Report Type | Full |
Peak(s) |
"Northeast Crestone" - 14,251 feet Crestone Peak - 14,299 feet "East Crestone" - 14,298 feet |
Date Posted | 09/07/2023 |
Date Climbed | 09/02/2023 |
Author | daway8 |
Additional Members | greenonion, MaryinColorado, HikesInGeologicTime, _coloradical |
Northeast Crestone revisited and explored |
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I returned to the delightfully fun Northeast Crestone for a second time with an eye to explore it a little more than last time including checking out the top of the far side which makes up the climax of the North Buttress Route up Crestone Peak. Also I wanted to explore reportedly easier ways to get over to NE Crestone (NEC), which I did in fact confirm, as well as test if I'm ready for the North Buttress route (more on that later...) Peaks in order climbed: East Crestone, Crestone Peak, Northeast Crestone (saved the best for last!) Route: Crestone Peak standard South Face route (with the above add-ons) Trailhead: South Colony Lakes 4WD Mileage/gain: ~14.25, 6,250ft Difficulty: Crestone Peak & East Crestone = class 3 (and pretty mild at that). NE Crestone = class 4 minimum; optional fun class 5 (but looks non-optional from the North Buttress side). Included in this report will be:
![]() Backstory Quick little background here - if you're only interested in the beta, skip to the other large, bolded section headers as appropriate. There are peaks out there that are pretty much a "one and done" kind of experience - not that I would never do them again, but some just have absolutely nothing to draw me back for a repeat. Then there are those peaks that you look at and say: NOPE. But it's funny how perceptions can change over the years. I remember once being at the Maroon Bells with family and my mother concernedly saying "you're not planning to climb those peaks are you?!?" My honest answer at the time was: "no, those are way more involved and dangerous than anything I'm interested in - those are peaks where people climb using ropes and helmets and lots of people have died - I have no interest in getting into that type of thing." But fast-forward a few years and not only did I do them both but then I came back and did the Traverse - unroped, by myself and sticking primarily ridge proper - and loving every minute of it! When I looked back at the first Crestones trip report that I did back in 2018 (one of my first TR's) I had to chuckle when I stumbled across a very cool photo of NE Crestone which I incorrectly captioned as what I thought at the time was part of the Crestone Traverse. The original caption for the photo below was: "Parts of the traverse as seen from Crestone Peak. Climbers drool with anticipation, hikers say nope." At the time I considered myself to only be a "hiker" - now I'm becoming much more of a drooler... and Northeast Crestone has further cemented its place as my all-time favorite peak (I'm pumped to note it's finally selectable as "Favorite Peak" on the checklists page!). ![]() The other part of the backstory is the specific motivation for me coming back to this peak on this occasion - since, even though it's an awesome little peak, it is a bit of a chore to get to. But my friend HikesInGeologicTime finally reached the point of having only Crestone Peak left to finish the 58 14ers and I couldn't turn down the invite to be there for Geo's finisher peak! Plus it was a really easy pitch to say: "hey, if I help you get your Finisher peak done and get photos of you on the summit, will you hang out for a bit while I go tag NE Crestone again and see if you can get some cool shots of me climbing?" Geo's response more or less boiled down to something along the lines of: 'you want me to sit and rest while you do all the crazy climbing after we complete my final 14er: sure why not?' There will no doubt be an epic TR coming from Geo about the Crestone finisher expedition (perhaps even before I finish this one) so I won't steal Geo's thunder - I'm just concentrating on NE Crestone for this trip report and will leave it to Geo to talk about how we started that day with a party of 4 and ended with only 2 (don't worry, we practiced LNT principles - no bodies were left on the mountains...). ![]() Viewed from East Crestone The view of NE Crestone from East Crestone is one of the least favorable ways to view it since East Crestone is the taller of the two and NEC's profile is not as dramatic from there. But I did luck out and catch another climber (_coloradical I believe...) going up NEC while Geo and I were over on East Crestone (Geo wanted to make sure and tag East Crestone for fear that it's <1ft difference from Crestone Peak would one day be over-ruled by some new LIDAR survey or something like that and it would be declared the official summit...) ![]() ![]() ![]() Viewed from Crestone Peak Unlike the view from East Crestone, when NEC is viewed from Crestone Peak (especially with just the right amount of shadows to highlight its ruggedness) it looks positively badass!!! Both times I've been on it, and about any time I've heard someone else describe being on it, it almost inevitably draws an audience from the Crestone Peak crowd as people often do a double take at seeing someone solo up what seems from there like a wickedly steep spire of certain death (it's actually much easier than it looks, and lots of fun!). ![]() I love the way this peak changes character with different lighting and from different angles. ![]() ![]() Viewed from the Crestone Peak Saddle This is the view people first get as they come up the standard route on Crestone Peak, and it's always fun to catch people's reactions if they happen to spot you going up it from there (see about 1/3 of the way through my previous NE Crestone report for a fun one). ![]() ![]() Composite Views So even having climbed this peak before and put together photos in a couple other trip reports, it wasn't until I started piecing together a lot of photos to