Crestone Peak Trip Report 08/09/2008

Peak(s):	Crestone Peak - 14,299 feet Crestone Needle - 14,196 feet Kit Carson Peak - 14,167 feet Challenger Point - 14,086 feet Humboldt Peak - 14,068 feet
Date Posted:	08/09/2008
Date Climbed:	07/31/2008
Author:	G-VO

Needle to Peak Traverse
I spent three days and two nights at the South Colony Lakes in an attempt to climb the entire Crestone group with initial ascents of Kit Carson and Challenger Pt as well as my first Crestone needle to peak traverse. The first day involved hiking up the long road from the 2WD trailhead and then a quick climb of Humbolt. Day 2 was Crestone Needle and Crestone Peak. We did the traverse from Needle to Peak which I haven't seen much of in trip reports. On Day 3 I went solo to Kit Carson, Challenger, and Coloumbia Pt and then all the way back to my car at the 2WD trailhead. The coolest part of the hike up and climb of Humbolt was seeing this herd of bighorn sheep that practically posed for our pictures. On Day 2 John and I started before 5AM and headed up Broken Hand pass. The climb up the Needle was the fun class 3 scrambling on conglomerate that I remember from doing it years ago. We summitted at 7:30am, enjoyed the awesome views and started preparing for the traverse. Back in 2002, i had turned around here, descended the Needle and climbed Crestone Peak via the red route. There was no way I was going down the 100ft of exposed class 4 on the Needle without gear. This time was different, John is an experienced rock climber and we brought plenty of gear. He set up a rappel and we dropped off the needle. The smiles were over for awhile. There was still a lot of class 3+ downclimbing as the route takes you a few hundred feet below the ridge. The traverse was definately hard and route finding was not easy, there were very few cairns and there were very few times that we felt confident enough that we were actually on route to place a cairn ourselves. Eventually, we made our way to the last 300 feet of the red couloir on Crestone peak. This part was not as easy as it should have been because of a big patch of hard snow that spanned a good part of the top of the couloir. You can see it in the background of this picture, it is passable and should melt out in another week or two. We reached the summit around 11:30. We made the decision to descend the Creston Peak Northwest Couloir route. I'm still not sure if this was the quickest route back to South Colony lake. Although it was shorter than going down the red couloir to Cottonwood lake and then up and over broken hand pass, it was a very tricky, more technical and more dangerous route. Here is a picture of the couloir I took the next day from Kit Carson. If I had seen this before I would have thought twice about this route. This is just before we committed to the route. These are some shots inside the NW couloir, if it looks a little scary, it was... After 1000 feet of downclimbing that had us on edge, we finally started seeing cairns and escaped the couloir onto a ragged faint trail that led us to the Bears playground. This picture shows the bears playground with the Crestones in the background. The fun wasn't quite over, we still had to traverse this ridge which makes up the Crestone/Humbolt saddle to get to the lower half of the Humbolt Peak trail and finally to the lakes. We reached our campsite at about 3PM for a great 10 hour day of Crestone climbing. The next day I set off solo for Kit Carson. I climbed the bottom half of the Humbolt trail for the third time this trip and traversed the same ridge from the day before as the sun started coming up. Humbolt is in the background... I made it back to Bears playground and looked at the route ahead. This picture shows Obstruction peak and Kitty Kat Carson. I never found the trail that runs below Obstruction Peak that I read about on another recent trip report. I found it fairly easy to just stay on top of the ridge the whole way. The climb up the face of Kitty Kat Carson was fairly easy with a cairned trail almost the whole way. I thought it was more class 2+ than class 3. I bypassed the actual summit of Columbia point and started the downclimb to the Columbia point/Kit Carson saddle. This was by far the crux of the route. As you can see from this picture, it was steep... At the bottom of the couloir off Columbia Pt, you could see the ledges of Kit Carson's standard route leading into the couloir that takes you to the summit. Once on the standard Kit Carson route it was an easy scramble to the summit. I met a guy on the summit who had come from Willow creek. We did the traverse to Challenger point together and then I started making my way back. The climb up Columbia was a challenge but not as bad as the downclimb. I met a really cool older couple on top of Columbia who are retired and do nothing now but climb mountains. They are attempting Aconcagua in a few months and have already climbed Kilimanjaro, Blanc, some Nepalese mts and all the 14ers. Not bad for being 70 years old! The traverse back to camp was fun and I wasn't as tired as I thought I would be after doing the entire Crestone group in three days. I hated to leave this paradise knowing it would be my last long 14er trip for awhile since I have to move to the east coast in a few weeks. The 7 mile hike from my campsite to my car was the real test of endurance and I finally stumbled into the car at about 3PM. It was an awesome three days in the mountains with absolutely perfect weather (has anyone ever been in the Crestones for three days without a storm?) and a trip I won't soon forget. Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Needle to Peak Traverse

I spent three days and two nights at the South Colony Lakes in an attempt to climb the entire Crestone group with initial ascents of Kit

Carson and Challenger Pt as well as my first Crestone needle to peak traverse. The first day involved hiking up the long road from the 2WD

trailhead and then a quick climb of Humbolt. Day 2 was Crestone Needle and Crestone Peak. We did the traverse from Needle to Peak

which I haven't seen much of in trip reports. On Day 3 I went solo to Kit Carson, Challenger, and Coloumbia Pt and then all the way back to
my car at the 2WD trailhead.

