Anyone ever NOT been sketched out on Crestones N. Buttress?

[Broken Knee]

Did this twice in past years with standard hiking gear before I was much of a climber. It is an absolutely classic scramble, not to be missed. If you need it, you need it, but I would leave the rope at home; no point in being fatigued from carrying a bunch of gear for 30' of climbing. Assuming the red line is coming up over the back of that sub-summit, descend to the notch between them, then climb up the next pinnacle, which is right in your face. The blue line looks scary and seems like a great way to miss out on NE Crestone. As I recall, climbing directly up from the notch looked hard and both times we climbed slightly to looker's right before going straight up to the top. The difficulty is 5.veryeasy, and if there weren't a massive void below your feet it probably wouldn't register as being harder than any of the scrambling up to this point. After that, you descend the ridge directly off NE Crestone at 4th class. I don't recall anything giving us pause after the airy bit on NE Crestone.

[edit]

I even drew a topo way back then (yellow = traverse, red = NE Crestone, dotted = 5th class):

Sometimes I wish this form had a like button.

[polar]

As I recall, climbing directly up from the notch looked hard and both times we climbed slightly to looker's right before going straight up to the top. The difficulty is 5.veryeasy, and if there weren't a massive void below your feet it probably wouldn't register as being harder than any of the scrambling up to this point. After that, you descend the ridge directly off NE Crestone at 4th class. I don't recall anything giving us pause after the airy bit on NE Crestone.

[edit]

I even drew a topo way back then (yellow = traverse, red = NE Crestone, dotted = 5th class):

This is very helpful. I actually was thinking of taking the redline after nuun mentioned it, and after digging up three TRs of people going up NE Crestone that way (one in winter, gnarly!). Interestingly, all three TRs were of people going to NE Crestone from the south. To me that indicated staying on the ridge is a logical path of least resistance from that direction. But all the TRs I've seen coming from North Buttress route ended up on the traverse (yellow), so my guess is that climbing up to NE Crestone from that direction must look hard enough to push or people onto the exposed traverse. Your post confimed that, but if it's 5.veryeasy, I'd much rather climb up that instead of doing a 4.veryexposed traverse.

Damn, if I end up doing this, I may have to bring my climbing shoes just to stack the odds!

TRs of people (roughly) taking the redline to NE Crestone:
https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... trip=16783
https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... trip=18794
https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... trip=12895

[TomPierce]

Polar,

Keep in mind my recollection is hazy from the passage of time, but the various lines on that photo I believe only show the somewhat trivial end of a NE Crestone climb. I'm pretty sure that's what we did as well, but it was just a short relatively easy scramble, not a big deal. To get to the spot where the red line begins requires all the exposed traversing that has been described in the earlier posts. At least that's my (somewhat) distinct recollection, I could of course be wrong. Good luck, be safe!

-Tom

[KC Aakhus]

The attached is a view from atop NE Crestone looking down the dotted red line from the previously posted photo (looking north toward the notch).

It's exposed, but at least along the ridgeline, so that adds some element of psychological comfort. I can't speak directly about the yellow line (the kind of mini-"traverse" bypass), but I did scope it out from above, and it looked like the sort of very steep terrain that is more difficult to traverse than to directly ascend (like most steep slab-type surfaces). The red ridgeline up and over NE Crestone seems the preferable line.

[KSU Wildcat]

Forwarding potentially helpful beta from a friend:

"Did N. Pillar and N. Buttress (2 trips) last year. 4WD TH - SCL - Humboldt saddle - N. Buttress - NE - E - Peak - Traverse - Needle - 4WD TH. Think start/end was something like 4am/6pm with breaks etc. Given 10 people could take 10 different lines, or 10 on one line could each use different holds, ratings will vary. Went more right up the buttress with one short bit exposed with small rounded holds to top out on first of three NE summits. (BTW, there might still be a pair of black knit gloves with orange grip dots on palm between BearsPG and NButt that I forgot to pack away at a break.) Direct into first saddle cliffy so downclimbed right and traversed into it. Direct up to second (sub)summit and repeat as before (most exposed and slowest going checking holds). Direct up to NE proper; about a dozen on Peak had been watching, and one hollering back that his vantage it looked "pretty exposed." I stayed pretty much on top, hitting all (sub)summits and only skirting twice to get into saddles. Yellow line skips NE summit. Downclimb off NE easy by comparison, nice, solid, class 4, as well as scoot over to red gully (NW side) and climb up to E-Peak saddle. "Tough" parts of traverse (5.2 by black gendarme and climb up to Needle summit) were a peach. North Pillar is harder, but had the comfort of rope-n-pro. -- <3 TG"

[Boggy B]

Keep in mind my recollection is hazy from the passage of time, but the various lines on that photo I believe only show the somewhat trivial end of a NE Crestone climb. I'm pretty sure that's what we did as well, but it was just a short relatively easy scramble, not a big deal. To get to the spot where the red line begins requires all the exposed traversing that has been described in the earlier posts. At least that's my (somewhat) distinct recollection, I could of course be wrong.

With respect, I don't believe this is accurate. All the climbing preceding my above photo was fantastic, solid, juggy 4th class more or less straight up and is what makes this such a classic scramble. There is another discussion about how to approach the N. Buttress route from Bear's Playground, with some folks apparently traversing significantly out right before going up. Maybe that's what you're thinking of? I've not done it that way. But having gone up the N. Buttress to NE Crestone, to Crestone, to E Crestone, to Needle, and down Needle standard, the dotted bit above was the crux of the day for us, both times.

