Route: Willow Creek Approach Posted On: 10/17/2022, By: seoulman Info: A few inches of snow on the trail from the rib to the saddle/summit crest, avoidable snow on ridge to summit. Clouds rolled in as I reached the summit so I didn't do kc but other hikers told me the traverse was full of snow. Traction or boots recommended for the section from the rib. None needed after that. |
|
Route: North Slope Posted On: 9/25/2022, By: swilson753 Info: Did Challenger and Kit Carson car to car via the standard route. KC is free of water/ice from the rain last week, but Challenger has avoidable slick spots in the shade in the gulley and on slabs around it. We carried spikes but didn't use them. The descent from Challenger is as loose and hellish as advertised. Otherwise, it's a fantastic pair of peaks! In my amateur opinion, the aspens will peak next weekend. Some yellow, but still lots of green. |
|
Route: North Slope Posted On: 8/16/2022, By: Istoodupthere Info: One of my least favorite 14ers. Going up the north slope, I thought it was arduous but not really dangerous. However, going down it with tired legs after summiting Kit and Challenger twice, I could see how it could be labeled dangerous. Almost impossible to not send some loose rocks down the slope in a few spots. Debatable which is less fun. This, the standard slope on sneffels, or the Couloir from zapata to Ellingwood. |
|
Route: North Slope Posted On: 7/10/2022, By: E_A_Marcus_949 Info: Came over via Kit Carson North Ridge. Avenue was fairly straight-forward to find going down KC and not having been on the avenue yet that day - there are cairns, and it seems fairly obvious which way to go. No snow on the avenue or route. Loose scree down North Face as stated. Plenty of rock fall hazards. Great trail lower down though. |
|
Route: North Slope Posted On: 7/4/2022, By: swesleyc7 Info: Summer conditions, dependent upon current weather. No snow what-so-ever on the ascent or summit. Traverse between Challenger / Kit Carson is perfect. Weather this day is foggy in the morning and intermittent rain in the afternoon. Temperatures range from 40 to low 60's, often cold. |
|
Route: North Slope Posted On: 6/18/2022, By: sthoward2009 Info: The trail is open all the way. I had to cross snow at only a few places but its easy lose track of the trail once you get above the lake around 12400. As long as you stay on the side of the ridge and keep working your way up you will find the trail again or hit the top of the ridge and work your way over. Kirks couloir still has snow in it. |
|
Route: North Slope Posted On: 6/13/2022, By: Jirwindisc Info: Challenger was a fairly easy climb for us on 6/9. While there was a ton of snow in the Couloir, and the actual trail had some snowfields to cross, we simply scrambled up the left side of the couloir with no snow and it was really quite easy. We didn't cross any snow at all on the way to Challenger, even though we did have Ice Axe and Crampons, we didn't use them until Kit Carson. I feel that Challenger is a go from now on and the snowfields are easily avoidable. |
|
Route: Willow Creek Approach Posted On: 6/11/2022, By: Jason Hammonds Info: Started trailhead at 6:00. Was able to get up to 13,300' by 12, without equipment. Above 12,000' there were parts of the trail covered in snow and some running with melt water, making it difficult to stay on course. Followed a friendly marmot as it appeared it know the way. Attempted the couloir at 13,300' with ice axe, gaiters and micro spikes to gain another 300' and at 13,600' decided to play it safe a come back down. It was wonderful to be with nature in full bloom and spend time with other enthusiasts met along the way. |
|
Route: North Slope Posted On: 5/28/2022, By: funsizetiff Info: Did not climb this, but posting with permission from a friend not on the forum who did today. He reported the north slopes are one steep snowfield, ice axe and crampons required. Turned around at the avenue, still filled with snow and will not be melted out for several weeks. |
|
Route: North Slope Posted On: 12/21/2021, By: supranihilest Info: Perfect conditions on Challenger today. You have two days before more snow arrives, get it while it's hot. Trail to Willow Lake is broken now. Make sure to take the left branch at the split in the upper flats near the campsites, we went the wrong way in the morning. Rounding the lake is dry. We then took the standard route up, following the trail until about 12,700 feet before it ended in solid snow. At this point we just went straight up alongside the large wall along climber's right, most of which was on snow. The snow felt bomber and safe. Crampons were very useful, axes somewhat. Once we reached the upper cliffs we began scrambling up and left through whatever weaknesses looked easiest. Most of this was Class 2+ with maybe a little bit of Class 3, and all of it snowy. Eventually we were funneled next to the Pencil couloir and back on a climber's trail to the notch, where a short scramble took us to the summit ridge. I took my crampons off here since I could stick mostly to rock. We descended the standard route as well. The winter variation on the left side of the Pencil couloir is significantly more difficult, so get this one while it's easy if you can. Flotation not needed. Traction very helpful (I preferred crampons since there was plenty of pure snow climbing). Ice axe somewhat useful, depends on comfort on steep, sometimes hard snow. |
|
