My climbing partner Steve and I concocted a crazy plan to try and push ourselves to get all 5 14ers in the Crestone group in a day from the west side. As the day would show, this was a darn fool idea but it was fun to think about and really pushed us! We would manage to get 3 of the 5 planned 14ers and Columbia Point. Our original plan was:

• Spanish Creek Trailhead -> Challenger Point via the Southwest Ridge
• Challenger Point -> Kit Carson via some 4th/low 5th class route
• Kit Carson -> Humboldt via Columbia Point, Bears Playground, and the West Ridge
• Humboldt -> Crestone Peak via the Northwest Couloir
• Crestone Peak -> Crestone Needle via the traverse
• Crestone Needle -> Cottonwood Creek trailhead

Here's how the day actually turned out:

Spanish Creek Trailhead to Challenger Point via the Southwest Ridge

• Time: 5:17
• Distance: 4.1 miles
• Class: 4

We arrived at the trailhead at around 2:25 AM. We used the reservation system at the Crestone Zen Center so we weren't trying to park on the side of the road.

We've hiked Spanish Creek 6 or 7 times between the two of us, so the first part of the trail was pretty usual (meaning we got off trail 3-4 times and spent a lot of time cursing deadfall). We hiked about 3 miles on the standard trail before filling up our water for the last time before we were on our way out. Then we cut up towards the ridge. This climb to the ridge was the crux of the first part of the hike for me, climbing over deadfall and bushwhacking through the more dense parts drove me crazy.

We originally wanted to be on the summit around sunrise, but the difficult approach took longer than anticipated so we ended up catching a beautiful sunrise on the ridge.

Once we gained the ridge, we had about 0.5 miles more of deadfall before we got above the treeline. From there, it was a mix of class 2 and 3 with a bit of 4th thrown in until we got to the last portion of the ridge where it became sustained 4th class.

We followed the ridge which stayed at 4th class. The ridge goes up and down, requiring some 4th class (although it feels like 5th) descents. Towards the top, we took a gully to the climbers left of the ridgeline which looked less steep and went at an easy class 4 (although the ridge itself looked like it would still go at 4th, just a bit steeper and more airy).

Challenger Point to Kit Carson via The Prow

• Time: 0:32
• Distance: 0.3 miles
• Class: 5.6-

We spent a few minutes on Challenger Point before setting off to Kit Carson. Our plan was to descend to the saddle then follow the avenue until we found a good place to ascend to Kit Carson. We explicitly didn't want to follow the normal route and have to descend the entire avenue.

We went in with 3 possibilities: take the north face just to the climbers left of the saddle, take the last pitch of The Prow, or take a 4th class route up to the peak from further down the avenue. After taking a look at the north face, we decided against it and continued to The Prow. After looking at the last pitch (which we climbed as part of The Prow last year and remembered as pretty easy), we opted to take it instead of losing more elevation to get on the 4th class route.

We scrambled up the pitch and it was just as easy as we remembered (we think it's probably 5.easy more than 5.6, there's only a couple moves that are even 5.5 or 5.4). From the top of the pitch, we followed the ridge to the Kit Carson summit.

From this point on, the pictures get a LOT more scarce as we were getting behind schedule and wanted to keep moving.

Kit Carson to Columbia Point

• Time: 0:51
• Distance: 0.2 miles
• Class: 3+/4-

After about 5 minutes on KC, we headed off to Columbia point. The crux on this was the route finding, we ended up descending lower towards the avenue than we needed too before correcting and taking the notch over the first rock rib. We opted to take the second gully up to the ridge and it turned out to be a nice scramble. From there it was pretty easy to follow the ridge up to the summit.

From the summit of Columbia, we surveyed the Northwest Couloir on Crestone Peak which looks to be mostly free of snow (although we never actually got close enough to see it).

Columbia Point to Humboldt

• Time: 5:17
• Distance: 4.1 miles
• Class: 3

We continued the trend of taking a few minutes on each summit to chug some water and eat some snacks before setting off for the next summit.

We first traversed up and over Kitty Kat Carson then traversed the face of Obstruction Peak rather than summitting it. This dropped us right onto the Bear's Playground which gave us a gorgeous view of the Needle and Peak.

We hadn't read enough about the ridgeline from the Bear's Playground to Humboldt and thought it would be very mellow class 2 the entire way, so I cached my bag at the playground and we continued on with just Steve's pack (which turned out to be a mistake).

Shortly after the Bear's Playground, we started into the meandering ridgeline. The ridgeline up until it intersects with the standard route up Humboldt is...interesting. The route is not very well defined and varies from class 2 to class 3 (and is easy to get up to 4th class if you go too far off route). This ended up taking a lot longer than we anticipated which led to me really wishing I still had my pack with all my food and water but Steve is a great guy and let me mooch off him.

Once we hit the standard route, the going was pretty easy but the distance was starting to get to me and I was ready to cut our losses and skip Peak and Needle. We decided to summit Humboldt, return to the Bear's Playground, and spend 30 minutes or so resting there before making the final call.

We slowly made our way to Humboldt's summit where we spent around 15 minutes taking in the views and talking to other hikers on the summit, one of whom very generously gave us a liter of water to help us on our way.

Humboldt to Spanish Creek Trailhead

• Time: 5:17
• Distance: 4.1 miles
• Class: 3

After a more extended rest on Humboldt, we followed the ridgeline back to the Bear's Playground. The second time through, we were able to navigate the second half of the ridge more easily. Once we got to the playground we took a 10-15 minute break before mutually deciding that we weren't going to make it up the Peak and Needle that day and starting down the Spanish Creek drainage.

We followed the Spanish Creek trail as best we could, although there is basically no trail above treeline. Once we got back onto the trail proper we sped down the trail (or sped as much as our tired legs could take us) to the trailhead. Despite our expectations, we only really lost the trail once during the descent which is a new record for us!

Daily Summary

• Time: 16:26
• Distance: 14.4 miles
• 2 fourteeners
• 1 unranked 14er
• 1 thirteener

This was a long, hard day in the mountains but well worth the effort. Next time, we'll probably skip Humboldt and just try to link the 4 other Crestone 14ers and not have to do the out-and-back to add on Humboldt.