make this TR that I finally grasped the interesting 3-D nature of what appears at first from the saddle to just be a spire. But you'll notice in the composite image below that there's a small notch in the summit when viewed from East Crestone and a different and much larger notch when viewed from Crestone Peak. Not sure why, but something about how much this peak transforms from every angle just fascinates me - and we're not done yet! ![]() Viewed from the Base From the base of the climb this peak takes on yet a whole different character... ![]() ![]() Views from NE Crestone Finally, the list of views wouldn't be complete without seeing what the other peaks look like from NEC: East Crestone in particular takes on a much more imposing stature - this is definitely East Crestone's "better side." ![]() ![]() But I'll leave a few views for you to check out yourself... Getting to NE Crestone: Class 3 or Class 4 Chute (or Class 5 Wall) In my previous report I stated that the gully dropping down to get to NEC was class 4 or maybe even pushing class 5. Others came back and declared it was only class 3 but there was some variation in the description of where exactly people went down. Based on that feedback I decided to investigate further whenever I had a chance to go back to this really fun peak, since I knew the difficulty in getting over there would likely deter some who might otherwise enjoy some really solid class 4. Sure enough, when I dropped down what I'll call the West Chute (left side when facing NE Crestone) it did indeed feel like class 3, as opposed to the East Chute (right side when facing NEC) which felt harder (though part of it may have just been the mood I was in that day). This West Chute also seemed to have less loose garbage in it, though at the bottom when you turn to go to the base of NEC you have to take a couple steps across the loose junk in the East Chute. The following pictures give a probably overkill level of detail made by an engineering nerd turned mountain climber... ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Going Back up the Chutes Here are some equally overkill images on getting back up to the Crestone Peak saddle on the way back after tagging NE Crestone. The arrow points to Pointer Rock (referred to in my previous TR) while the solid lines turns and terminates at Geo, patiently waiting for me at the saddle. Note the little ants on top of Crestone Peak. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() So basically, on the way to NE Crestone take the little gully to the left (West Chute) and on the way back to the Crestone saddle it will be the one on the right - crossing over the first most obvious gully (East Chute) to get to the better one. Going up NE Crestone This is where the actual fun begins. It's not as long as would be nice but you'll see in the photos below that it's plenty more than your typical one move wonder that you often get on 14ers. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Going Back Down NE Crestone Here's just a quick collage of photos of the descent - I started in somewhat class 5 territory but then drifted over more to the class 4 stuff to keep things moving. ![]() ![]() So maybe I need to go get a more visible wardrobe? Or just don't fall... Or wait until winter when this outfit shows up awesome! North Buttress Sneak Preview As mentioned earlier, I wanted to check out the far side of NE Crestone because that's one of the finishing option for the North Buttress route (at least the tricky part of it) and I understand some of the most difficult climbing is right up near the top. So rather than get all the way up there and freeze in panic because I was over my head, I figure why not check it out from the top while I'm here and come back for North Buttress some other day? Below is a photo of NE Crestone in top left with a series of photos taken while I was actually on NEC with the arrows designating approximately what region is in view in each photo. It appears I was sitting atop the crux move. Going straight down below my feet in the upper right photo seemed impractical from that angle (might have been better as an up-climb; maybe?). But to my left (as shown in the bottom left photo) there was what appeared to be somewhat of a ramp coming up to my position - which is mysteriously invisible in the photo (the lighting was really horrible for showing depth at this point of the day). It was going to be enough of a downclimb that I didn't want to keep Geo waiting too long, plus it looked less sketch as an up-climb than a down-climb so I called off my recon journey at that point, feeling I could likely make something here work as a route to climb up. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() My Times 1:53am start from 4WD TH (start time chosen by Geo... painfully early starts are a Geo trademark and come with advantages and disadvantages...) 4:15am made it to the lake 6:09am top of Broken Hand Pass 7:45am about to start up Red Gully 10:04am top of the Crestone Peak saddle 10:18am summit of East Crestone 10:40am back at the saddle 11:01am Geo tops out on Crestone Peak Finisher peak #58!!! 11:46am back at the main saddle 11:55am I head over to NE Crestone 12:49pm finally made a note that I had been back at the main saddle for a while chatting with folks about the sweet NEC scramble. 4:01pm back at the top of Broken Hand Pass (yep, we were moving slow... sleep would have been nice - I did get at least a couple hours or more) 5:35pm rest break by the lake 7:20pm I made it to the 4WD TH 10pm finally settled in out vehicles at the 2WD TH after a bit of a Finisher celebration for Geo GPX note: I verified that the 14er coordinates are wrong for the sub-summits - I made absolutely certain I was on and beyond the summit of NE Crestone (as well as East Crestone) but the tracks make it look like I was maybe a little shy of them. The photos show otherwise. |
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