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I spent yesterday and today attempting Kit Carson. I didn't make the summit but have a few photos of the conditions. I hiked in to Willow Lake, spent the night, then attempted the couloir between Challenger and Kit Carson. The snow starts more-or-less at the upper stream crossing on the approach. I carried snowshoes but I didn't see anyone else carrying/using them. A few hardy souls did the entire Challenger slog yesterday (btw- if you dropped a Mountain Hardwear hat on your decent, I picked it up). Here's the view across Willow Lake: View Across the Lake Here's the view of the colouir that stopped me: From Top of Falls Looking up at Kit Carson Here's upper Willow Creek Basin: Upper Wilow Creek Basin here's another view of Kit Carson and the coulouir: From Top of Falls Looking up at Kit Carson And here's a lovely parting shot while leaving Crestone: The View from Outside Crestone I carried Kathoola's and a Raven Ultralight axe, when I got in that coulouir though I wished I had a full sized axe and real crampons. I'm not entirely sure I would have continued anyway though, the thought of decending that crusty colouir didn't seem appetizing. Note to self- next year, wait till later in the season!
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
Is it doable to stay to the right of the coulouir and get up to Challenger and then over to Carson via the standard route? Any advise you could give? Thinking of doing both this week. Thanks!
Absolutely it is doable to summit Challenger and then go for Kit Carosn, in fact that is what I probably should have done. I was trying to avoid having to summit both Challenger and then Kit Carson, but in retrospect that would have been easier than what I was trying to do. There were three folks that went up Challenger in a day from the trailhead and they didn‘t have crampons or snow shoes. They didn‘t make the summit of Kit Carson though, they commented to me that they would have wanted crampons and an axe to do the traverse around Kit Carson Avenue. Good luck!
Awesome thanks for letting us know. Will def bring our crampons an axe for sure then. Thanks for getting back before we left. Have a good one. Will let you know how it went, hehe.
I didn‘t make it to Kit Carson Avenue, but I spoke to 2 people who got there the day prior and they said with crampons and axes they would have been fine~
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