Crestone Peak

Route: South Face
Posted On: 7/2/2011, By: Nelson
Info: I climbed this on the 1st of July. There was a good freeze the night before and crampons and ax were a must to get up Broken Hand Pass. There are two snowfields in the red gully. I needed ax and crampons to get up but as the sun hit (9 am) it softened quickly.

I climbed the Needle on 7/2. It was much warmer the night before and crampons and ax were not necessary to get up to or down from Broken Hand Pass.

Things are melting fast. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 6/26/2011, By: blues311
Info: I climbed Crestone Peak today. The Red Gully has two long stretches where crampons and an axe were necessary. In areas where there was no snow, water was running down the middle and for the most part I stayed to the left of it. Attached pic is the gully from the notch at 14100. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 6/12/2011, By: dmccool
Info: The climb up Broken Hand Pass was very solid snow early in the morning. There is boot pack through the snow field and up the couloir to the top of the Pass. The descent to Cottonwood Lake to is completely snow free. The Red Gully was a mixed bag of solid snow, ice, and rushing water (on top of snow and underneath it). The top of the Red Gully holds solid snow, but is a pretty steep snow climb. Be very careful on the downclimb of both the Gully and BH Pass in late morning/early afternoon because the snow is getting pretty soft. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 4/3/2011, By: BillMiddlebrook
Info: Continous snow top to the bottom in the gully with the exception of a short (10') patch of rock approx. 1/3 of the way up. Once at the saddle, there was snow on the ledges up to the summit that ended about 30 yards from the top.

More info on the approach from South Colony Lakes TH:
Parked near 9,000 and the road was on/off snow for about a mile. Then it was continous snow all the way to SC lakes. Snow/bare spots from the lake up to 12,400' and then snow up through the difficulties leading to Broken Hand Pass (bare near the top of the pass). On the other side, snow starts 100' below the pass and was continous past Cottonwood Lake and up Crestone Peak.