Route: North Slope Posted On: 10/25/2021, By: c13mueller Info: Pretty rough conditions: There was very light snow by the trailhead when we started, but it melted during the day. There was more snow as you approached the lake, but an occasional drift was the only annoying part. There was no need for traction or floatation, but gaiters might have helped. I just slogged through in barefoot shoes knowing I had dry socks, gaiters, and boots in my pack. I put those on at the lake. Wrapping around the lake was also mostly dry. Snow got bad once you entered the shade of the north face. It is actually still mostly dry. There is insufficient snow to climb the couloir routes (Kit Carson too). However, the rocks were extremely icy and large sections of the standard route were buried in drifts. It is too powdery for crampons and too steep for snowshoes/skis. We descended the standard route without issue, but mostly ascended on neighboring rocks. While avoiding a large, steep drift section, we forced ourselves to continue full climber's right to access the western-most aspect of the summit ridge. It worked, but required pretty icy class 3+ scrambling. We managed in microspikes, but you need mountaineering boots with real crampons to really be safe. Also, for the easiest route, you'll want higher than class 2 mixed climbing experience, so you have flexibility to go off course. Obviously, you'll need extremely good route finding skills. Many cairns are buried and route finding only gets worse when you start choosing your own adventure. Remember days are getting shorter: we started and ended in the dark. |
|
Route: North Slope Posted On: 8/10/2021, By: Brycer18 Info: Had a nice day out with my dad, kept it light (or so we thought) doing standard routes up Challenger, then to KC via avenue, and then back and down. But I'm here to talk about the shit show that is the north ridge up Challenger. Like many, I've been seeing a lot of commentary on it, but would like to emphasize the current state of conditions for the sake of public servitude. After all, we live in a society. I found this stretch on the North Ridge (for clarity, right as you leave the lake and begin the altitude schlepping), to be my least enjoyable 14er experience in recent memory. From a choss, slippery, and danger perspective (missile city), I honestly found the last ~600 feet to gain the ridge sketchier at times than ridge-gains like Broken Hand Pass and Little Bear up to ridge from Lake Como. Feel free to debate me and I'm not trying to be a 14er hardo here, but the point I'm making is don't look at this and think "oh Class 2, right on, I'll rip right up that with my 60 year old dad". Wrong. I'm really not trying to be dramatic, but what inspired me to write this post was a large missile came down from above on us with some SERIOUS speed, thankfully it was about ~25 yards to our climbers left, but if this thing caught someone it'd be instant bye bye. Again, I'm not trying to be dramatic, but as a disclaimer I've been smoked by couloir rock fall before and landed in the ER, so maybe I have a PTSD-driven bias that's an outlier to a statistically relevant reality. But whatever, take my commentary and decide what you wish. Also, it seems like a lot more people these days are going north ridge up Kit and then down this shit on Challenger. That's awesome, super sick climb, but please pay attention to these posts b/c it's even worse going down. Point of this whole post is just keep your wits about you out there b/c it's a narsty, unpleasant climb in its current state. Late summer monsoons will only make it worse. |
|
Route: North Slope Posted On: 8/9/2021, By: cvbuffs Info: Summited Challenger Point on Saturday, August 7. Left the Willow Creek Trailhead at 4am and made it to the waterfall above the lake by 6:30am. This is probably the best water source to refill from for the remainder of the route under normal conditions, but given the recent rain there was a few small flows in the upper gully on Challenger which could have been used in a pinch (my assumption is these will dry up quickly if there is no recent rain so I would not count on them.) Trail from TH to the rock rib is well defined. Once you hit the rock rib following the trail becomes quite difficult and we found ourselves losing the trail in multiple places. Trail conditions become super loose and the elevation gains very quickly. IMO, this is the most difficult portion of the hike and could be considered class 3 in some areas given the steepness and rockfall potential (wear a helmet and be very aware of the people climbing near you) as once you gain the ridge its pretty smooth sailing to the summit. It took us 1 hr to go from Challenger to KC and found that the optional route listed on the 14ers.com description was the best bet for 2 reasons - 1. more direct and 2. super solid rock vs. the standard route and nothing exceeded an easy class 3; we summited KC at 11am which shows how long it takes to go up Challenger. A couple of groups we met at the summit of KC followed us back down this route after mentioning the looser conditions coming up the standard path. One note, you will get to the avenue very quickly (within 15 minutes of leaving the summit) so keep your eyes pealed for the trail. We had to call out to the group behind us to turn right onto the avenue after they initially overshot the trail and were continuing down. Back to the water — on the summit on KC there were a number of people who were running very low on water. One group had come up the north ridge and arrived shortly before us after leaving the upper waterfall at roughly the same time were all running pretty low, as was my climbing partner. Even with 3.5 liters leaving the waterfall, I was down to about 1.25 liters by this point and knew that we had a good 3+ hours before getting back to the waterfall to resupply. Thankfully we were able to scrounge up a bit a water to share it around and everyone got down without incident, but if you are