Crestone Peak

Route: South Face
Posted On: 11/18/2018, By: Hjelmstadlt
Info: Climbed Crestone Peak Via the Red Gulley from Cottonwood Trailhead today. The Trail had snow on it about a mile in and all the way to the top, most of it being ankle deep with some spots up to the knee. The Gulley can be climbed on continuous snow/ice all the way to the top although it is still fairly unconsolidated and we posthoped most of the way up. Most of the snow is a hard thin wind crust on top of two large layers of soft snow from the storms earlier this season. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 10/1/2018, By: James2015
Info: Route was totally dry except for a trickle in red gully. Was surprised there was no snow in broken hand pass, though that may change this week... 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 9/30/2018, By: Terminally_Chill
Info: We were planning the traverse initially, unfortunately high winds and visible snow on the final crux wall up the needle meant that we didn't feel comfortable attempting the traverse. Aside from the wind conditions were great. Some ice in the middle of the red gully but easily avoidable. 

Route: Approach from Cottonwood Creek
Posted On: 8/15/2018, By: Ptglhs
Info: Route is easy to follow trail for 1st 3 miles. After that rock slab with cairns on them are interspersed. Some deadfall, only 3 trees really annoying. 1st waterfall go up some S shaped roots under a big pine tree immediately to the left of the falls. Follow cairns and tape after that, stay left at creek merger where you can see 1 pink and 1 orange tape. Steep and loose slope after that around rockfall that turns into talus hopping. At about 11.6... Vaya con Dios. Trail disappears into dense willows hiding major ruts. Found the 'trail'/cairn segments coming down today. Tues night I just bushwhacked on the right side of the creek til I was within 150yards of the lake. Good camping near lake, in a field ~12k after 2nd waterfall and before 3rd headwall, and in the forest. Several sites with fire rings within eyesite of trail. Bear in area! Fresh scat in parking area and I surprised it coming down the trail almost at the TH. The thing was 20m away from me and running! 

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 8/12/2018, By: dwoodward13
Info: Traverse from Peak to Needle. Standard route up to the Peak is in good shape. Broken Hand Pass kinda sucks but goes quick enough. Make sure to note where the left hand turn to enter the Red Gully is as you approach. We were powering up and went one grassy ledge too far but wasn't too bad to correct. Gully is mostly solid but there is some loose stuff that gets kicked down.

The traverse start is well marked, as is the entire route. We didn't think the bulge was too difficult, but for shorter people you might have to be more creative (both of us were 6'2"+). The knife edge is quite exposed but easy enough to scoot along. The ledges to the crux wall are easy to spot. The crux wall is the real deal. We went far left. The first half was not bad with tons of holds. The second 50 feet, the holds start to dwindle and I felt the exposure much more here. Focus on only your moves and you will be at the rap station soon enough. Summit to summit took about 2 hours for us.

We accidentally went down the class 4 variation from the Needle as there were quite a few cairns leading that way. Route down the gully is well marked and not too bad. Broken Hand sucked along with the walk back to the car but what's new.

I would say if Capitols knife edge make you think twice even for a second, the traverse is not for you. Technically speaking we didn't think it was hard, but the exposure is extreme and combined with Class 4 climbing those last 100 feet to the Needle will test you! 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 8/6/2018, By: Zeffe
Info: Road is intimidating but we made it up OK in a Nissan Rogue minus a couple of light bottomings. Saw some Subaru Outbacks/Foresters up there... super chill for a 4Runner or similar, but can't imagine doing it with less than ~8 inches of ground clearance. Nothing special to report on the route. All summer conditions, water in the Red Gully is not a problem. We got hailed on at around 4pm on the way out. God speed to that sort of gumby looking couple at the base of the Red Gully getting ready to start up at 1:30pm. Somebody got yelled at that night, I'm sure. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 7/8/2018, By: supranihilest
Info: The road to the upper trailhead is rough but there were Subarus and even a Mercedes crossover-type vehicle at the upper trailhead. The much maligned drainage pipe is easily avoided on climber's right/skier's left. There are several sections where large rocks pose much more of a danger. The remainder of the approach to South Colony Lakes is easy. You'll want to get there early on weekends, it's a total zoo and I had difficulty finding a reasonable camping spot. The ascent up to Broken Hand Pass is loose and steep and honestly the sketchiest part of the ascent. You will want to be very careful on the descent off the pass. The hike down the backside of the pass to Cottonwood Lake is steep and loose but is class 2 at worst. Once in the basin the route to the Red Gully is either very obvious trail or heavily cairned. The ascent up the Red Gully is far easier than up the Needle's gullies and is mostly steep hiking on smooth rock with very short sections of class 2+/3 in between. A small trickle of water runs through the gully in spots but is completely avoidable. There's quite a bit of rubble in the gully, especially on the sides and at the top, but it's easy to keep rockfall to a minimum. The last class 3 section from the gully's top to the summit is basically just ledge climbing on the Crestone's famed knobby, solid rock and makes the final 200 or so feet up very enjoyable. 

