Crestone Peak Trip Report 09/11/2007

Peak(s):	Crestone Peak - 14,299 feet
Date Posted:	09/11/2007
Date Climbed:	09/09/2007
Author:	cftbq

Crestone Peak - Red Couloir
Summits: Crestone Peak, "East Crestone" Date: 9 September, 2007 Participants: cftbq, trishapajean Starting point: halfway up the S. Colony Lakes road (9,930 ft.) Distance: ~14 miles Vertical: ~5,600 ft. We had just one day, so, even though it would be a long day, we got up in the wee hours, headed out of town at 2:30 am MDT, and got to the trailhead (the first stream crossing after the Rainbow Trail junction) at 5. By 5:05 we were hiking up the road. Wispy clouds intermittently revealed and hid stars for an hour or so before dawn. The only other people we saw were two guys on ATVs who stopped 50 yards after passing us. By sunrise, we had signed into the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness. The sky was still mostly cloudy, making us a little apprehensive, but we were determined to give it our best try. We came upon a cluster of tents near the lake, but neither saw nor heard any sounds of activity within. We didn't know if their occupants were still asleep, or had already headed off ahead of us. Halfway up Broken Hand Pass, we saw a party of four climbing up behind us; maybe that was them. Moments later, we met two young men coming down. Far from being super early summitters on their way back, they said that they had only gone as far as the top of the pass, and had turned back because the clouds looked too threatening. We pushed on all the same. By 9 am we had gotten over the pass and down to Cottonwood Lake, were we stopped briefly for some food. We were still bundled up in several layers of clothes, but the clouds didn't seem to be developing into anything. Plus, there was virtually no wind, so we continued on up into the Red Couloir. To my surprise, the route is very well cairned, even after the terrain is too rocky to sport a clearly visible trail. All the way up, in fact, there were only a few sizeable gaps where we had to do much guessing about just how to proceed. In some places, there were multiple possible routes from one cairn to the next, but there was no real head scratching. The only puzzle we encountered came just above 13,000 ft. The water flowing down the center of the couloir spilled over a little lip above us, and an initial attempt to bypass it by staying on the left (south) side of the stream proved too difficult, due to a steep headwall with no good ledges or handholds. So we crossed over the water on some nearly level rock, to where a wisp of trail seemed to lead a short distance upstream on the other side. This brought us to a smaller, but still difficult wall right beside the stream. The couloir is steeper on this side, so we couldn't climb any farther to the right. We finally had to cross back across the water, right at the base of its fall over the lip, and do a friction walk up a section of slabs back on the left side. This was our only real slow-down of the day. Even better, on the way back down, we discovered that the slabs, at least if dry, offered enough traction that they could actually be walked for the whole distance in either direction: We had perceived more of a problem than was actually there. People have called this couloir "endless," and it's easy to see why. You can sort of see the notch at the top looming above you for quite a ways, but it hardly seems to be getting any closer, as you go over a long series of ledges, boulders, slabs, cuts, and more ledges. Still, the route-finding problems are all small grain, and we never went very long without finding a cairn to assure us that we were on-route. As others have noted, almost all of the ideal route is on the left side of the watercourse. There are occasional exposed moves, and a few large steps, but 98% of it can be held to Class 3. The slabs look scary when they lean out, but the rock is wonderful and solid. There are only a few places where loose scree sits atop it. Still mostly enveloped in clouds, we finally topped out onto the very small saddle between the two peaks. The obvious route up seemed to be, and indeed is, to the climber's left of the actual ridge crest. Even here, we found abundant and reliable cairns marking out a good series of ledges which lead to the top. There's one final little surprise there: When you finally come up onto the crest which has been on your right ever since leaving the saddle, you are not quite on the summit yet! You have to go over this ridge, drop about three feet, and do one big step up onto another little promontory of rock which is the actual summit, and which houses the register. It's tiny and awesome. The views would have been awesome, too, if the clouds had cleared. But, although they seemed to be breaking up somewhat, we still had only occasional glimpses to the west, and virtually no view to the east. I had to wait until we had actually started back down, and crossed back over the ridge to the first ledges, to get any decent picture of East Crestone. Back at the saddle, we finally got some clear sunlight, and discovered that there is an obvious route up to the east summit, this one also on the south side of the ridge crest. So we left our packs, taking only the camera, and scampered up this gully route to the high point of Custer County. Most people who climb Crestone Peak seem to forego this little piece of extra credit, but I think that's a mistake. It was short and easy (well, no more difficult than any of the rest of the climb), and the view it affords of the main summit is fabulous. We also finally got a decent look at Kit Carson. But we never did get the clouds to cooperate long enough to capture a decent shot of Crestone Needle. We re-claimed our packs and started back down the couloir, finally feeling a little overdressed in the now abundant sunshine. Soon, we saw climbers traversing toward us from the east, and correctly surmised that they must be nearing the end of the Needle-to-Peak traverse. After seeing them, I finally noticed a good-sized cairn on the slope behind them, which clearly marked a corner on their route. Talking with them, we learned that they had, indeed, done the traverse, despite being totally socked in. I don't know whether they were brave or foolish, but they'd made it. We didn't make bad time getting back down, but we didn't set any speed records, either. The re-climb of Broken Hand Pass didn't look too intimidating, but it did slow us down a bit. And while we were climbing it, we got the first spits of the afternoon's rain. We were obliged to put back on some of the clothing we had shed near the lake. Fortunately, the serious precipitation held off until we were over the pass, and down below the real difficult parts. Then, we were hit with not only rain, but a long spate of hail, hard enough to sting exposed body parts. Although the sun came back out after an hour or so, the hail left the trail submerged in standing water in many places, all the way back to the wilderness boundary. Beyond that, the rocky road was actually better as far as staying out of the water and/or mud was concerned. It was, as expected, a long day, but at least we got back to the car well before sunset. Crestone Peak fully lived up to my expectations; it's one good reason why so many people brave this rotten road every year! More pictures are at: Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Crestone Peak - Red Couloir

