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Peak(s)  Crestone Needle  -  14,196 feet
Date Posted  10/26/2022
Date Climbed   10/20/2022
Author  notidealbutfine
 Honey, I Botched the Route Again - Crestone Needle (14,203) via the South Face (4th Class)   

This TR was taken from my blog:

notidealbutfine.wordpress.com

October 20, 2022


Part of what is so fun about climbing solo for me is the flexibility to just pick any line that seems within my climbing and just go for it. No partners to to tell you “I’m not doing that; you’re a nut.” No ropes or gear to weigh you down. No time tables to hit or specific tempo to sustain. Just true freedom: feet and hands on the rock, flowing with the terrain, 100% in control all the time. There’s an irreplaceable type of freedom that comes with solo days that I am finding myself more and more attracted to as time passes.

I’ve descended Crestone Needle’s South Face earlier this summer during a cloudy day up Ellingwood Ledges in July, but I had never actually climbed up it. Not to mention, we absolutely botched the descent off the Needle the first time, cliffed out, having to set up a very long double rappel on a rock horn to get us back to our camp at Cottonwood Lake. I’ve had a lot of interest in climbing the Crestones Traverse from Peak to Needle, but ever since my last time on the summit, I’ve really wanted to go back and tackle the South Face from the ground up (as well as actually learn the real route and descent). That was the mission: to have a quick solo day up the Needle and finally learn the route.

Spoilers:

… Yeah I botched the route again, but I still climbed a hella fun line!

Crestone Needle at Sunrise

I hit the trailhead on a Thursday morning around my normal 6:15AM start. This gave me a solid hour of hiking in pure darkness before the alpenglow starting to illuminate the mountains. I love hiking in the darkness! It always gives me a chance to cover tons of ground without stopping for pictures or to enjoy the scenery since it’s pitch black. I hiked so fast that I managed to make it all the way past the lake and up Broken Hand Pass (about 5 miles) in about 2 hours, 45 minutes, just stopping briefly at the lake to filter some water and have a snack. So far, it was a bluebird day: the South Face looked totally dry and I hadn’t seen another hiker or camper all day. Before hiking to the base of the route, I peered down Broken Hand Pass out of curiosity. The north faces of both Broken Hand and Crestolita were still decently packed with snow, probably just enough to warrant some traction. I knew I’d need to stay on the south facing slopes to climb the Needle, otherwise, I’d be in tricky wet terrain. I brought a pair of spikes with me, but didn’t end up having to use them all day.

Looking Down Broken Hand Pass
Looking at the South Face from Broken Hand Pass

And there I found myself standing at the base of the trail leading up to the beginning of the route. A well defined, but long trail led me pretty much to the base of the east gulley where I’d begin climbing the class 4 terrain. The trail has you hiking very close to the saddle’s edge and presents some truly beautiful views to the east, showcasing Humboldt Peak in all it’s glory. It’d been a while since I had hiked a standard route up a 14er, but wow, there was a lot of uphill hiking just to get to the base of the actual technical terrain. After a small downclimb into a shady notch, the actual rock scrambling in the east gulley begins.

Before setting off, I probably should have studied the topo a little more accurately at this moment, but I decided to just push to the summit without taking my phone out. Normally, I’m pretty good about this kind of thing, but I was feeling adventurous and confident so I decided to just improvise my way to the top. Close to the bottom, the east gulley breaks off into two sections, left and right. Normally climbers take the left path and follow this gulley to the dihedral crux above, but I decided to take the right gulley and stay closer to the ridge. The right route had some tricky chock stones to gain (low 5th class), but nothing too serious. After I had climbed the the top of this (incorrect) gulley, I climbed closer to the ridge and was confronted with a near vertical headwall leading in the direction of the summit. Next to this sheer wall, was a forgotten bail anchor some climbers had probably used recently in the past to got off this difficult section. It was at this point I said to myself “Yep, I’m off route!”

Humboldt Peak from the Start of the Route
Technical Terrain Begins

So… downclimb the chock stone section and get back on route? Or just climb vertically towards the summit and I’d eventually get there? I carefully examined the headwall in front of me. The pitch was only a couple hundred feet of near vertical, but easy climbing. The conglomerate knobs embedded in the rock made for some of the greatest hand and foot holds I could have asked for. The pitch looked easy, just committing and heady since it climbs so closely to the ridge of the Needle. Even from the base of the wall, I knew it would be well within my ability, so I took a deep breathe and just jumped right in. This section of climbing turned out to be the highlight of the day: a perfectly sustained 250 foot pitch of 5.4 or 5.5 free solo rock climbing at 13,500 feet. I was in the zone: head down, super concentrated on my feet, moving in perfect rhythm with the terrain. The rock quality on the Crestones is so unique and an absolute pleasure to climb on. Sometimes these knobs are sticking so far out of the cemented rock that you really don’t think that they would hold body weight, but I didn’t break off a hold all day (not to mention I was in semi uncharted territory).

