Crestone Peak / Crestone Needle traverse

[bking14ers]

About how far is the traverse between the Peak, and the Needle? What is the best one to climb first? And, how hard is the class 4 stuff on the Needle?

[Carl]

A search of "crestones traverse" yielded 182 matches.

The simple answer is that the traverse could take a few hours, it is best to start at the peak unless you want to rappel off the needle, and the class 4 is exposed.

[mountainmicah83]

About how far is the traverse between the Peak, and the Needle? What is the best one to climb first? And, how hard is the class 4 stuff on the Needle?

The class 4 on the needle isn't bad at all. It is solid conglomerate with full hand holds. My brother and I did needle 2 peak last summer and we rapped down with a rope because we brought it, but I wish I hadn't. We could have downclimbed it and anyone that is used to exposure could have as well. Upcliming would be no problem. Also note if you do needle to peak that you may have to re-climb broken hand pass on after both peaks when you are exhausted depending on the route that you take. Since you are asking about the traverse and times, I am fairly certain you would be in that area and not on the other side of crestone peak from bear's playground. I would recommend climbing the peak first and then the needle. The traverse isn't too difficult for the most part. It's just a lot of up and down and searching for the next cairn. The last couple of hundred feet on the needle is really the only difficult part if you are decent at route finding.

[peakmind]

The needle 4th class section is not hard but it is exposed. The empty sockets where river stones used to protrude from the conglomerate rock provide excellent holds and clear evidence that you should not trust any single protruding rock with your life (use multiple points of contact). Also, there is no way to protect the climb on lead, so don't bother bringing rock gear for that purpose alone.