10/23/2016 Route: South Face Posted On: 10/23/2016, By: Beas Info: There is some soft snow that is mostly avoidable as you scramble up to Broken Hand Pass. Aside from that and a few icy sections near the trailhead, the Needle is dry. Humboldt and the Peak are in great shape as well. |
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10/22/2016 Route: South Face Posted On: 10/23/2016, By: tsand Info: Great conditions overall. Shallow layer of frozen snow in places on BH Pass. Didn't use spikes going up but did on the way down after slipping a lot. ~ 4:10 TH to summit. The crux for me was the spot at the east gully dihedral where the climber is pictured in the description. The descent crossover point is well-marked now. Also, KC Avenue looked pretty clear. |
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10/22/2016 Route: South Face Posted On: 10/23/2016, By: fakejox Info: Agree with tsand's report below, and concur that microspikes were definitely useful on the descent from broken hand pass. I've attached a few more pics for those interested in the route before the next storm. |
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10/16/2016 Route: South Face Posted On: 10/16/2016, By: James2015 Info: Super fun day, although a brutal wind once over Broken Hand. Made it up to the 4wd in our Crosstrek, the road is rough but we've done it a couple times (fine, just one spot where there's an exposed drainage pipe that each time we had to take a couple attempts at -- go further right than you'd think). The Needle itself was bone dry, except for a tiny trickle in parts of the gully, great conditions other than the wind. Some snow and ice on the north side of Broken Hand, I had microspikes and used them -- probably not essential, but made it a lot nicer (an ice axe would be overkill). Might've been the only person to summit other than two SAR guys going for a couple of climbers who summited the arete late and spent an involuntary night on the summit. I didn't see anyone else the entire day other than a second SAR team assembling down below. The rock is so beautiful and bomber I didn't see any reason to switch gullies, maybe it got to be class 4 but didn't feel like it, so much fun to play on. Conditions could change at any point, but awesome this weekend... |
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10/2/2016 Route: South Face Posted On: 10/2/2016, By: Brian Thomas Info: The only snow on the route today was on the last few hundred feet below Broken Hand Pass. Microspikes would have been helpful, which I did not bring, but was able to carefully cross the snow without. The snow was not melted out or softened much on descent at about 2pm. The east and west gullies had some trickles of running water but otherwise very dry. |
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9/9/2016 Route: South Face Posted On: 9/11/2016, By: okmtngirl Info: Weather was excellent. Needle was dry except a small stream of water in the lower East Gully. The crossover point from East to West was difficult to find. We did not find a cairn or green bandana as noted in earlier reports. There was still a red ribbon in the West Gully marking the crossover point. |
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8/28/2016 Route: Crestones Traverse Posted On: 8/28/2016, By: bdloftin77 Info: From the Red Gully on Crestone Peak, to near the Black Gendarme, snow is not an issue. There is some hard snow (10 am) below the Black Gendarme that can't be avoided. Some steps are kicked in. The class 5.2 move is slightly more tricky with snow above and below the rocks, but we were able to do it. Snow fills the gully to the right of the Black Gendarme that you climb up. There are some steps kicked in, but care needs to be taken. From above the Knife Edge to below the final class 4 crux wall up the Needle, there is snow on the ledges that is hard to avoid, and care needs to be taken. The class 4 crux wall is dry and snow free. I made the traverse without any equipment. However, microspikes and an ice axe would be recommended. (some people in my group brought microspikes, but voiced that they would have felt safer with an ice axe as well). Snow was... at least a foot deep in places. (estimate) It probably won't melt out over the next few days, but might perhaps in more time. Comment if you have any questions, or would like me to post some pictures. Thanks. |
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8/28/2016 Route: South Face Posted On: 8/29/2016, By: Kdudziak Info: First note, Mountain Lions. I'm pretty sure we saw two, though note both times it was pitch black and we could only make out the eyes. However, because there were numerous deer encounters as well, I felt we had a pretty good reference- dumb, doe eyes versus intense, low to the ground, deliberate movements. As for the climb, there's been a lot of precipitation in the past week and the mountain is starting to hold snow, or more specifically, what I think is graupel. What the 14ers description describes as the crux of the Broken Hand Pass Climb was filled with snow, which presented more of a problem on the way down when it much softer (aka slippery). In reality, most climbers didn't seem to bothered by it as I was. In dry conditions it wouldn't be an issue, but section doesn't have the greatest hand holds and while stepping down is totally doable, stepping on to a slanted, slippery surface was more than I wanted to deal with at that point in the day. For the rest of the route, water and snow was easy enough to avoid. We had some trouble finding our way from the top of the pass to the bottom of the East Gully because there's a couple branching paths, but most of them seem to lead you there eventually. I'd say just pick a path and keep heading toward the peak. Many reports mention a green bandana on the crossover from the East to West gully, and either me and the rest of the climbers that