The Final Class 4 Gulley to the Summit

Before I knew it, the (unintentional) crux of the day was finally over. I was pumped up with adrenaline and ready to finish up the rest of the way to the summit. I checked the altitude on my watch and it put my around 13,800 feet, which meant I was only about 400 vertical feet away from the summit. After I crossed over a small rib to get into the east gulley proper, I recognized this secti0n of the climb from my last time I descended the Needle. This was the final push to the summit and it seemed as though I was finally back on route. A big relief actually! I wasn’t sure where I’d end up when I ran out of rock to climb. The final class 4 “crux” of the South Face is at the top of this gulley, but it was a piece of cake in comparison to what I had just climbed. A short saunter on the ridge brought me back to the very familiar summit of Crestone Needle.

This time I wasn’t completely enveloped inside of a storm cloud, so I could actually take in the views and enjoy my time on the summit. That is if it weren’t so damn cold and windy up there. I wanted to stay longer, but the wind chill had me on my feet only after a couple of minutes on the summit. I needed to keep moving if I had wanted to stay warm. The views from the summit of the Needle were breathe taking as expected. An irreplaceable view and experience, that’s for sure. I was 100% completely alone up there. No other climbers on route ahead or behind me and no visible campers at either Cottonwood or South Colony Lakes. This is the most solitude I’ve ever felt on top of a Colorado 14er in some time. Not a soul in sight in any direction I looked. I snagged a quick bite and a drink, then quickly packed up and made my way back down the east gulley.

Crestone Peak as seen from the Summit of the Needle
Looking South from the Summit

My hopes for finishing the descent correctly weren’t exactly high. Since last time I had taken this route down, it spat us out on a cliff far above Cottonwood Lake, I knew to stay left and continue following the descent route towards the saddle of Broken Hand Peak and not continue down in the direction of the valley floor. Seeing as I just screwed up the ascent, I wasn’t expecting to find the standard descent route so easily. As I was descending the east gulley, it started to seem as though I was headed in the wrong direction again: down towards the lake and valley floor. I deliberately noticed this and decided to climb back up a couple of hundred feet so I could cross over the rib of the east gulley. Climbing up and out of the gulley was no problem, but the downclimb moving back into the the final section of rock before I got back on the trail proper, was honestly the most sketchy part of the day. The downclimbing was steep and in the shade so I was constantly having to watch my feet for ice and snow. A fall from here probably wouldn’t have been catastrophic, but it certainly wouldn’t be pretty that’s for sure. I took my time, downclimbed with an intense amount of concentration and eventually made my way down a couple of hundred feet back to the well marked foot path. I breathed a sigh of relief for finally getting off that icy terrain. Always work on your downclimbing, folks! That’s a skill I wish I had practiced more before just jumping on an that exposed face!

Descending the East Gulley, Crestolita’s North Face in the Distance

The proceeding hike back down to Cottonwood Lake and trailhead would remain uneventful (just how I like it). Not another hiker the whole way down; I had no one to share my big beaming smile with! But perhaps that’s what is so satisfying about a solo day in the mountains: only you to revel in your accomplishments of the day and no one else. It’s a different feeling than climbing with a partner, but supremely wholesome and motivating nonetheless. Thank you again to this magnificent realm of high peaks for delivering such adventurous and remote expeditions! Here’s to many more!

Crestone Needle via the South Face (4th Class)

  • ~ 11.2 miles round trip
  • 8 hours, 16 minutes car to car
  • ~ 5750′ of elevation gain (~1250′ 4th class on the South Face itself)
  • My 2nd summit of Crestone Needle (14,203′)
Cottonwood Lake

And some final thoughts on my 2nd time up the Needle:

  • It was so cool to actually see the views this time! My last time up Ellingwood Ledges, the clouds were so thick you could only see a couple hundred feet. Read about it here:
    Climbing Among the Clouds – Crestone Needle (14,203′) via Ellingwood Ledges (5.7)
  • It sure is easy to get off-route on this one! Granted, I could have made a significantly stronger effort to follow the topo exactly, but I’m confident in my climbing ability and had a lot of fun just picking a line and making my way to the top. It didn’t feel like I soloed any moves harder than about a 5.5 (some sections were quite vertical, but with giant cobbled holds everywhere).
  • Next up, the wicked Crestones Traverse!



Comments or Questions
jesse
User
Off Route Fun
10/27/2022 11:27am
The best place to climb off route is on that rock. Thanks for sharing :D


daway8
User
Fun day
10/30/2022 5:01pm
Yes, I love that Crestone Conglomerate - it makes it so easy to wing it on your own course, as long as you're comfortable in low 5th class, which you obviously are. Glad it turned out ok - sounds like you were flirting with danger a time or two. I have plans for some off route fun in that region too but will probably wait till summer when the snow/ice is gone...


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