Crestone Peak

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 3/26/2026, By: SeanWhelan
Info: Did the Crestones traverse yesterday (3/25), good mostly dry conditions, 2 miles of snowshoeing on the approach and descent. I shouldn’t have stashed my snowshoes because I ended up wallowing in snow up to my chest in the red gully up to Crestone Peak. Going up broken hand pass was full of snow, but a good glissade on the way down. Wore trail runners then LS aequilibriums, microspikes and ice axe were handy in a few spots. 21 miles, 15 hrs. No one else up there. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 2/6/2026, By: markf
Info: Trail from Cottonwood Creek TH (west side approach) is dry or well tracked to 10000'. I put on micro spikes at 10000', used snowshoes briefly above 11000'. I did not summit but the entire south face of Crestone Peak looked completely clear of snow. 

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 11/16/2025, By: MMAfightingClimber
Info: See conditions report for Crestone Needle. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 11/15/2025, By: kremitkromit
Info: Trail up from the cottonwood Creek trailhead is dry, while iced over the creek generally melts out by mid day and we noticed that even at 12k water was running and not frozen at around 7am red gullys stream is iced/snowed out, though the whole climbers left side of the gully is bone dry from the bottom to the notch, including the scramble to the summit, east crestone had significant snow but staying on the rocks made it avoidable, and for the traverse, though mostly dry from the turnoff to the initial walk to the crux there are easy to avoid snow and ice patches, the crux has consolidated snow up to it and around it, climbing around it is likely easier now, knife edge is dry including the headwall, and from what I've heard the downclimb on the needle is dry but quite wet during late morning to noon hours expect ice, verglass, and freezing conditions, above 10,500ft during night/early morning hours.
(We did not need any ice/snow equipment, and wore approach shoes whole way up and down, I'd recommend atleast carrying an axe, and. Spikes/crampons depending on route. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 10/11/2025, By: Nosimplehighway
Info: Updated as of October 18: Freeze-thaw cycles are in full effect, Snow from the previous week is melting during the day and freezing solid overnight, making crampons and an ice axe the safest way to reach the Crestone Peak summit via Broken Hand Pass (BHP). The final 100-foot stretch up to BHP was not safe with spikes - crampons and an ice axe would be needed to ascend safely during the cold, early morning hours. I returned to South Colony Lakes one week after turning back at Broken Hand Pass due to high winds and low visibility. The approach above 11000 feet or so was solid, hard ice (morning temperature were in the 10s Fahrhenheit above the South Colony Lakes) and spikes were insufficient to gain traction and pierce the hard ice. Stongly advise only to attempt this approach with high-quality crampons and an ice axe. Spikes did not provide enough traction and I slid a substantial distance down a steep ice chute just shy of BHP. THe only way over was across solid ice. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 10/5/2025, By: Veory
Info: Started very early (1:30 am) from the cottonwood th because one of our party members had to catch a flight out of Denver. Climbing up the red gully in the dark was very icy, the lower spots i would've preferred to have crampons to micros, but they sufficed. Snow and ice covered most of the route to the notch. Coming down everything was softer and much easier. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 10/4/2025, By: EvanKBlack
Info: Posted traverse conditions from Cottonwood under Needle and reposting here— all dry except avoidable patches around Black Gendarme ans before/after headwall. Did not use traction. Precip was dropping as we drove away, so next few days likely to be much worse conditions. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 9/29/2025, By: Novochops
Info: Snow and ice above 13.5k from last night’s storm. There was a layer of rime on everything including us as we climbed. All was passable with careful footing. There wasn’t much snow and day or two of sun would probably melt it all. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 9/28/2025, By: Mark57
Info: As of 9/26/25 the south face route/ red gully still had summer climbing conditions throughout, with around a dozen successful summit ascents while I was on the mountain. Many climbers went on to complete the traverse to Crestone Needle, and the ones I spoke with reported no difficulty with snow or ice.
The gully to Broken Hand Pass still had snow, but from a little above the two crux class 3 moves to the left of the rock spike, this mostly could be avoided by sticking to the far right side (looking up toward the pass). During my late afternoon descent, I felt more comfortable putting on my micro spikes, but they stayed in my pack on the way up (with use of trekking poles and deeply cleated boot soles). 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 9/22/2025, By: jimmyolson01
Info: Summer conditions on the South Face; scrambling in the red gully was splendid. Some snow near the top of Broken Hand Pass, but nothing that was enough to make me feel uncomfortable in boots w/o spikes. A few buddies of mine did the Traverse, and summer conditions remain in tact 

