Kit Carson North Ridge Beta: the scary factor

[TakeMeToYourSummit]

The North Ridge of KC is my favorite 14er route of all time. Such a fun scramble & a beautiful setting to boot! One thing not yet mentioned here - take the weather forecast extra serious for this route. Wet - I would consider this thing a death trap!

[Hfoltz0525]

I think you’d be okay. You can also bail to climber’s left of the ridge direct to continue upward on less intimidating terrain. The couple hardest cruxes can be easily bypassed if desired. I really enjoyed this route as well.

Where is this at? I'm supposed to climb this route this weekend but am terrified and want a good bail out spot. THANK YOU!

[JQDivide]

There are some good TRs on the route.
Joel

[Wentzl]

This month old thread dusted off.

Where is OP? Did you send it? What is your assessment of the "scare factor"?

I agree with Takemetoyoursummit, one of the best routes of all 14ers. And more relevant to the dustoff, I agree with Letsgomets, once you are on, you are on. No good bailouts and downclimbing would be bad if going up seemed scary.

carson.jpg

[bdloftin77]

I think you’d be okay. You can also bail to climber’s left of the ridge direct to continue upward on less intimidating terrain. The couple hardest cruxes can be easily bypassed if desired. I really enjoyed this route as well.

Where is this at? I'm supposed to climb this route this weekend but am terrified and want a good bail out spot. THANK YOU!

The others are right - there’s not true bails completely off the ridge (at least not until it gets easier when you’re close to the summit, and then you might as well stay on the ridge). I was staying on the exact ridge crest the whole time, and there were a few trickier areas. But in some areas a bit left of the exact ridge crest there is slightly easier climbing. Some trip reports mention the good rock quality and that it’s almost like climbing a ladder. I’d agree with the good rock quality and good holds, though if it was a ladder it’s definitely not near vertical, it’s generally more sloped.

This is subjective, but I’m very comfortable with exposure and was expecting it to be extremely steep with smaller holds. But it was more slanted, had larger holds, and was generally easier than I was expecting. This is very biased though, and others definitely have differing opinions. Have you done some other exposed or class four routes? The headwall of the Needle on the Crestones traverse might be a similar comparison, though I remember it being steeper overall than Kit Carson’s north ridge. If you’re generally good with exposure, are able to be calm while looking for holds and climbing steeper terrain, and are comfortable with class 3+ and class 4, I think you’ll be fine. When you're lower down on class 3 terrain looking up at the ridge, that might be a good time to make a last decision on whether you’re game to keep going, or to opt for the easier route via Challenger.

Even staying right on the exact ridge crest, I remember several natural rest areas where you can take a break before the next steep section.

Definitely keep taking a look at different trip reports to get a better feel on what the climbing’s like. There’s a lot of good pictures out there.

I do agree that it’s one of the more fun 14er routes for confident scramblers!

Hopefully some of that was helpful. It’s been about four years since I was last up there.. Others probably have a lot fresher memories.

[Hfoltz0525]

I think you’d be okay. You can also bail to climber’s left of the ridge direct to continue upward on less intimidating terrain. The couple hardest cruxes can be easily bypassed if desired. I really enjoyed this route as well.

Where is this at? I'm supposed to climb this route this weekend but am terrified and want a good bail out spot. THANK YOU!

The others are right - there’s not true bails completely off the ridge (at least not until it gets easier when you’re close to the summit, and then you might as well stay on the ridge). I was staying on the exact ridge crest the whole time, and there were a few trickier areas. But in some areas a bit left of the exact ridge crest there is slightly easier climbing. Some trip reports mention the good rock quality and that it’s almost like climbing a ladder. I’d agree with the good rock quality and good holds, though if it was a ladder it’s definitely not near vertical, it’s generally more sloped.

This is subjective, but I’m very comfortable with exposure and was expecting it to be extremely steep with smaller holds. But it was more slanted, had larger holds, and was generally easier than I was expecting. This is very biased though, and others definitely have differing opinions. Have you done some other exposed or class four routes? The headwall of the Needle on the Crestones traverse might be a similar comparison, though I remember it being steeper overall than Kit Carson’s north ridge. If you’re generally good with exposure, are able to be calm while looking for holds and climbing steeper terrain, and are comfortable with class 3+ and class 4, I think you’ll be fine. When you're lower down on class 3 terrain looking up at the ridge, that might be a good time to make a last decision on whether you’re game to keep going, or to opt for the easier route via Challenger.

Even staying right on the exact ridge crest, I remember several natural rest areas where you can take a break before the next steep section.

Definitely keep taking a look at different trip reports to get a better feel on what the climbing’s like. There’s a lot of good pictures out there.

I do agree that it’s one of the more fun 14er routes for confident scramblers!

Hopefully some of that was helpful. It’s been about four years since I was last up there.. Others probably have a lot fresher memories.

Thank you SO Much for the awesome feedback. I have minimal class 4 experience (just needle and mt neva which is a 13er) and it's just minimal. I don't think exposure bothers me much; but I've yet to do something for that duration. I have Pyramid coming up so may wait until I do that and see how I feel.

[bdloftin77]

Thank you SO Much for the awesome feedback. I have minimal class 4 experience (just needle and mt neva which is a 13er) and it's just minimal. I don't think exposure bothers me much; but I've yet to do something for that duration. I have Pyramid coming up so may wait until I do that and see how I feel.

