Crestone Needle

Route: South Face
Posted On: 1/5/2026, By: Kiefer
Info: Lower:
Decent boot pack from TH to the slabs section, easy to follow. Upper basin and lake, the track becomes hard to follow. Lots of snow. Bring flotation for the upper basin/Cottonwood Lake.

South Face:
Horrible. Snow is extremely variable. Lots of icy (thick) punchy crust mixed with pockets of powder, semi-supportive névé, thin wind slab and ice. Lots of ice. The constriction had a small ribbon of ice the whole length. Some water ice down near the bottom 1/3. 

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 11/16/2025, By: MMAfightingClimber
Info: Climbed Crestone Peak, East Crestone, and Crestone Needle with Will_E. Some ice on the road to south colony lakes and beyond to Broken Hand Pass. Broken Hand Pass was the most difficult part of the day, the snow was very firm In the morning, and still mostly firm but a bit better in the afternoon. I’d personally recommend Spikes and an axe to make it less of a hassle.

After that, it’s mostly dry except for a few sections, the red gully has snow snow and water you can bypass. East Crestone has some snow but it’s not a problem. As far as the traverse, there’s a few short shaded sections that you will touch snow, snow leading up to the bulge section and then a bit of snow on the ledges section near the white rock.

Coming down the needle was good to go. If you can get up broken hand pass, the rest of the day is easy in comparison. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 10/12/2025, By: daniel_a34
Info: Wind was really humming, visibility was very poor, rock was wet, and the water flowing down the middle of the gully on the Needle was actually also flowing up the gully because of the south wind blowing straight up the gully. Very little wind until the top of Broken Hand Pass. Almost no snow, just a tiny bit ascending the east side of BHP. Two weeks ago I used spikes to get up to the pass, no need to do so yesterday. Lots of things were extra loose because of all the moisture, heard a potential rockslide on the Milwaukee/Broken Hand ridge at one point. Descending the gully after summiting took us nearly as long as it took to ascend, we had to be super careful with all the wet rock. It was fine, just had to be very sure of each step. Got completely drenched by a steady downpour once we got back to the lake and headed for the car. 

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 10/4/2025, By: EvanKBlack
Info: Cottonwood approach. All dry with a few patches of avoidable snow in Black Gendarme area before Bulge and just below/above headwall. Clouds were dropping precip just as we were driving out of Crestone, though, so conditions over next few days may be much worse. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 9/20/2025, By: pwalker1413
Info: Broken Hand Pass has one small patch of snow as of Saturday morning. No microspikes currently needed. Crestone Needle south face is almost completely free of snow, and the few spots there are snow are easily avoidable. Still summer conditions though a big snowfall could change that.

We didn't do the traverse but that had a bit more snow since it was north facing. The final wall going up to Crestone Needle was snow-free. 

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 no snow.

Right before the crux of the Crestones traverse there was some snow. I chose to try to avoid it by staying very far to the right to try to keep my shoes drier. Otherwise it wouldn’t really cause any issues. 

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 9/9/2025, By: dtvigil
Info: Summer conditions on the Crestone traverse as of 9/9. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 9/2/2025, By: NovaDevi25
Info: Route in overall fantastic condition. Ascent to Broken Hand Pass was pretty loose and crappy, once on conglomerate on Needle proper it was awesome! Little bit of water coming down east gully but easily avoidable. We stuck a little further to the right while going East Gully direct, generally this resulted in a little bit easier time overall. The class 4 head wall in East Direct was steep but everything was so solid it was easy to feel confident while moving. 

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 9/5/2025, By: ash_tay
Info: This was a very tough day, especially since I did not camp at SCL. Weather and conditions in general were perfect, but this traverse takes a LOT of commitment and route-finding. Do not attempt if you do not having rock climbing experience or several other class 4 peaks under your belt. We found the Bulge and the Headwall to be the most difficult moves. The knife edge is overhyped IMO. We found the route-finding coming down the Needle to be extremely difficult and frustrating. Research this thoroughly before you go! Overall though, still a good day.
Note: a couple people ahead of me on the approach trail ran into a bear. Though I did not see it on the way back, there were areas that smelled very strongly of a large animal as well as numerous piles of bear poop. 

