Kit Carson Peak Trip Report 08/05/2008

Peak(s):	Kit Carson Peak - 14,167 feet
Date Posted:	08/05/2008
Date Climbed:	08/03/2008
Author:	adventurefamily

Kit Carson--Kirk Couloir
The Kloser family left the Willow Creek TH at 5:45 pm on Saturday evening. The kids hoped to be at the lake in 45 minutes! We got there in 2h10m which we were pleased to have some daylight to find a campsite and set it up. Left the camp at 8am(getting kids to move out of sleeping bags can be the biggest challenge of the day). (1) Hike up the standard route to somewhere around 11,800 ft to 12,000 and took a left (or eastern) turn and cut across the lower slopes of Challenger toward Kirk Couloir. Grassy slopes gave way to steeper rock faces with water trickling down from the snow fields above. This made for a few slippery steps but overall not too bad you just needed to look ahead for good route choices.(2) Continued to the up the rocks under part of Kirks lower flanks to enter the couloir a little higher. (3) We stopped at the area highlighted in red to transition into crampons and get out our ice axes. After a quick refresher course in self arrest procedures by Mike (aka dad). We quickly realized that we made the right decision to enter the couloir higher as the snow was rock hard. It was 9am and the sun was quite warm but the snow was not softening at all. We followed in line with Mike kicking in the best steps he could into the hard snow. (4) We exited onto the first rock field we encountered to make a few minor adjustments and the going was just so much faster on the rock than the snow. (5) We decided to continue up the couloir to our right as it seemed a little more straight without the off camber slope of the far left snowfield. (6) The route was quite steep and slow going. We continued up. Mike working hard on good steps and spiking great holes to place our ice axe shafts into so we all felt quite secure. Our daughter, Heidi, did not have gloves on and got extremely cold hands as dad ice chucks kept hitting her hands. (7) Dad/Mike had her gloves and we entered onto the rock wall bordering the couloir to get them for her and to let her regain her composure. We climbed along this edge on good rock for a few minutes as it was so slow going out in the couloir. We continued our one line march up the couloir. (8)Mike had actually slipped two different times and we all saw how to self arrest quickly and correctly. We thought we could see the couloir leveling off. Our son, Christian, climbed out onto the rock to our right to scout it and said the pitch continued for quite a while. We all exited the couloir at this point and climbed onto steep but stable rock. (9) We climbed up to a good point to sit and remove our crampons and then continued up to meet the avenue just around 10:30. We were hoping this would be a faster way up--ha. Mike and Christian couldn't resist the urge to exit the avenue a bit early (10) and Heidi and I continued on as directed. Mike and Christian summited about 10 minutes before we did at 11:10 loving the way they went up. We all went down their route and were amazed at the solid rock versus the looser scree of the girls route. (11). We down on the avenue in just a few minutes. We had attempted this mountain one other time and got caught in fog/sleet and you name it. On that descent Mike stayed downhill right of the snowfield on the standard descent off of Challenger. He couldn't figure out why this is not the standard route up. We took his route on our descent and did not cross through the notch to the exposed part of Challenger. We stayed high on good solid rock and there was nothing close to the exposure of going the other way--or maybe by now we were immune to exposure? We made our way down the steep rock but everything had great holds and I never faced into down climb and rarely had my but hit the ground. Christian opted for the snow field descent armed with his axe. He had a hoot and kept us all amused as we went down. Sorry I don't have any photos of that. He invented new glissading techniques. The boy was made for steep snow. Mike entered the snow to have some fun. Heidi and I tried but it was not that soft and a little steeper than I felt like dealing with. We were happy to get to our camp at 2:30ish (a little long on KC summit and a little playing on the way down). Mosquitoes happily greeted us there. We all dashed down to the lake and jumped in and lay on the hot rocks and relaxed until we started hearing thunder. (12). Packed up and made it from the lake to the car in 1:50. You'd think it would be way faster going down wouldn't you! On reflection, this was a blast to climb the mountain this way and we were smiling most of the time. Mike is a 3 time Eco Challenge Champion and 5 time Primal Quest Champion plus 4 time Elk Mountain Traverse Champion and takes every chance he can get to climb and ski the peaks in the Gore so we were in great hands. Not sure I would want to attempt this route with a novice. I definitely wouldn't want to descend it unless I knew good steps were kicked in and could not imagine doing it without and axe and crampons. The kids were experienced in this type of climbing. http://www.wildsnow.com/?p=791 The couloir was much harder than the Cross Couloir because the snow was so frozen and the pitch was about the same. I am only posting this because I could not find much info this route when researching it. This is my first trip report so..... Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Kit Carson--Kirk Couloir