No problem! Pyramid's a fun one. It was my 14er finisher. If you try to take the easiest path, there aren't any huge walls that you have to go up. Sometimes to prep for harder peaks I've played around a bit on harder terrain (as much as I was comfortable with) to see how I handled things. There's a variety of terrain on Pyramid to cut your teeth on and see how you handle things. Lindsey's class 4 ridge route would be decent prep (though Kit Carson's ridge route is a lot longer), and Crestone Needle's headwall on the Crestones traverse is also very good prep - one of the better preparation routes for KC's north ridge in my opinion. If you handle the Needle's headwall well, then I think you'll do great on KC's north ridge. This is of course if you feel ready to do the Crestones traverse. If you climb Capitol, going up and over K2 (though short), would also be good prep. I haven't done Neva's class 4 route (on my list!), but that could indeed be good prep as well.

You might also have a general gut feeling on how you'd handle harder (or at least longer) scrambles. If in general you feel like you're a pretty confident scrambler, and that exposure doesn't bother you, there's also the option to just go for KC's north ridge at some point and evaluate right before or right as the terrain gets harder, knowing you'll have to downclimb whatever you choose to upclimb. Assuming the weather's good (and will continue to be good), and you don't have strong summit fever, you can always backtrack and go over Challenger if you're just not feeling it that day.

Some people advocate for very small increments in difficulty as you progress through your scrambling career. This is okay, and good. But I also think that slightly larger jumps can be okay depending on the person, and you don't have to be afraid of making too large of a jump as long as you're not getting in over your head and are okay backtracking or turning around before things get too rough to downclimb. Many in the forums caution and advocate for very small increments because we don't want accidents due to inexperience, lack of preparedness, or lack of confidence. But there's also a point where someone, who knows they have good scrambling skills and are comfortable with exposure, doesn't have to be afraid of taking the next steps. I was one of these people, afraid of the more difficult 14ers as I was progressing, when in hindsight I would have been fine. But others do feel much more comfortable with smaller increases in difficulty to boost their confidence and skills. It really depends on the person.

Best wishes on Pyramid and on the north ridge whenever you do it!

[Veory]

I agree with Ben that large jumps can be fine as long as you feel absolutely fantastic on the previous difficulty. My 14er experience, coming from having never climbed mountains, went something like Quandary -> Columbia -> Sawtooth -> Crestone Traverse within the first month or so of me moving here. Was I a little nervous at the time? Absolutely, but I'm really glad I ended up doing it that way.

Also I recall the N ridge of KC feeling exceptionally easy for some reason. I may have been off the ridge proper but my feeling at the time was that it felt like the least scary class 4 route I had done.

[JohnKLovesMtnGoats]

Hey! I just did it day before yesterday (Monday July 14).
I'll write a trip report but briefly:
the hike from the Willow Lake Waterfall (the second, really high waterfall) to the Outward Bound coulour took me a lot longer than planned, so perhaps take that into consideration time wise.
I have done the Second Flatiron Freeway about 15 or 20 times; it is the only flatiron climb I free solo, highest I have ever achieved in a rock climbing gym is 5 10a.
The North Ridge, at least in my own humble opinion, was a little easier / less scary than freeway.
I think my own preference is that when the ONLY thing preventing a fall is shoe friction I feel antsy. But on KC North Ridge I always could maintain 3 solid points of contact. That wonderful conglomerate rock.
There were one or two times that the best hand holds I could find were solid but small and I had to step up on a tiny foothold and wondered if those small holds would keep me glued to the mountain if my foot were to slip. No slips thanks to good rubber in approach shoes.
Alex Honnald says he doesn't ever think, " I am so far from the ground! I have so far to go!". He says he just thinks, "next handhold. Next foothold..." If that's good enough for him it's good enough for me! Oh, and if there's any likelihood of getting spooked, I don't look down while climbing.
These have served me well!
To be honest the scarier part was with those "grassy ledges", I was never sure I was in the right spot and occasionally I would take a ledge to nowhere and have to backtrack.
More detail in the trip report I'm about to write.
Good luck! It was a blast!

[Hfoltz0525]

Hey! I just did it day before yesterday (Monday July 14).
I'll write a trip report but briefly:
the hike from the Willow Lake Waterfall (the second, really high waterfall) to the Outward Bound coulour took me a lot longer than planned, so perhaps take that into consideration time wise.
I have done the Second Flatiron Freeway about 15 or 20 times; it is the only flatiron climb I free solo, highest I have ever achieved in a rock climbing gym is 5 10a.
The North Ridge, at least in my own humble opinion, was a little easier / less scary than freeway.
I think my own preference is that when the ONLY thing preventing a fall is shoe friction I feel antsy. But on KC North Ridge I always could maintain 3 solid points of contact. That wonderful conglomerate rock.
There were one or two times that the best hand holds I could find were solid but small and I had to step up on a tiny foothold and wondered if those small holds would keep me glued to the mountain if my foot were to slip. No slips thanks to good rubber in approach shoes.
Alex Honnald says he doesn't ever think, " I am so far from the ground! I have so far to go!". He says he just thinks, "next handhold. Next foothold..." If that's good enough for him it's good enough for me! Oh, and if there's any likelihood of getting spooked, I don't look down while climbing.
These have served me well!
To be honest the scarier part was with those "grassy ledges", I was never sure I was in the right spot and occasionally I would take a ledge to nowhere and have to backtrack.
More detail in the trip report I'm about to write.
Good luck! It was a blast!

Great thank you! I think a lot of times I don't look around when climbing so I don't think the exposure will really get to me. I do have approach shoes. May do it this sunday pending the winds. It does look a little higher than I like but we will see