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 9/6/2025, By: adhend
Info: Agree with ash_tay (09/05). Descending the Needle was miserable. Choosing the gully route was difficult with a traverse from west to east, which was important, but not too obvious. There are cairns and if you can’t see them , you’re on the wrong route! 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 7/21/2025, By: madmattd
Info: Came up from Cottonwood Creek side, camped 2 nights near the waterfall at 11.4k' to do the Crestones separately. See Crestone Peak entry for more discussion on the trail approach.

There's a short stretch of mud on the trail from the Cottonwood Creek/Crestone Peak junction heading East that could use some rock steps to prevent further erosion and widening of the mud pit.

Needle was awesome! No snow on route, and only a small amount of water. I (as well as everyone else I saw) stuck with the East Gully direct - I found the route-finding to be straight forward with this "new" variation. Climbing up the side of the dihedral was as advertised - steep, but with amazing and abundant hand-and-foot holds. The route description here has you re-enter the gully just above the dihedral, but there are cairns and such that suggest staying just to climber's right of the main gully. While this is probably a more sustained C3 (and some C4) option, I found it to be a great route - generally solid rock, tons of hand and foot holds, and no need to deal with the chockstones and loose stuff that tends to be in the center of such gullies. This option keeps you on either a rib next to the gully, or in a very shallow mini-gully a tad bit further to the right, and you end up reaching the ridge on top of the wall shown in photo 25 of the route description. On descent I started down the gully proper, but as soon as I could I popped back onto the rib to the (skier's) left as the rock was significantly better (more solid) there. The downclimb was slow but not all that difficult, I did most of it facing out. Most people seemed to take the same route variation, though I did see one or two top out on the gully proper per the route description.

WEAR YOUR HELMET!!! Probably 30% of the climbers I saw were not using one, and rocks can get kicked down... 

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 7/11/2025, By: asmith9118
Info: Camped at South Colony Lakes the night before—plenty of camping spots, incredible alpine basin. Ascended Broken Hand Pass (trail fades at times; crux near notch requires minor scrambling). Descended to Cottonwood Lake, then up Red Gully—long, sustained, mostly Class 2+, but I used hands often for balance. Rock was solid, and exposure was minimal until near the top. Easy, short Class 4 scramble up to Crestone Peak. Entrance to traverse is about midway through Red Gully, easily identifiable by cairn and obvious "W" shaped rock formation to hikers right (descending). Navigation on the ridge was fairly easy with preparation beforehand. There is a mildly visible use path in some sections, and there are cairns. The Black Gendarme (5.2) felt secure—short bulge, good holds, over quickly. The knife edge is short but requires composure. From there, the terrain ramps up to mostly Class 4 with exposure increasing steadily toward the Needle’s headwall. The headwall is intimidating. I decided on a direct midline ascent, transitioning to a leftward crack leading to a ledge a little more than midway up that I called the decision point. This was the crux of the wall. The decision is - do you follow the rock formation up the left side (cliff type of exposure, fewer secure footholds), do you go to the right (maybe more vertical climbing type of exposure feeling - seemed more technical), and possibly even directly up (similar to going right). There is a way to go left halfway, using the rock formation as handholds, and then transition to going over the rock bulge, and then traversing right to another ledge. From there, you have to climb a few more feet until it's Class 4 that you can stand on. Descent down the South Face was taxing—long stretches of Class 4 downclimbing with tricky route-finding. GPX helped but still ended up off-route once. Glad to link up with a few others for a short section. After completion and reflection: pre-study helps tremendously, and route-finding is key (especially on the unfamiliar descent off the Needle). Be mentally and physically ready after the summit. The headwall demands respect, but it rewards you with incredible movement and solitude. My overall grade for my particular route on the headwall is: Sustained Class 4+/5- climbing with a single short crux rated at about 5.2 (technical), 5.4 (psychological exposure). 

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 7/8/2025, By: gdonohue3
Info: Did the Crestones Traverse on 7/5. Had perfect conditions and it’s definitely in full summer mode. Few ice spots but overall very avoidable.

