Challenger Point SW Ridge

I must begin this report by thanking Declan Knies ( @DeclanKnies ) and Jasper Mesenbrik for each joining me on my first two attempts. I would also like to thank the Crestone Mountain Zen Center for granting me access to the Spanish Creek Basin. Information on parking can be found at the page for the Spanish Creek Trailhead.

I'll try to update the report with more route information at the bottom when I get the time.

I left alone at 4:45 am from the Crestone Mountain Zen Center upper parking lot. Given that it was my third time up the Spanish Creek approach, I pretty quickly found my way to the trail and began the bushwhack up the basin (somebody needs to take a chainsaw to that place). As always, the basin was very beautiful, and I was rewarded with a view of both The Prow and of Challenger Point's rugged south face.

Around 11,000' (8AM), I turned left to gain the SW ridge of Challenger. After getting a good view of the "trail" to 11,000' on the descent with Jasper, I had decided to stick in the valley. On my previous attempts, I had done this earlier, around 9,000'. In January, this led to endless postholing (we didn't bring snowshoes), whereas the previous week had not given us the same trouble (we did bring snowshoes and they were annoying to carry).

After spending an hour grinding 900' up the loose dirt on the side of the ridge, I couldn't wait to reach the ridgeline. I made the mistake of cutting left to get there faster. I ended up in the woods on top of the ridge, postholing in the fresh snowfall. While snow conditions were not as bad as they had been in January, a punch crust had formed and my walk along the ridge was not as enjoyable as it had been a week before.

Around 12,200', I put on crampons and cut left onto the face. We had gone ridge direct the previous week and run into some more technical moves along the steps between 12,200' and 13,000', so I chose to traverse the snow instead. The snow was quite variable, and I suffered through punch crust. I crossed some wet slide debris as well, which was a little spooky considering the condition of the snow. I finally reached the lower wall at 13,000' around noon. At this point, I knew I would summit Challenger.

I fought more punch crust up the couloir on the right, and quickly reached the top of the lower couloir. At this point, the rest of the route came into view.

From here, I postholed and scrambled (Class 3?) along the ridge. It was mostly fine, except for one part towards the end where I was forced to the ridge crest and had to hold onto some snow with my hands. That had me shivering my timbers afterwards when I looked back and saw that it had been a cornice. Overall, not too bad.

I then made the mistake of sticking on the ridge instead of traversing left to the gully as fast as possible. I ended up frontpointing up loose rock that felt 5.1 ish to me. After some strenuous moves, I ended up on the lower side of a notch, and had to downclimb steep snow to reenter the gully to my left.

I began my grind up the gully, switching between snow and rock depending on what was available and the snow conditions. It was steep, but the difficulty felt between Class 3 and Class 4 for me the whole time I was in the gully. I could feel the summit get closer as the afternoon sun turned the snow in to awful punch crust. My progress slowed as the altitude caught up to me. Around 13,800', the snow became so bad that I could no longer ascend on it, and I switched to frontpointing up the rock ridge next to the gully. I wanted to take my crampons off at this point, but the wall was too steep. Around 3:30 PM, I reached the end of the rock. Two steps on the snow remain between me and the summit. I take one step. My foot goes a foot beneath the snow. I breathe. My throat and mouth have dried out. The thin air is giving me tunnel vision. I take another step. I flop over onto the summit, laying on my side. I cry.

I'll complete the story some other time, but essentially, I didn't have it in me to traverse Kit Carson Avenue and descend Cole's Couloir, so I took the couloir between Challenger and The Prow down. It had a 6-7 foot step with an easy chimney downclimb towards the top but continuous snow otherwise.

I got back to my car at midnight. Tired bushwhacking in old La Sportiva boots that I found at BSR (essentially clown shoes) was not a recipe for speed. I also postholed to my hip at one point and spent ten minutes digging myself out with an ice axe. The SOS button on my InReach had never been so tempting.

Let me know if you have any questions about the route, and feel free to DM me or whatever as well. You'll probably have a good shot of reaching me at ccherry@mines.edu as well.