Summits: Crestone Peak, "East Crestone"
Date: 9 September, 2007
Participants: cftbq, trishapajean
Starting point: halfway up the S. Colony Lakes road (9,930 ft.)
Distance: ~14 miles
Vertical: ~5,600 ft.

We had just one day, so, even though it would be a long day, we got up in the wee hours, headed out of town at 2:30 am MDT, and got to the trailhead (the first stream crossing after the Rainbow Trail junction) at 5. By 5:05 we were hiking up the road.
Wispy clouds intermittently revealed and hid stars for an hour or so before dawn. The only other people we saw were two guys on ATVs who stopped 50 yards after passing us. By sunrise, we had signed into the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness. The sky was still mostly cloudy, making us a little apprehensive, but we were determined to give it our best try.
We came upon a cluster of tents near the lake, but neither saw nor heard any sounds of activity within. We didn't know if their occupants were still asleep, or had already headed off ahead of us. Halfway up Broken Hand Pass, we saw a party of four climbing up behind us; maybe that was them. Moments later, we met two young men coming down. Far from being super early summitters on their way back, they said that they had only gone as far as the top of the pass, and had turned back because the clouds looked too threatening. We pushed on all the same.
By 9 am we had gotten over the pass and down to Cottonwood Lake, were we stopped briefly for some food. We were still bundled up in several layers of clothes, but the clouds didn't seem to be developing into anything. Plus, there was virtually no wind, so we continued on up into the Red Couloir.