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 7/6/2018, By: PBR Powered
Info: In summary: we ran up cottonwood canyon to camp in the basin, climbed peak, and traversed over to the needle. In a little bit more detail.... Cottonwood Canyon trail is 5.5miles and 4000ft vertical to make it to Cottonwood Lake. Unlike a lot of the previous trip reports, the trail is well marked with cairns and a super fun hike up. There are brook trout just waiting to pulled out the stream if that's your thing. After a night by the lake we summitted peak through the red gulley in close to two hours (6:30-8:30), We left the Peak summmit for the needle traverse at 9:05. Traverse offered little resistance minus a few major obsitcles. First, the black gendarm move is super fun and by far the hardest technical move in the route. The knifes edge is spooky, but not difficult. The crux up the summit... made me shit my pants.. I comfortably climb 5.11 in the gym but the vertical exposure creates a whole different animal. I guess it didn't help that we experienced some light light rain. But still, I shit myself. Be ready for 50+ ft of vertical, 15 ft of easier climbing (you think your at the top), and another 20 ft of vertical. Crazy shit for sure (pardon my french). Be careful with the downclimb down needle, bunch of gulleys which look legit, but you would die going down. Think we hoped over three ridges on the way down. Super fun mountain, but be careful out there. Happy trails. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 6/30/2018, By: Cruiser
Info: Picture perfect conditions for the South face yesterday. The Crux move below broken hand pass had a bit of lingering snow but it was easily avoided. Rest of the hike was snow free. There was a little water running in the red guy but it too could be easily avoided. Wild flowers were really getting going. I crossed broken hand pass at 6:30am and didn't see another soul until I was back down from the summit at the base of the red gully. Who says the 14ers are crowded?!? 

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 6/25/2018, By: ibloomfield
Info: Essentially dry save for some running water in the red gully. Traverse is very well marked and easy to follow.

There's an anchor at the "knife edge" and an anchor at the top of the class 4 pitch. Both appear recent and in good condition - see pics 

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 6/26/2018, By: Sglm14
Info: Great day to do the traverse this past Saturday. Some wet spots going up the red gully on Crestone Peak but completely avoidable. Summer conditions on both peaks. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 6/18/2018, By: Eagle Eye
Info: Yesterday was very foggy and we had rain & gaupel off & on almost the whole day. Broken Hand Pass still has a small snow patch right in the crux but it can be easily avoided.
The Red Gully was flowing and in some places frozen. When I was about 3/4 up the Red Gully, a group of 5 above me came down w/o summiting. I'm not sure how far up they had gone. It was slow going. I fixed up a few crumbling cairns between the saddle and the summit, believing they might assist me coming down in very low visibility. I didn't take any pictures that would be 'conditions useful' due to fog! 

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 6/9/2018, By: danshannan
Info: The traverse is completely dry and has many cairns to help you stay on track. Really enjoyable trail if the weather is good. No need for traction or axe, the snow on Broken Hand Pass is easy to get around, maybe 20 feet of it. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 6/11/2018, By: rhymeswithbacons
Info: Started hiking from base camp just below South Colony Lakes at about 5:30 AM Saturday. It was abnormally warm and dry. Trail was completely dry up to Broken Hand Pass where we encountered a little bit of snow, but we scrambled around it easily enough without any traction or axes. The other side of the ridge is also completely dry passed Cottonwood Lake. We started climbing Red Gully at about 7:30 AM. The creek running down it was slightly frozen but easily avoided, and on the way down it was all melted. The final pitch was totally dry. Summited at 9:30 AM with not much wind. It was perfect conditions. Couldn't have asked for anything better for my very first 14er summit!

Photos:
1. Alpenglow on Crestone Needle
2. Broken Hand Pass at sunrise
3. Looking back at Humboldt Peak at the top of BHP
4. Gazing down at Cottonwood Lake
5. Passing beneath Needle's SW ridge
6. The Red Gully
7. Staring up the Red Gully
8. The view from the top of the Red Gully
9. My buddy persevering through the steep class 3 scramble
10. Crestone Needle from the summit where someone else had summited at the same time
11. Humboldt from the summit
12. The whole crew 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 6/1/2018, By: Eli Boardman
Info: The trail is dry from where I started at the 2wd parking all the way to South Colony Lakes. There is still a hundred feet of snow climbing in Broken Hand Pass, and I used an axe and crampons, but it is probably possible to avoid the snow with harder scrambling. The trail is dry again going down the pass and up to the red gully. The gully has a creek in it and some snow patches, but it is possible to climb entirely on dry 3rd class rock by switching sides of the gully occasionally. In summary, it is basically summer conditions except for a little snow in Broken Hand Pass.

Photo 1 shows the Peak from Needle, photo 2 shows Broken Hand Pass, photo 3 shows an overview of the S face, photos 4 and 5 show the gully, and photo 6 shows the summit pitch as viewed from East Crestone.

I also climbed East Crestone, which is all dry, and Northeast Crestone, which is dry except for the downclimb in the north couloir, which is very snowy and icy. I rapelled down and prusiked up this section, but the actual climb up NE Crestone was dry and fun.

All in all, it was a great weather day, which made it possible for me to leave the 2wd trailhead at 5:30 a.m., summit Crestone Peak at 11 a.m., finish both sub-summits by noon, go back to Broken Hand Pass, summit the Needle via the standard route by 2:45, then descend to camp at the lower SC lake.