The coolest part of the hike up and climb of Humbolt was seeing this herd of bighorn sheep that practically posed for our pictures.

On Day 2 John and I started before 5AM and headed up Broken Hand pass. The climb up the Needle was the fun class 3 scrambling on

conglomerate that I remember from doing it years ago. We summitted at 7:30am, enjoyed the awesome views and started preparing for the

traverse. Back in 2002, i had turned around here, descended the Needle and climbed Crestone Peak via the red route. There was no

way I was going down the 100ft of exposed class 4 on the Needle without gear. This time was different, John is an experienced rock

climber and we brought plenty of gear. He set up a rappel and we dropped off the needle.

The smiles were over for awhile. There was still a lot of class 3+ downclimbing as the route takes you a few hundred feet below the ridge.

The traverse was definately hard and route finding was not easy, there were very few cairns and there were very few times that we felt

confident enough that we were actually on route to place a cairn ourselves. Eventually, we made our way to the last 300 feet of the

red couloir on Crestone peak. This part was not as easy as it should have been because of a big patch of hard snow that spanned a good

part of the top of the couloir. You can see it in the background of this picture, it is passable and should melt out in another week or two.

We reached the summit around 11:30.

We made the decision to descend the Creston Peak Northwest Couloir route. I'm still not sure if this was the quickest route back to South Colony lake.
Although it was shorter than going down the red couloir to Cottonwood lake and then up and over broken hand pass, it was a very tricky, more technical and more dangerous route.
Here is a picture of the couloir I took the next day from Kit Carson. If I had seen this before I would have thought twice about this route.

This is just before we committed to the route.

These are some shots inside the NW couloir, if it looks a little scary, it was...

After 1000 feet of downclimbing that had us on edge, we finally started seeing cairns and escaped the couloir onto a ragged faint trail that led us to the Bears playground.
This picture shows the bears playground with the Crestones in the background.

The fun wasn't quite over, we still had to traverse this ridge which makes up the Crestone/Humbolt saddle to get to the lower half of the Humbolt Peak trail and finally to the lakes.

We reached our campsite at about 3PM for a great 10 hour day of Crestone climbing.

The next day I set off solo for Kit Carson. I climbed the bottom half of the Humbolt trail for the third time this trip and traversed the same ridge from the day before as the sun started coming up.
Humbolt is in the background...

I made it back to Bears playground and looked at the route ahead. This picture shows Obstruction peak and Kitty Kat Carson.

I never found the trail that runs below Obstruction Peak that I read about on another recent trip report.
I found it fairly easy to just stay on top of the ridge the whole way. The climb up the face of Kitty Kat Carson was fairly easy with a cairned trail almost the whole way.
I thought it was more class 2+ than class 3. I bypassed the actual summit of Columbia point and started the downclimb to the Columbia point/Kit Carson saddle.
This was by far the crux of the route. As you can see from this picture, it was steep...

At the bottom of the couloir off Columbia Pt, you could see the ledges of Kit Carson's standard route leading into the couloir that takes you to the summit.

Once on the standard Kit Carson route it was an easy scramble to the summit.

I met a guy on the summit who had come from Willow creek. We did the traverse to Challenger point together and then I started making my way back.
The climb up Columbia was a challenge but not as bad as the downclimb. I met a really cool older couple on top of Columbia who are retired and do nothing now but climb mountains.
They are attempting Aconcagua in a few months and have already climbed Kilimanjaro, Blanc, some Nepalese mts and all the 14ers. Not bad for being 70 years old!
The traverse back to camp was fun and I wasn't as tired as I thought I would be after doing the entire Crestone group in three days.
I hated to leave this paradise knowing it would be my last long 14er trip for awhile since I have to move to the east coast in a few weeks.

The 7 mile hike from my campsite to my car was the real test of endurance and I finally stumbled into the car at about 3PM.
It was an awesome three days in the mountains with absolutely perfect weather (has anyone ever been in the Crestones for three days without a storm?) and a trip I won't soon forget.

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

uwe	Congratulations 8/9/2008 10:37pm Hi, Nice TR and photos. I am sure you guys were stoked by your success! Hey, I can say 3 days with no rain.
Presto	Way to go ... Old School! 8/12/2008 4:34pm Congrats on getting those done and great pix! ”Back in the day”, that‘s the way we all did ‘em. Needle to Peak traverse (with the rappel) and descending the northwest couloir off the peak to the bears playground. And, the traditional approach and return on Kit Carson. Loved the report! Way to get ‘er done!
taitgr	Right On 12/2/2008 6:58pm I did this same trip, and we were ill prepared for how tough it actually is. Its very terrifying coming off the peak. This is a climb everyone should experience.

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