To my surprise, the route is very well cairned, even after the terrain is too rocky to sport a clearly visible trail. All the way up, in fact, there were only a few sizeable gaps where we had to do much guessing about just how to proceed. In some places, there were multiple possible routes from one cairn to the next, but there was no real head scratching.
The only puzzle we encountered came just above 13,000 ft. The water flowing down the center of the couloir spilled over a little lip above us, and an initial attempt to bypass it by staying on the left (south) side of the stream proved too difficult, due to a steep headwall with no good ledges or handholds. So we crossed over the water on some nearly level rock, to where a wisp of trail seemed to lead a short distance upstream on the other side.
This brought us to a smaller, but still difficult wall right beside the stream. The couloir is steeper on this side, so we couldn't climb any farther to the right. We finally had to cross back across the water, right at the base of its fall over the lip, and do a friction walk up a section of slabs back on the left side. This was our only real slow-down of the day. Even better, on the way back down, we discovered that the slabs, at least if dry, offered enough traction that they could actually be walked for the whole distance in either direction: We had perceived more of a problem than was actually there.
People have called this couloir "endless," and it's easy to see why. You can sort of see the notch at the top looming above you for quite a ways, but it hardly seems to be getting any closer, as you go over a long series of ledges, boulders, slabs, cuts, and more ledges. Still, the route-finding problems are all small grain, and we never went very long without finding a cairn to assure us that we were on-route.

As others have noted, almost all of the ideal route is on the left side of the watercourse. There are occasional exposed moves, and a few large steps, but 98% of it can be held to Class 3. The slabs look scary when they lean out, but the rock is wonderful and solid. There are only a few places where loose scree sits atop it.
Still mostly enveloped in clouds, we finally topped out onto the very small saddle between the two peaks.
The obvious route up seemed to be, and indeed is, to the climber's left of the actual ridge crest. Even here, we found abundant and reliable cairns marking out a good series of ledges which lead to the top. There's one final little surprise there: When you finally come up onto the crest which has been on your right ever since leaving the saddle, you are not quite on the summit yet! You have to go over this ridge, drop about three feet, and do one big step up onto another little promontory of rock which is the actual summit, and which houses the register. It's tiny and awesome.
The views would have been awesome, too, if the clouds had cleared. But, although they seemed to be breaking up somewhat, we still had only occasional glimpses to the west, and virtually no view to the east. I had to wait until we had actually started back down, and crossed back over the ridge to the first ledges, to get any decent picture of East Crestone.
Back at the saddle, we finally got some clear sunlight, and discovered that there is an obvious route up to the east summit, this one also on the south side of the ridge crest. So we left our packs, taking only the camera, and scampered up this gully route to the high point of Custer County. Most people who climb Crestone Peak seem to forego this little piece of extra credit, but I think that's a mistake. It was short and easy (well, no more difficult than any of the rest of the climb), and the view it affords of the main summit is fabulous.

We also finally got a decent look at Kit Carson.

But we never did get the clouds to cooperate long enough to capture a decent shot of Crestone Needle. We re-claimed our packs and started back down the couloir, finally feeling a little overdressed in the now abundant sunshine. Soon, we saw climbers traversing toward us from the east, and correctly surmised that they must be nearing the end of the Needle-to-Peak traverse. After seeing them, I finally noticed a good-sized cairn on the slope behind them, which clearly marked a corner on their route. Talking with them, we learned that they had, indeed, done the traverse, despite being totally socked in. I don't know whether they were brave or foolish, but they'd made it.

We didn't make bad time getting back down, but we didn't set any speed records, either. The re-climb of Broken Hand Pass didn't look too intimidating, but it did slow us down a bit. And while we were climbing it, we got the first spits of the afternoon's rain. We were obliged to put back on some of the clothing we had shed near the lake.
Fortunately, the serious precipitation held off until we were over the pass, and down below the real difficult parts. Then, we were hit with not only rain, but a long spate of hail, hard enough to sting exposed body parts. Although the sun came back out after an hour or so, the hail left the trail submerged in standing water in many places, all the way back to the wilderness boundary. Beyond that, the rocky road was actually better as far as staying out of the water and/or mud was concerned.
It was, as expected, a long day, but at least we got back to the car well before sunset. Crestone Peak fully lived up to my expectations; it's one good reason why so many people brave this rotten road every year!
More pictures are at:

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

Kevin Baker

congrats
11/30/2010 5:20pm

Way to go, Patrick and Trisha. We'll get you on more class 4 this weekend on Ice, Patrick.

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