edge is quite exposed but easy enough to scoot along. The ledges to the crux wall are easy to spot. The crux wall is the real deal. We went far left. The first half was not bad with tons of holds. The second 50 feet, the holds start to dwindle and I felt the exposure much more here. Focus on only your moves and you will be at the rap station soon enough. Summit to summit took about 2 hours for us. We accidentally went down the class 4 variation from the Needle as there were quite a few cairns leading that way. Route down the gully is well marked and not too bad. Broken Hand sucked along with the walk back to the car but what's new. I would say if Capitols knife edge make you think twice even for a second, the traverse is not for you. Technically speaking we didn't think it was hard, but the exposure is extreme and combined with Class 4 climbing those last 100 feet to the Needle will test you! 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 7/24/2018, By: BoardingHiker
Info: Left 4wd TH at 4:45am. I swear the 4wd road gets worse every year. Hit the summit at 10:15am being a little above average speed hikers. The crux move crossing the rib from the east gully to the west gully is always more gnarly than it looks in pictures having done it a few times. It could just be me but although this route has great rock and hand holds, i cant help but think this is a boarder line class 4 due to the few (few feet) of vertical pitches you have to scale after crossing the rib...especially having to down climb it. Anyway, still a great mountain with awesome rock. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 7/12/2018, By: Lithic
Info: Brought a Subaru Outback all the way to the Colony Lake TH. Left solo at 5:15, summited around 11. Beautiful conditions, but this was definitely my hardest 14er to date, and it was a challenge to follow the route the entire way, even with GPX tracks /pics from this site. Definitely do your research on this one, those ridge traverses can be tricky. I had to do a bit of backtracking/down climbing to try to keep things below class 4 after the dihedral, but ended up doing quite a bit of it regardless. Awesome learning experience, and great way to spend my 33 bday! Cheers! 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 7/8/2018, By: supranihilest
Info: The road to the upper trailhead is rough but there were Subarus and even a Mercedes crossover-type vehicle at the upper trailhead. The much maligned drainage pipe is easily avoided on climber's right/skier's left. There are several sections where large rocks pose much more of a danger. The remainder of the approach to South Colony Lakes is easy. You'll want to get there early on weekends, it's a total zoo and I had difficulty finding a reasonable camping spot. The ascent up to Broken Hand Pass is loose and steep and honestly the sketchiest part of the ascent. You will want to be very careful on the descent off the pass. The hike up to the east gully is in great shape and marked with cairns. There is a small trickle of water running in the east gully but it is entirely avoidable. The crux move is crossing over to the west gully and is mostly mental; the exposure here is quite high and a slip would be bad. Similarly, the down climb back to the east gully is difficult mentally but there's a ton of holds if you take your time and find the easiest route. The west gully is a bit steeper overall and super fun. There's a bit more rubble in the west gully, especially near the top, but overall the rock on the entire peak is, as famed, very solid and a total joy to climb on. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 7/4/2018, By: WildWanderer
Info: Summer Conditions. Broken Hand Pass is clear of 99% of it's snow (and what's there isn't on the route). A very small trickle of water in the east and west gullies, easily avoidable. No smoke visible from local fires, no trouble with air quality. I couldn't smell the fires, and several people I met who'd been camping in the area for a few days had no idea there was a fire. The 96, 67, and 69 are open from Colorado Springs heading South (but just after South Colony Road the 69 closes to resident traffic only due to the fires). The 4WD road in was in worse shape than I remember it from April. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 7/2/2018, By: jonandmalia
Info: Summer conditions all the way. Small trickle of water in some parts but completely avoidable. No snow at all, even in Broken Hand Pass. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 6/21/2018, By: DrNoe
Info: Crestone Needle perfect weather today. No clouds until the afternoon and slight breeze only. Very little water coming down the gullies and completely avoidable. Watched closely on the down climbing today to make sure I didn't miss the crossover gap. It is so easy to miss this and if you do, I have not idea where you would end up but not in a good place. 4WD road is now competing with Como Lake 4WD road for nastiest in Colorado. Take it slow. Mosquitos out in full force at Colony Lakes. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 6/20/2018, By: cdsample
Info: Dry all the way up. There are a few patches of snow, but they are entirely avoidable. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 6/6/2018, By: soloclimber97
Info: Trail up to Broken hand pass is dry. Broken hand pass has some snow, I used micros/axe although you probably could avoid the snow with some tough scrambling. 1st gully is pretty dry, water/ice running down middle with one snowfield that must be negotiated when crossing over. 2nd gully is pretty much the same, once out of the gully the last stretch to the summit has snow, but I was able to avoid most of it all the way to the summit. Photo 1: Broken hand pass Photo 2: 1st Gully Photo 3: 2nd gully 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 6/1/2018, By: Eli Boardman
Info: The trail is dry from where I started at the 2wd parking all the way to South Colony Lakes. There is still a hundred feet of snow climbing in Broken Hand Pass, and I used an axe and crampons, but it is probably possible to avoid the snow with harder scrambling. From the pass, the standard route is dry other than a couple feet of easy snow in the east couloir that must be crossed to reach the east-west cross-over. The west gully is dry from the cross-over to the summit. It's basically summer conditions above the pass. Photo 1 shows the Needle from the lower lake, photo 2 shows Broken Hand Pass, photo 3 shows an overview of the S face, photo 4 shows the W gully, and photo 5 is from the summit. All in all, it was a great weather day, which made it possible for me to leave the 2wd trailhead at 5:30 a.m., summit Crestone Peak at 11 a.m., finish both sub-summits by noon, go back to Broken Hand Pass, summit the Needle via the standard route by 2:45, then descend to camp at the lower SC lake. 

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 5/28/2018, By: jmanner
Info: The Traverse is clear of snow and ice. We descended the east Gully back down(not sure why anyone ever uses the West Gully). The easiest options still have snow and verglas no doubt in the morning , but you can keep it reasonable. BHP required some snow climb on the way up and down. As an aside, we didn't see another soul on the route, up or down. Humboldt was crawling with people! Don't let anyone ever tell you that you can't find solitude in the 14ers.