day did this at the wrong point or it's no longer there. I did see a rock wrapped in a tiny red ribbon where I crossed over. The report tells you to drop down into the West Gully, but it was full of snow. We stayed high (to climber's right) and didn't have any problems. Once you reach the top of the West Gully, I felt the hard work was behind us and the final stretch was easier and was less exposed than the two gullies. On the way down through the East Gully, you'll likely notice a trail on climber's left that get's you off the gully higher off than where you likely entered the gully. We decided to not take the trail because like many of the trails, we couldn't really tell where it went, but once we made it back to South Colony lakes, we found out that a lot of climbers took that route and found their way back to the BHP without too much trouble. It saves you from losing and have to regain some elevation and from having to descend the last part of the East Gully, which I thought was the worst part of the descent. Overall, great day, beautiful route, and lots of animal sightings. |
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8/14/2016 Route: South Face Posted On: 8/17/2016, By: Rambler Info: Needle was a blast. Up through willows, boulders, and a gully to the top of BHP. Pretty loose stuff, not fun on way down. East gully easily found and ascended solid rock on right side. Obvious crossover spot at crack was marked with carins and yellow surveyors tape. Crossover move is akward and prob the crux. Place you climb over rib to west gully marked with green bandana and carin. Also was a fixed rope from a recent rescue stil up there. Fun climbing from there to summit. Easy return over same route. Hated coming down pass back to camp. Pretty wiped. Overall awesome climb though |
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8/12/2016 Route: South Face Posted On: 8/15/2016, By: bjbatchelor Info: Trail conditions were clear to the summit. Mosquitoes have subsided around the South Colony Lakes. Take extra care coming down the correct gully from the summit. There have been two hiking accidents on the descent in the last month. We used directions from this website and didn't have much problem making it to the top and down safely. |
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7/18/2016 Route: South Face Posted On: 7/21/2016, By: lukedog Info: My group climbed the Needle, the Peak and Humboldt on Sunday and Monday. Humboldt and the Needle were basically totally snow free. There were a few small snow fields on Broken Hand Pass, but you could get away without any snow gear. We were happy to have ice axe and microspikes in the Red Gully for a larger snow field near the top. Biggest news for us was the mosquitoes. Camping was flat out miserable. We really enjoyed the peaks and bugs were mostly absent up high, but all of the camping areas, areas near the lakes and anyplace low at all was inundated with mosquitoes. |
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7/9/2016 Route: South Face Posted On: 7/11/2016, By: CraigB2013 Info: The route is dry except for some snow in the dihedral and the West Gully cross over point. We opted to climb the class 4 variation to the top of the East Gully which made it more difficult to find the entrance of the West Gully when coming down. The West Gully is small. Maybe 10 ft wide . The gully to the west of the West gully (the West West Gully, as it has been called) is as large as the East Gully and starts out class 3 climbing but then cliffs out. There are two cairns at the entrance of the West Gully but are easy to mis going down from the summit. |
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7/7/2016 Route: South Face Posted On: 7/8/2016, By: TallGrass Info: Photos of Broken Hand Pass from South Colony Lakes on way out from Challenger (Horn Creek). Sorry for the lousy cell phone pics, but camera battery dead. Could see a clear track across the snow. Would take axe and traction, spikes if not 'pons. Met one guy going up the old 4x4 road who went back just to get his spikes. Bring mosquito gear for the hike in and camp. Many spots along the trail to Humboldt between the lakes and the old 4x4 road are muddy, underwater, or muck. |
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7/5/2016 Route: Crestones Traverse Posted On: 7/6/2016, By: CoHi591 Info: Completed the Traverse yesterday from Peak to Needle, it was one of the most epic (and challenging) days I've ever had in the mountains. We had beautiful weather all day. Good thing, because it took us a lot longer than planned. There is still snow on Broken Hand pass and all up in the Red Gully. We had ice axes and microspikes and were generally fine but struggled a bit and I wished I had crampons once or twice in the Gully. You can avoid quite a bit of it if you choose but it's probably easier to just go up the snow if you have the gear. I would say an ice axe is necessary. Getting up to Crestone Peak was a blast, we struggled a lot with route finding when starting the Traverse though. Without an altimeter and just bad guessing as to how far from the top of the Gully we were, we essentially wandered up and down for a while looking for the cairns. We didn't find them, went on anyway and met up with them again at the second red gully. There was no more significant snow to contend with from this point on. We found the climbing very fun for the rest of the traverse. The descent from the Needle was our big challenge of the day because we wound up switching from west gully to east gully too early and wound up doing a lot of class 4 downclimbing. Lessons learned. The standard route on the needle is entirely snow free. Overall, beautiful day. |
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6/19/2016 Route: Broken Hand Pass Posted On: 6/20/2016, By: GregMiller Info: Broken Hand Pass still has a lot of snow (as seen from Humboldt). |