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 9/19/2025, By: bdloftin77
Info: Broken Hand Pass has some snow. I made it up and down okay without them, but microspikes would have been helpful. Red gully had some water, but not snow. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 8/17/2025, By: jklammer
Info: Upper trailhead to Crestone Peak summit and back to trailer head, around 12 hrs 430a-4p. Waited on summit for clouds to clear and they never did. The entire hike is great, summer, dry hiking conditions. Gully was clear besides a little water in the lower center - lots of space to navigate around. Great climbing. I was a bit intimidated ahead of time - but didnt need to be because the scramble is secure the whole way. It was clear in morning, then fog blew in and we were socked in on the summit. It clear up when we almost down the gully. A handful of tents at the S Colony Lake, with plenty of backpackers walking up on my return. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 8/10/2025, By: CDubFTW
Info: Made it to the 4WD TH in my Jeep Grand Cherokee, just need the Rock mode and careful route planning. We decided to try the road when a BMW SUV said they made it. Parking lot filled up at like 4 pm on Friday, but there are plenty of pull-offs along the road. Lots of people camped around Lower South Colony Lake, with easy stream access on the connector between the split trails. Broken Hand Pass was shit. Hard to track the trail in the dark and all loose and steep. The back side of BHP was still steep and loose down the basin until you drop down to the lake. The Red Gulley had a creek running down the bottom half. The gulley switched between beautiful sticky rock slabs and crap chutes. Felt more like Class 2 most of the time with a few easy Class 3 portions. After reaching the top of the gulley, stick to the left of the ridge crest and you're there. Also zero snow near this route. Hope this helps!
Time wise:
2h10m from 4WD to Lower South Colony Lake
1h10m to climb BHP
1h to reach bottom of Red Gulley
2h up to the summit (it's a glute burner) 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 7/21/2025, By: Ariella6
Info: Road from 4wd lot up to trail had muddy/wet spots.

Rest of trail is dry and in summer conditions. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 7/21/2025, By: madmattd
Info: Came up Cottonwood side, camped near the waterfall at 11.4k. Mosquitos around but not a big issue, only a couple bites over 2 days without spray/headnet use. I found the navigation fine for the 4 miles to where I camped. The tricky parts generally written about are in the ~3/4mi from where I camped to the junction with the route to Crestone Peak/Cottonwood Lake - it's easy to miss a turn in the faint footbed and get off route, especially in the willows. I added a small cairn or two at faint unmarked turns, in general it is decently cairned, but in the dark if you've never been on it before it could be challenging to follow (not terrible in the day time). There's also a couple class 3 pitches (one by the base of the upper waterfall near 11.7k' verges on class 4 in my opinion) to spice things up if you're trying to camp higher than I did. I had the "benefit" of going up and down this section on consecutive days so I now feel pretty good about where the route goes. There is also a lightly-cairned route that prompts you to cross the stream just above the 11.4k' waterfall, and recross around 11.8k' - this goes but I think the proper trail (which does NOT cross the main stream) is the better way to go overall.

No snow on the entire route. Tons of water especially low in the red gully but easy to swing back and forth to keep dry soles. Very straight forward class 3 with minimal route-finding - just go up! Take and use a helmet!!! Rock fall can happen and it was staggering how many people were climbing the red gully without one (or left it on their packs).