Crestone Peak

Route: South Face
Posted On: 5/28/2018, By: jmanner
Info: The easiest option still have snow and verglas in the morning, but you can keep it reasonable. The trick for us was to work our way back and forth to easier terrain. BHP required some snow climb on the way up and down. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 4/27/2018, By: WildWanderer
Info: South Colony Lakes Trailhead clear of ice and snow, but on my way back had some minor mud puddles. Trail to South Colony Lakes requires traction: lots of ice, mud, and consolidated snow (I was postholing up to my thighs on my way out at 7pm). First gully requires crampons and ice ax. South Side of Broken Hand Pass is dry. Red Gully was frozen in the morning, required crampons and ice ax for last 200 feet, and became a rushing waterfall in the afternoon. It looks like this will continue for a few days. Lots of mosquitoes. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 4/17/2018, By: ItsAllMental
Info: Stock Tacoma to Upper 4WD TH. Snow firm to South Colony Lake. Minor post-holing to Mountaineer's trail. Perfect snow up and over Broken Hand Pass. Dry to Cottonwood Lake and Red Gully. Perfect snow up couloir and dry scramble to summit. Doesn't get better, go now! 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 3/18/2018, By: bmcqueen
Info: Climbed Crestone via the Red Gully from Cottonwood approach yesterday. We ditched our snowshoes around 12k - not enough snow to need them. We wore crampons from the base of the Red Gully to the summit and back down. Mostly snow up the Red although thin and more like spring. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 1/18/2018, By: illusion7il
Info: Via Cottonwood creek.
No snowshoes needed.
The gully was mixed conditions so microspikes and gaiters were a must. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 1/8/2018, By: jscully205
Info: The peak is just short of being in summer conditions right now. Hardly any snow or ice in the red gully. The approach from Cottonwood was relatively dry as well with a few icy spots. Overall a stark contrast for what the norm is for this time of year. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 9/25/2017, By: jladderud
Info: Made an attempt on Crestone Peak on 9/22 but didn't summit because I started too late. Several outbound hikers reported summitting both the Peak and the Needle (but no one was on the traverse) in dry but windy conditions that same day; but a storm moved in overnight getting everything wet. One attached photo is looking up the red gully from approximately 13,300' on the afternoon of 9/22. The other attached photo is of Humboldt and was taken near Westcliffe on the morning of 9/23. Saturday's storm undoubtedly dropped more snow than is visible in this photo. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 9/18/2017, By: wondering_hough
Info: The north aspects are starting to hold ice and snow. Broken hand pass and red gully still have a dry passage. A storm front hit us at 11am yesterday as we made a hasty exit from the red gully. Groupel, snow, wind, and a few claps of thunder reminded us that summer is ending. Minor waves of Rain and wind hit us at three pm as we packed up camp and headed down the road. A party of two sat out the earlier storm on the needle for at least one to two hours. 

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 9/10/2017, By: kayleenann8
Info: Ditto to 9/4 report.

Wear a helmet on Crestone Peak and Needle people... 

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 9/4/2017, By: Thevirtualsherpa
Info: Had been looking forward to this bad boy for a long, long time. Scramble up to Crestone Peak is very straight forward with lots of class 3 moves with loose rock. Still some water running in the red gully, but very easy to avoid. To find the traverse itself, look for a large tower on the left about 3/4 up the gully with a dirt path to the right of it. Follow this path right across the gully to find the start of the traverse. Once on the traverse, once again fairly easy to follow, but I would recommend having pictures of the route. When you get to the class 5 move, be extremely careful of rock fall above. The move itself is not too bad but the knife edge right after can be mentally challenging. Not a lot of great foot holds. Once you ascend to the final pitch, stick to the exposure side for a less difficult route or stay right for a much more challenging class 4 wall. All hand and foot holds are party of 3 had were solid, but of course you should always test them. Once at the Needle, do not expect a breeze down to Broken Hand, still a very hard and exposed descent. Extremely fun day and conditions were amazing, as always feel free to message me on Twitter or IG for more specifics. 

Route: Northwest Couloir
Posted On: 8/20/2017, By: niardnom
Info: Almost snow free (a few small easily by-passable patches) and in perfect shape for a massive class 3/easy 4 scramble. I was up in 45 minutes from the bottom of the couloir and favored the right side, which was almost completely dry. 

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 8/21/2017, By: petersengraph
Info: Tons of really fun climbing/scrambling. But although everyone raves about how solid the final wall below the Needle is, I was really surprised at how many knobs were loose (especially footholds I really wanted to use). I went further to climber's left on the wall (Middlebrook: "easier but more exposed"), and probably wouldn't do so again given how many loose holds I found. Test your holds! 

Route: North Buttress
Posted On: 8/21/2017, By: Doug Hemken
Info: Clean, dry, fun. Several variations to choose from. 

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 8/2/2017, By: cloudkicker
Info: The route is pretty much in summer condition. There is a thinning snowfield in the red gully above 13,700ft, easy to avoid. The runnel coming down on the lower part of the red gully is in full force so be careful for slick, wet rocks and watch your step. The traverse and subsequent descent down the needle was entirely dry. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 7/21/2017, By: Urban Snowshoer
Info: There are still some residual snowfields remaining in the Red Gully; however, they are all completely avoidable: i.e. can be climbed around.