The Kloser family left the Willow Creek TH at 5:45 pm on Saturday evening. The kids hoped to be at the lake in 45 minutes! We got there in 2h10m which we were pleased to have some daylight to find a campsite and set it up. Left the camp at 8am(getting kids to move out of sleeping bags can be the biggest challenge of the day). (1) Hike up the standard route to somewhere around 11,800 ft to 12,000 and took a left (or eastern) turn and cut across the lower slopes of Challenger toward Kirk Couloir. Grassy slopes gave way to steeper rock faces with water trickling down from the snow fields above. This made for a few slippery steps but overall not too bad you just needed to look ahead for good route choices.(2) Continued to the up the rocks under part of Kirks lower flanks to enter the couloir a little higher. (3) We stopped at the area highlighted in red to transition into crampons and get out our ice axes. After a quick refresher course in self arrest procedures by Mike (aka dad). We quickly realized that we made the right decision to enter the couloir higher as the snow was rock hard. It was 9am and the sun was quite warm but the snow was not softening at all. We followed in line with Mike kicking in the best steps he could into the hard snow. (4) We exited onto the first rock field we encountered to make a few minor adjustments and the going was just so much faster on the rock than the snow. (5) We decided to continue up the couloir to our right as it seemed a little more straight without the off camber slope of the far left snowfield. (6) The route was quite steep and slow going. We continued up. Mike working hard on good steps and spiking great holes to place our ice axe shafts into so we all felt quite secure. Our daughter, Heidi, did not have gloves on and got extremely cold hands as dad ice chucks kept hitting her hands. (7) Dad/Mike had her gloves and we entered onto the rock wall bordering the couloir to get them for her and to let her regain her composure. We climbed along this edge on good rock for a few minutes as it was so slow going out in the couloir. We continued our one line march up the couloir. (8)Mike had actually slipped two different times and we all saw how to self arrest quickly and correctly. We thought we could see the couloir leveling off. Our son, Christian, climbed out onto the rock to our right to scout it and said the pitch continued for quite a while. We all exited the couloir at this point and climbed onto steep but stable rock. (9) We climbed up to a good point to sit and remove our crampons and then continued up to meet the avenue just around 10:30. We were hoping this would be a faster way up--ha. Mike and Christian couldn't resist the urge to exit the avenue a bit early (10) and Heidi and I continued on as directed. Mike and Christian summited about 10 minutes before we did at 11:10 loving the way they went up. We all went down their route and were amazed at the solid rock versus the looser scree of the girls route. (11). We down on the avenue in just a few minutes. We had attempted this mountain one other time and got caught in fog/sleet and you name it. On that descent Mike stayed downhill right of the snowfield on the standard descent off of Challenger. He couldn't figure out why this is not the standard route up. We took his route on our descent and did not cross through the notch to the exposed part of Challenger. We stayed high on good solid rock and there was nothing close to the exposure of going the other way--or maybe by now we were immune to exposure? We made our way down the steep rock but everything had great holds and I never faced into down climb and rarely had my but hit the ground. Christian opted for the snow field descent armed with his axe. He had a hoot and kept us all amused as we went down. Sorry I don't have any photos of that. He invented new glissading techniques. The boy was made for steep snow. Mike entered the snow to have some fun. Heidi and I tried but it was not that soft and a little steeper than I felt like dealing with. We were happy to get to our camp at 2:30ish (a little long on KC summit and a little playing on the way down). Mosquitoes happily greeted us there. We all dashed down to the lake and jumped in and lay on the hot rocks and relaxed until we started hearing thunder. (12). Packed up and made it from the lake to the car in 1:50. You'd think it would be way faster going down wouldn't you! On reflection, this was a blast to climb the mountain this way and we were smiling most of the time. Mike is a 3 time Eco Challenge Champion and 5 time Primal Quest Champion plus 4 time Elk Mountain Traverse Champion and takes every chance he can get to climb and ski the peaks in the Gore so we were in great hands. Not sure I would want to attempt this route with a novice. I definitely wouldn't want to descend it unless I knew good steps were kicked in and could not imagine doing it without and axe and crampons. The kids were experienced in this type of climbing. http://www.wildsnow.com/?p=791 The couloir was much harder than the Cross Couloir because the snow was so frozen and the pitch was about the same. I am only posting this because I could not find much info this route when researching it. This is my first trip report so.....

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

lemurtech	awesome 8/6/2008 1:55am You guys were awesome fast. I was the guy in the green shirt on top when you got up there, and your route off Challenger was way better than the normal scree covered route I took.
roozers42	Thanks! 8/6/2008 2:03am I loved reading your report and looking at the photos of your family climbing. I‘ve done Kit Carson via the North Ridge but this snow climb looks like a must-do.
Patinator	Nice! 8/6/2008 4:24pm My dad and I met you on our way down from KC on the avenue just as you got to the top of the couloir. Even though I didn‘t have the right equipment on me, I sure would have prefered your route up! Heck, your route down was also better than the loose scree slide standard route. Thanks for a trip report on a route that is rarely reported on.

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