After reading so many other reviews and perspectives I felt slightly different than some of the ones I saw and want to point out things I didn’t see mentioned of as much. First, the beginning of the traverse is pretty straightforward and following the cairns is pretty clear. Finding the entry was a big question for most people we ran into but, if you look for the cairn around 13,700ft you’ll get it. Now the more technical parts of the traverse.

The 5.2 bulge is way more challenging than I felt like it was played off to be. The hand holds aren’t great and it’s not clear on how to get through it effectively. Felt like I was spreading myself too thin to get through it. Took a couple tries to find something that worked and I wouldn’t recommend what I did haha. I’m not the tallest human (5’7”) but, even my climbing partner struggled and felt similarly.

The knife edge is not that crazy or spooky and don’t bother reading the 14ers description because it makes it more confusing than just your common sense to exit it.

The crux wall was the thing I was most intimidated by leading up to it and it ended up being way better than expected. We went way left and up the “easier but more exposed” route. Honestly, it’s all very exposed so I don’t agree with that description of which is worse. But way left was enjoyable and so beautiful. The holds are great and felt solid. Of course don’t sell out on any hold but, felt good going up this.

After feeling like the worst was over, down climbing Needle was rough. The cairns are few and far between. If you feel like you’re going the wrong way, you’re probably not. It’s a lot of guessing and making sure we weren’t missing the exit. But, it goes on forever and is steep and slow down climbing the gully. Reading the description in reverse is not ideal. We heavily relied on the gpx map file to know if we were on track or not. Looking up the route, cairns are clear but if you didn’t go up Needle it’s hard to see them on the way down.

Overall, I think the traverse was well worth it! After heavily studying this route I wanted to call out points that I felt were missed or not talked about enough. Hope this helps future climbers! 

Route: Crestones Traverse
Posted On: 6/29/2025, By: dmorris3
Info: Did the Traverse on 6/28. It’s is pretty much summer conditions minus snow before Broken Hand Pass and snow around the 5.2 bulge on the traverse. Both of these spots didn’t present any issues—the snow felt good in the heat. This was my third 14er of the year and I am still getting acclimated to the altitude. Be ready for a long, but fun day. I’ve attached some photos. So if Crestone Peak, Needle, or Traverse is on your list of peaks to do this summer, it’s completely ready. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 6/26/2025, By: clando
Info: Day 2/2 in the Sangres. Knocked out the Crestones and subpeaks. 4/4 for the traverses.

I attached pictures of conditions. So they’re not pretty but should give some useful beta. Overall, very little snow. Almost total summer conditions on all parts.

BHP has snow below the crux in some traversable or avoidable fields. The crux has a little bit of ice on one side, but doesn’t affect it much. No snow above the crux.

Crestone’s red gully is almost snow free. All water and snow was avoidable. If doing the traverse, you’ll likely have to cross a few snow filled gullies to reach the route on the way back done. There is a bit of snow in the Crestone/EC notch, but avoidable.

If anyone is planning on doing NEC, the gully down to the EC/NEC notch is full of frozen snow and ice. Not doable with spikes. I would prob want crampons and an axe or two. I ended up doing a diagonal down climb to reach the notch, not a great idea. Very few holds. The scramble up NEC from the notch is clear and solid. My only realistic option back up was the 4/5 climb up EC east face from the notch. I’d advise waiting for it to melt or preparing for a real interpretive scramble to get to that notch.

The traverse from peak to needle is in good shape overall. No spikes or axe needed, unless you wanted it. Besides the aforementioned snow in the red gully to start the traverse, there wasn’t any snow until just below the 5.2 crux bulge. It’s frozen pretty well with steps kicked into it. I walked right up it, no issues. There is also more snow and some little bits of clear ice above the crux and below the knife edge. Plenty of rock to grab onto, but worth mentioning. That is the last snow I saw.

Crestone Needle is essentially bone dry. Cairns are well placed, didn’t even need the 14ers guide for it.

Ran into lots of great people out in the area, had a blast.