[TomPierce]

Boggy,

Fair enough, I'm not sure exactly what we did, I think it was over a decade ago. But I am beyond confident our traverse was not down or purely lateral like the yellow line in the photo. Very confident of that, nor was it a really short jaunt like the red line. It was straight up a gully, then a pretty long traverse to the diagonal/ascending right, over a pretty serious run out section. I just remember the traverse, then we topped out on something. Then my partner indicated a slightly higher peak to climber's right, which we dispatched easily and quickly. Reversed the route down.

It was sporty line, fun, but one among dozens of sporty lines in the last few years so precise details aren't exact in my memory. But definitely a fun day. Just don't fall.

-Tom

[polar]

But I am beyond confident our traverse was not down or purely lateral like the yellow line in the photo. Very confident of that, nor was it a really short jaunt like the red line. It was straight up a gully, then a pretty long traverse to the diagonal/ascending right, over a pretty serious run out section. I just remember the traverse, then we topped out on something. Then my partner indicated a slightly higher peak to climber's right, which we dispatched easily and quickly. Reversed the route down.

Tom, mayhaps you're remembering a different route than the north buttress? Maybe the north pillar? It was more than 10 years since you did it. Having just done this yesterday, we didn't find any raising traverse to the right. We started in the first red slope filled with loose rock (some may call it a gully) directly below the lowest saddle in the ridge, went straight up, with occational left ascension to avoid small towers and such. Majority of our scrambling was class 3. Then a short class 4 section kind of snuck up on us, and next thing we know we were on top of the false summit. For the rest of the route we pretty much followed Boggy's redline with some small deviations.

[TomPierce]

No, I've never done the N Pillar. We were unroped, and while I feel comfortable on low to mid 5th unroped (depending on the terrain) I don't feel so comfortable that I'd do a multi pitch 5.8 rock climb unroped. Take a look at Lord Helmut's photo in this thread, early on. That looks very familiar, and that dude is traversing up, or at least lateral, to climber's right.

But hey, I'm not debating anything. First off congrats, Polar, on your climb! Good time? That aside, I suspect we just did a variation of the route, starting farther to climber's left, then going right. I don't remember any loose rocks in a gully at all. It wasn't unknown back then that my partner and I would just show up at a peak and launch on an interesting looking line with a vague goal in mind. We never carried a route description or guidebook. But I know we reached the top for sure, and it weren't no feather in the cap like the N Pillar!

-Tom

[polar]

First off congrats, Polar, on your climb! Good time? That aside, I suspect we just did a variation of the route, starting farther to climber's left, then going right.

It’s entirely possible you did some variation. I studied the hell out of the route before I went, but as I stood there underneath Crestone Peak, it was very apparent to me that there are many choose-your-adventure lines up that entire face, and if you comfortable soloing 5.5s, then it opened up a lot of options.

My trip went down without a hitch, thanks for asking. I cooked up this plan to do a 4-peak through hike and was lucky enough to dupe a few people to go with me. We started from Willow Lake TH, did the north ridge of KC, tagged Challenger just for the hell of it, then went east to bivy at Bear’s Playground. The next day two of us went up north buttress, and the other two went up NW couloir, we met up at the red notch, did the Crestone traverse, and exited at Cottonwood Lake TH (where we dropped off a car). It was a pretty epic weekend with tons of scrambling.

Edited to correct which mountain I was climbing.

[TomPierce]

First off congrats, Polar, on your climb! Good time? That aside, I suspect we just did a variation of the route, starting farther to climber's left, then going right.

It’s entirely possible you did some variation. I studied the hell out of the route before I went, but as I stood there underneath Crestone Needle, it was very apparent to me that there are many choose-your-adventure lines up that entire face, and if you comfortable soloing 5.5s, then it opened up a lot of options.

My trip went down without a hitch, thanks for asking. I cooked up this plan to do a 4-peak through hike and was lucky enough to dupe a few people to go with me. We started from Willow Lake TH, did the north ridge of KC, tagged Challenger just for the hell of it, then went east to bivy at Bear’s Playground. The next day two of us went up north buttress, and the other two went up NW couloir, we met up at the red notch, did the Crestone traverse, and exited at Cottonwood Lake TH (where we dropped off a car). It was a pretty epic weekend with tons of scrambling.

Yeow! That made me tired just reading about it! Congrats on a successful mega-trip!

-Tom

[polar]

Did this twice in past years with standard hiking gear before I was much of a climber.

Props to you for doing the dotted red line in hiking shoes, twice. I hauled a pair of climbing shoes over two days and a bunch of class 3 / class 4 stuff just for this short section, and it was totally worth it.

Both my partner and I are pretty solid climbers, but when we took our first look at the line from the false summit, both of us said “hell no”. We climbed down to the notch and basically was about to start downclimbing the chimney and do the traverse when I decided to take a closer look, that’s when I saw the many small holds that were not visible from the false summit. My partner did it in his approach shoes, I changed into the climbing shoes I brought just for this section, and was so glad I had them on. I probably could have done it in my approach shoes, but with the amount of exposure I did not want to take any chances.

It’s a bit hard to grade that section. My judgement is very much clouded by the feeling of exposure. I will say the holds are much smaller than anything else we touch that weekend (include the north ridge of KC, the rest of the north buttress, the Crestone traverse), there are very few knobs unlike everything else. The plus side is that section is the solidest section of rock we’ve climbed all weekend (everywhere else I’ve found at least a few rattly knobs). And it was slabby, so with climbing shoes on, I was able to stand on my feet for as long as I need and focus on my movement. Both my partner and I put the climbing at about 5.5, with the first 10 feet from the notch being the steepest and hardest. After the first 10 feet the angle ease of and the climbing got easier.

Anyway, thanks to all who have contributed beta in this thread. It has been really helpful.