someone that consumes water faster than others you should consider bringing extra. Coming back, going up the avenue is a bit of a slog with some tired legs but not too bad. once back to the start of the avenue we followed a couple of other groups heading back up towards the Challenger summit. While we didn't resummit, we were only about 100ft below the summit and skirted around on the class 2 talus to regain the ridge heading down. Once you reach the gully and start the decent the slog really begins. What we thought was bad coming up was worse going down. Tough route finding and loose conditions made for a pretty tiring decent before finally reaching the established trail. We managed to not kick down any rocks, but the group following us sent down a decent sized boulder at one point, serving as a good reminder to bring/wear your helmet in this section. Hopefully there are some future trail projects in the plans because I think a good rain could really wash out a lot of the looser terrain. After discussing with the other groups that had summited KC via the ridge, both parties were in agreement that the section from the ridge of Challenger down to the trail at the start of the rock rib is some of the worst extended conditions on a peak across our collective experiences. Refilled water at the waterfall and made the final 4.5 mile trek back to the TH on tired legs. Final time was 13hrs total with some breaks on top of Challenger and KC, and again at the waterfall coming down. Last note — I've been reading other reports on the smoke conditions impacting breathing, and both my climbing partner and I will confirm that it felt more difficult to breath than normal and we needed more frequent breaks. If you're someone with any type of breathing issue, it might be worth waiting on this one (or any peaks right now) until the conditions improved. Overall, a gorgeous place. It's a shame the smog/smoke was so bad that it impacted the visibility, especially with the beautiful Crestones right there. TH was easy to access, although we did need to help a fellow hiker who got a flat in her 2WD sedan on the way up (also good reminder to have a spare!) |
|
Route: North Slope Posted On: 7/10/2021, By: JROSKA Info: Grass and rocks very wet in the part of the climb that starts near the rock rib (between about 12,500 and 13k). With good route finding it's possible to limit to one minor 5 foot snow crossing around 13,200. Other than that it's summer conditions. |
|
Route: North Slope Posted On: 6/29/2021, By: Camden7 Info: We backpacked into willow lake and climbed Mt. Adams and Columbia Point, the two centennials that I missed on my blind 14 hunt, as I passed through this valley years ago... weather was challenging, with fog and clouds constantly blocking sunshine, and highs in the low 30s. Conditions were brutal. Several inches of fresh snow clogged everything above 13,300 feet. The 3rd class couloir up Columbia's tiny northwest face was coated in verglas, and choked with snow in many places. The Kit Carson Avenue was full of snow, and full on treacherous while frozen. Challenger's standard route is pretty good but has some unavoidable snow crossings. Mt. Adams was pretty bad, with a frustrating 8 inches of powder on its upper slopes. All in all, successful trip, but only because of lucky weather windows, and comfort/competence on serious terrain with snow and verglas. |
|
Route: North Slope Posted On: 6/12/2021, By: klawil Info: There's still a lot of snow on the slope leading up to the summit ridge. On the way up I slogged through it and it alternated between icy and postholing. On the way down I stuck to the climbers left to gain the ridge to the left of the notch which worked much better (another climber used that on the way up and had good luck with it). The rock to the left of the standard route was pretty solid and seemed like around class 3 |
|
Route: North Slope Posted On: 3/8/2021, By: wintersage Info: Just dittoing angry's report below, the warm temps did indeed make the descent a little more challenging. It also made the ascent a little dicey without crampons so we decided to stick to the rocks all the way up to the ridge, so we gained the ridge a little bit to the northwest of the standard route. |
|
Route: North Slope Posted On: 3/7/2021, By: angry Info: Previous tracks were completely gone. Thanks to Randy1983 who was camping out and put in a trench to the lake. From lake, had to break trail in fresh snow until heading up rock rib. Stashed snowshoes at ~12,400. KC avenue wind loaded and no evidence of anyone attempting since last storm. Very warm temps made for sloppy snow on descent. |
|
Route: North Slope Posted On: 3/1/2021, By: moon stalker Info: Tracks to the lake in good shape. On the slope, the rock rib indicated by previous post is still good. Microspikes were helpful in addition to ax. There was a trench on the far side of the avenue, looks like maybe someone has been on it recently. I would have tried it if my partner hadn't turned around. |
|
Route: North Slope Posted On: 2/23/2021, By: malawi Info: Good trench until about a mile before Willow Lake. Put on snow shoes a little before that. Had to break new trail as I got close to Willow lake, and after. Attempted to follow the summer route for the last 1000 ft, but there was 3-4 inches of windblown crusted snow, over a weak layer. I was poking through to deeper snow, so I opted to go up near the rocks (see yellow line on photo). Looking westward, the red line in the photo might have been an option. Ice ax was helpful on the way down, since the mix of snow and ice around the rocks made the descent slippery. Beautiful day, except for a windy summit. Frozen waterfall at Willow lake was spectacular. |
