Crestone Peak - 14,294 ft
East Crestone Peak- 14,260 ft
Crestone Needle - 14,197 ft
Date: 6-10-06
Climbers: George Barnes, MarkDB, Nate Stutzke
Route to Peak: South Face (Red Couloir), Class 3
Route to Needle: Traverse from Peak
Route off Needle: South Face, Class 3
Trailhead: Cottonwood Creek
RT distance: 12.0 miles
Elevation gain: 6,500 feet
USGS Quadrangle: Crestone Peak
Trip Report:
After lunch at the Pizza Works in Buena Vista, Nate and I met Mark at the Cottonwood Creek trailhead just south of the small town of Crestone. After Nate and I divvied up his 3-man tent, we were heading up the trail by 1:45 PM. Up to 10,600 ft the trail is pretty enjoyable - easy to follow and gradual. At 10,600 ft the trail begins to reveal its true nature and requires crossing numerous boilerplate slabs with careful route finding. After we hit the trail junction at 11,100 feet we began to understand why the approach is classified as "arduous". The steep trail, boulder hopping, and willow bushwhacking are anything but pleasant, though views of the Crestones provide ample motivation to keep moving.
We reached our high camp at 12,300 feet almost 5 hours after starting. Mark pitched his solo tent, and then helped Nate and I set up Nate's palatial 3 man MHW Trango. After a gourmet "Mountain House" dinner we hung our food halfway up a 10 foot rock face for marmot prevention, and enjoyed the sunset/moonrise views.
Despite the space, Nate and I got only marginal sleep and we were more than ready to get up when my alarm went off at 5AM. After brewing coffee and spilling oatmeal in our tent we set off for the Red Couloir at 6:15 AM. Mark's good night of sleep would became apparent when he burned up the Red Couloir ahead of Nate and I.
The class 2-3 climbing in the couloir is an enjoyable scramble on mostly solid rock. Early morning views of the Sierra Blanca and the Great Sand Dunes kept us moving for the summit.
Two hours after leaving our camp we had the summit of the Peak to ourselves. The views of Kit Carson and Crestone Needle were nothing less than spectacular. Mark and I noted a LOT less snow on the Kit Carson Avenue compared to our ascent four weeks prior. The Needle's summit was only half a mile away, but the route across looked complicated and challenging. Appearances weren't deceiving.
After leaving the summit of the Peak we tagged the eastern, 14,260 foot summit, the high point of Custer County. From our vantage we watched someone ascend the class 4 North Buttress. The down climbing required on that route looked less than appealing.
We made our way back to the red notch and then began down climbing the Red Couloir and looking for the start of the traverse. The traverse is supposed to start somewhere around 13,800, though we never saw an appealing start there. By 13,700 we were concerned we'd gone down to far, and began working our way towards the Needle. I'm pretty sure we were off route here, but we made our route work. We saw some cairns even lower than our start, but we weren't sure if they marked the traverse or a route down. Needless to say, the next half hour of route finding was slow and a little stressful. With some relief we eventually worked our way back on route and found the occasional cairn. After reaching the low point of the traverse we could see a large group rappelling the crux pitch on the Needle. We carefully monitored their progress for clues to our ascent route. When we met the group we were surprised to learn that they too were all FourteenerWorld members.
The route finding up to the large flake described in Cooper's book was pretty straightforward. Getting to and past the flake required a few interesting class 4 moves, but nothing too horrific. After this we made our way up some class 3 slabs to a small notch below the crux pitch. The crux pitch is 100 feet long, and is described as Class 4 or 5.0. As expected, the wind was blowing at least 20-30 mph towards the 2000 foot drop to South Colony Lakes. Watch my pack straps as I ascend the crux in this video (8MB, mpeg). I thought the climbing here was reasonable, but with the exposure and cross wind it definitely got my undivided attention. I chose to climb with no gloves, and consequently had to stop a few time to shake out and warm up my fingers. Once again I have to give kudos to FiveTen for their super sticky Guide Tennie shoes. After I reached a safe position above the pitch I gave Mark and Nate the OK to follow. I had carried a rope in case the climbing was harder than their comfort level, but we didn't need it. For anyone interested in rapping this crux, there are 3 decent looking slings with 2 rap rings in place.
The Needle's summit appeared just beyond the crux and we celebrated our completion of the traverse with corn nuts and gummy bears.
The south face route down the Needle consists of solid class 3 rock, but Broken Hand Pass seemed to take forever to materialize. The recently reconstructed trail below the pass was a welcome change from the scrambling. We reached our tents at 3:15 PM, 9 hours after leaving for the traverse.
After over an hour of packing up our tents and lounging in the sun, we shouldered our heavy packs and set off for the willows. We did a little better job of following the cairned route on our descent, though this trail still ranks as one of the least pleasant I've hiked.
By 7:30 PM we returned to the parking lots and our trucks feeling beat but happy. We knew the drive to Denver and New Mexico was longer than we could stay awake, so we agreed to meet in Alamosa for dinner and a hotel room.
