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Before diving into the hike would like to preface a few important notes. First, thank you to everyone who posts trip reports. It's a major reason myself and countless number of other hiking enthusiasts are able to enjoy colorado's beauty in areas many wouldn't consider traveling. With that said, I'm writing my first trip report on this site on Kit Carson/Challenger Point, and specifically KC North ridge. Second, opinions vary greatly on hiking difficulty so I'll throw out what I've done and you be the judge if the TR is accurate. KC/Challenger was #19 and #20 14er for me. Have completed longs, sawtooth, quandary west ridge, and kelso ridge to name a few class three routes finished. Third, this was my first backpacking 14er and first Class 4 hike/climb.
Times:
3:10pm - left trailhead
5:55pm - arrived at Willow lake
5:10am - left Willow lake
8:20am - summit KC, left KC at 8:45am
9:55am - summit Challenger Point
10:20am - leave Challenger summit
12:30pm - arrive at camp/Willow lake
1pm - leave camp
3:07pm - arrive at trailhead
Arrived at Willow Creek trailhead a little before 3pm Saturday July 30th. Easy drive from Denver and an excellent pre hike lunch at Amica's in Salida. Weather was less than ideal had to be pushing upper 80s and with 40 lbs of gear on our back the first hour of hiking was working us more than expected. Once we reached the clearing at 9,900 ft the temp dropped and pleasantly welcomed some light rain. Rest of the hike to Willow lake was uneventful, albeit beautiful. Read much about the mosquitos and they are the real deal. However, we all wore pants and long sleeves. Also, were able to have a small fire at our campsite which kept the bugs away. We camped near the lower waterfall which provided amazing ambient noise to fall asleep to.
Heading to willow lake Not as exhausted as we look Willow lake
Sunday morning we headed out a little after 5am. I read almost ever trip report on the north ridge and most everyone said stay low and aim for the lower boulders. While heading for the cliff band our instincts lead us to go higher, which is the wrong choice. Stay next to the creek up the valley and it'll make the hike to the ridge much easier. It's the difference between trail hiking and boulder hopping for 45 min. Once you reach the cliff bands it's pretty straightforward to angle back toward the ridge. All four in our group were anxiously excited about the class 4 ridge. None of us had been in exposed class 4 climbing such as this and we all read about the sustained exposure on the ridge. It might be the previous class 3 hikes, or some of us recreationally rock climbing indoors, but we never felt uncomfortable on the ridge. The ridge was my favorite part of the entire hike. There are plenty of areas to rest despite the ridge's daunting vertical gain. The hand holds are all solid jug holds. We are pretty sure we were the only hikers on the north ridge on Sunday which was pretty cool.
Cliff side break before the north ridge Gentle start to the ridge And now it gets steeper Looking back at a majority of the north ridge.
After some rest and pics on the summit we started down the standard route descent via the Avenue to Challenger. We snapped some nice pics at the bottom of the avenue (see below). Remember reading the avenue was class 3 but after doing KC's north ridge it was like walking on a sidewalk. Honestly, the scariest part of the hike is the scree field from Challenger to Willow lake. More on that in minute. Challengers summit is a short hike from the top of the avenue and the saddle between KC and Challenger.
Kit Carson summit. Supporting Wish of a Lifetime. Amazing charity! Great pic opportunity at the bottom of the Avenue
After a rest on Challenger we knew it was downhill from here (pun intended). The scree field was awful. Loose boulders the size of a living room ottoman. We ran into a group of 5 guys going up and one said, "I'll die with you bro, but I ain't going up any further than this!" Lol! We got a chuckle from their struggle, but totally understand their mindset. Once we reached the lake we took about 20 minutes to chill next to the waterfall.
The hike down was uneventful and reached the car at 3:07pm. Three minutes shy of 24 hours from when we left. Amazing hike. Definitely recommend the north ridge. Happy Hiking!
Reflecting after being defeated by the scree field.
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
The hike down from Challenger is brutal! I jacked up my knee pretty good coming down it in early October last year and that ended 2015 hiking for me. I would be happy to never have to do that again.
Hi Jay,
Thank you for your post. I appreciate it very much. I have been looking forward to trying the North Ridge all winter. I think the rock portion looks excellent and enjoyable. Thank you for the tip to stay by the creek as well. It is hard to know for sure how it all turns out. I liked your pictures and information as well. Hope to be up there the end of the month. Awesome
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