Crestone Needle Trip Report 07/24/2011

Report Type	Full
Peak(s)	Crestone Needle - 14,196 feet Crestone Peak - 14,299 feet
Date Posted	07/24/2011
Modified	08/14/2011
Date Climbed	07/20/2011
Author	tharlow

needle to peak
So, I have been to the south colony lake basin 4 times, and still had not climbed the peak. Marc suggested climbing the ellingwood arete, then doing the needle to peak traverse. I was up for climbing my last unclimbed summit in this area, the peak, and only having to cross broken hand pass once. I hate that pass. We hiked in monday afternoon, getting a late start, and by 5pm were at the old upper tailhead when a nasty thunder and hailstorm broke out. While hiking through this a couple of rockslides came down above us as we hiked past the new campsites. Exciting! After the rain, and listening to a few more slides that evening, we decided to dry out a day, and tackle the traverse on wednesday instead. We got on the trail by 3:45 am, beautiful day. By daybreak we were almost to the red knob and making good time. We short roped 2 of the more exposed 4th class sections, which brought us to the 5.6 pitch. Being Marc's first time on this route, and the fact that I was moving pretty slow, he jumped on the sharp end for this pitch and the next. It was pretty cool to see the historic hardware on this route. Reminds you of the pioneers that came before, and what they were faced with. Pretty humbling. We summitted at 9 am, got a few pics, and found the rappel by 9:30am. Taking a look at the traverse, and all we could say was wow! The route did not look possible, but it is all there. Each time we had a route finding issue, we looked for most obvious avenue and it was there. We summitted the peak just before noon, having dropped our ropes, harness, shoes, and cams at the end of the traverse. We got back to our gear in time to stop the marmot that was taking off with my harness and shoes. Not sure what he was going to do with them when he got them home. Hit the lake shortly after, filled up with some water, and started the hike up broken hand pass. Trail is in good shape, props to the people who did that work, really made the hike much easier. We hit the summit of the pass at 2pm, and started the home stretch. We got back to camp at 4pm, just over 12 hours tent to tent. We didnt break any records, but it felt like a worthy effort, and we had a blast! Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

needle to peak

So, I have been to the south colony lake basin 4 times, and still had not climbed the peak. Marc suggested climbing the ellingwood arete, then doing the needle to peak traverse. I was up for climbing my last unclimbed summit in this area, the peak, and only having to cross broken hand pass once. I hate that pass. We hiked in monday afternoon, getting a late start, and by 5pm were at the old upper tailhead when a nasty thunder and hailstorm broke out. While hiking through this a couple of rockslides came down above us as we hiked past the new campsites. Exciting!

After the rain, and listening to a few more slides that evening, we decided to dry out a day, and tackle the traverse on wednesday instead. We got on the trail by 3:45 am, beautiful day. By daybreak we were almost to the red knob and making good time. We short roped 2 of the more exposed 4th class sections, which brought us to the 5.6 pitch. Being Marc's first time on this route, and the fact that I was moving pretty slow, he jumped on the sharp end for this pitch and the next. It was pretty cool to see the historic hardware on this route. Reminds you of the pioneers that came before, and what they were faced with. Pretty humbling. We summitted at 9 am, got a few pics, and found the rappel by 9:30am.

Taking a look at the traverse, and all we could say was wow! The route did not look possible, but it is all there. Each time we had a route finding issue, we looked for most obvious avenue and it was there. We summitted the peak just before noon, having dropped our ropes, harness, shoes, and cams at the end of the traverse. We got back to our gear in time to stop the marmot that was taking off with my harness and shoes. Not sure what he was going to do with them when he got them home.

Hit the lake shortly after, filled up with some water, and started the hike up broken hand pass. Trail is in good shape, props to the people who did that work, really made the hike much easier. We hit the summit of the pass at 2pm, and started the home stretch. We got back to camp at 4pm, just over 12 hours tent to tent. We didnt break any records, but it felt like a worthy effort, and we had a blast!

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

dehrlich101	Photos 7/24/2011 6:45pm i had the same problem.. Try uploading them again and it should take them. Cheers
tharlow	photos 7/24/2011 8:34pm thanks for the feedback, I have tried 4 times, but no luck
BillMiddlebrook	Photo Sizes 7/25/2011 6:14pm The file size may only be 3MB but what are the dimensions of your images (Width and height). The limit is 12 megapixels (example: 4000 pixels wide by 3000 pixels high would be 12 megapixels). File dimension are different than the file size on disk. If you give me more details, I can look into it.
tharlow	photos 7/25/2011 6:48pm Bill thank you for the reply. I will look at the file dimensions and try to change those and see if the photos will load. Thad

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