Crestone Needle

Route: South Face
Posted On: 5/30/2015, By: lodgling
Info: Needle is in fat. Snow conditions are still maturing and if it gets too hot this week there could be a ton of wet slide activity. Two ice bulges are present on the line but can be avoided. There is a ton of snow on the way up to BHP. To get an idea, I have attached essentially the same photo from Memorial Day 2010 and today looking down from BHP. The estimated current snow line is drawn on the 2010 photo. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 4/13/2015, By: jkillgore
Info: Still good coverage on the line, with pleasant climbing. Parts of the narrows are narrower than a ski width. Ski conditions were tough, and snow could really use a refresh. Rock hard penitente most of the way forced more sidestepping and down climbing than i‘d like. I guess i‘d give it 4* for climbing conditions, 1* for ski conditions. Still a fun way to start a long day. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 4/3/2015, By: swbackcountry
Info: (Pics included) The Peak and the Needle southern couloirs are filled in, skiable, and have ice in the usual places. Westside (Cottonwood Creek) snowline was at about 10.2k and hard freeze line at about 11.2k (which meant there was 1k of slushy postholing, skinning, and grumbling) Spring corn cycle is occurring in the Crestones. But I saw no signs of big wet slides. More so, I saw lots of wind scouring/sastrugi. The day I went up, it never thawed due to wind and cloud cover. And the skiing sucked. Digging around revealed lots of variations in the snowpack, all safe, and everything on top was either wind buffed sun crust or just sun crust in exposed sun-affected areas. A north facing couloir I skied was wind/freeze crust on powder, and did not ski well (again it did not thaw that day, so on another day it may be good). I bootpacked south facing slopes with great purchase with crampons and only a few inches of perforation in the spring crust, and north facing slopes with up to thigh deep packed powder. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 10/9/2014, By: Andy_Lyon
Info: The hike to Broken Hand Pass had already become a snow climb as of 10-5, with drifted snow up to a foot deep in the very steepest portion of the gully. Snow had compacted considerably and there were (small) slab cracks. However, add more snow on top of that and if you have to proceed, you may want to have your avalanche gear with you. Above the pass on the south face, things had, before the current round of moisture, melted off. Intermittent snow and lots of wet rock (and wet boots), made it slow going for his hiker. I turned back at the gully crossover point though the people who did summit that day just continued up the "east" gully as the rock was, then, dry. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 9/25/2014, By: mattpayne11
Info: Route was clean of snow despite heavy rain the day prior. Dry. Probably won‘t last. Conditions were foggy and windy, making for a pretty surreal experience. True trip report to follow as time allows. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 9/22/2014, By: sheller
Info: Great conditions. Didn‘t see any snow anywhere. Also, met a number of climbers who did the Arete and the traverse and said conditions were perfect. However, I‘m not sure if the latest storm on 9/21 dropped any snow. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 9/15/2014, By: meg383
Info: Still completely dry all the way to the top. Summer conditions holding, at least for a little while. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 9/11/2014, By: Roald
Info: Area got a lot of rain on Tuesday 9/9, but route all the way to the summit is still in good shape. Was 36 degrees on the summit at noon on 9/10, so ice concerns aren‘t too far away. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 9/4/2014, By: Coyote_Run
Info: Crestone Needle and Crestone Peak were dry and the conditions were perfect for climbing. The drive up to the South Colony Trail Head was also dry. 

Route: Ellingwood Arete/Ledges
Posted On: 8/10/2014, By: Monster5
Info: Ellingwood ledges still dry as of this afternoon. Bring your hexes. Trickle of negligible water running down the 4th class direct gully on the Needle and dry in the standard gully. Some water across the approach trails. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 8/3/2014, By: bdloftin77
Info: If you take the "short cut" from the 4wd parking lot (going right, toward Humboldt, instead of continuing along the 4wd road), lots of the trail is basically a stream. Sometimes you can get off the trail and bypass it, other times you can try to step on rocks in the trail, other times you just have to kinda straddle the trail. Very annoying. Going up Broken Hand Pass, and up the Needle, there is no snow on the route. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 8/5/2014, By: ezabielski
Info: Wet conditions! The entire South Colony Lakes has so much water right now. The trail has a lot of water in it on the approach, and many campsites are marshy, but not all. The East Gully is flowing quite a bit. It didn‘t impede our climb, but your feet will get wet. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 7/20/2014, By: desertdog
Info: Crazy weather...sun, rain, hail, and snow flurries (up high). Lots of water running down both gullies, but the rock was not slick. We left a little later than normal to let the sun dry things out, which helped. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 7/21/2014, By: trinkner
Info: No snow whatsoever in the gullies of Crestone Needle or anywhere on the ascent. Almost no snow on the Broken Hand Pass ascent: only a few little bits where the snow overlaps the trail and you need to take maybe three steps in the snow to reach the trail on the other side. No need for any snow equipment of any kind. I only climbed Crestone Needle, so I can‘t comment on the gullies leading to Crestone Peak. I did find trekking poles to be very helpful until the gullies, when I put my poles in my pack and used my hands to help climb the gullies. We followed the standard route directions to use the east gully, cross the rib, and then make the final ascent up the west gully. On the descent, we inadvertently took the east gully for the entire descent. Frankly, I didn‘t find the east gully any more challenging than the west gully and made the descent without issue. The east gully is dotted with small silver foil stickers on rocks that indicate the route downward. I don‘t think you‘d notice these stickers on the ascent, as they‘re on rocks angled for a descending climber. I realize that some climbers may view these stickers as shiny trash on the mountain, but they helped me quite a lot and were very unobtrusive; I‘m grateful to whomever put them there. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 7/13/2014, By: Khieras
Info: Went up Crestone Needle on Saturday. Two small snowfields in the lower-middle sections of Broken Hand pass. The crux of the pass is still holding some snow. Although it made the crux moves a bit harder, no special gear was required at all. Above Broken Hand, the Needle had no snow anywhere. Both gulleys are running with a fair amount of water, making the climb more tricky than normal.