14ers to Pursue Post-Capitol

[Tornadoman]

A big -1 for Crestone Traverse which I admittedly haven't done. There have been serious issues on that traverse 3 weekends in a row (2 people who left there packs for some reason and then got into trouble with route-finding, and one that included a series of errors which has a trip report on this site). I would probably want more route-finding experience before tackling that one (personal and unpopular opinion- doing Crestone Needle as a standalone prior to doing the traverse should be a pre-requisite to help prevent all the route-finding problems that people seem to have descending the Needle).

[-wren-]

(personal and unpopular opinion- doing Crestone Needle as a standalone prior to doing the traverse should be a pre-requisite to help prevent all the route-finding problems that people seem to have descending the Needle).

IMO, by far, the hardest part of the routefinding on the traverse was the descent of the needle, having not ascended it before. Cairns are scarce and there are many variations. Lots of intuition required when descending blind that only comes with experience on other seldom traveled and confusing scrambling routes. Without that it would not have felt as manageable as it did, and even still it would have been nice to really know the route first. The routefinding on the traverse itself isn't a total cakewalk either.

I'd echo Camden in that there are are a ton of gems to be found on the 13ers, not to mention even lower peaks! The trip report section of this site is an incredibly valuable resource.

[Will_E]

If you descend the east gully, the routefinding isn’t difficult, IMO. Seems like the difficult routefinding is finding the crossover from the west gully to the east gully.

And for reference, I’m the world’s worst route finder.

[Tornadoman]

If you descend the east gully, the routefinding isn’t difficult, IMO. Seems like the difficult routefinding is finding the crossover from the west gully to the east gully.

And for reference, I’m the world’s worst route finder.

Well then people need to stop f***ing it up every damn weekend. Sure doesn't seem to be trivial.

[Mtnman200]

If you descend the east gully, the routefinding isn’t difficult, IMO. Seems like the difficult routefinding is finding the crossover from the west gully to the east gully.

And for reference, I’m the world’s worst route finder.

Well then people need to stop f***ing it up every damn weekend. Sure doesn't seem to be trivial.

I will never understand why people choose to use the crossover when the route is so straightforward if you don't.

[DaveLanders]

If you descend the east gully, the routefinding isn’t difficult, IMO. Seems like the difficult routefinding is finding the crossover from the west gully to the east gully.

And for reference, I’m the world’s worst route finder.

I agree that routefinding should be straightforward once you get in the east gully. However I've seen several incident reports where people got in the wrong gully when starting down from the summit. I don't remember whether all of these were people coming from the Peak, or if some of them hadn't paid enough attention while ascending the Needle.

[nunns]

If you descend the east gully, the routefinding isn’t difficult, IMO. Seems like the difficult routefinding is finding the crossover from the west gully to the east gully.

And for reference, I’m the world’s worst route finder.

I disagree. I am the world's worst route finder.
Not only did I have trouble on the descent of the class 3-4 portion of the Needle, I went to Willow Lakes, which was a problem since I was camping at South Colony Lakes. Don't ask me why I didn't believe the compass.

Sean Nunn
Raytown MO

[scvaughn]

If you descend the east gully, the routefinding isn’t difficult, IMO. Seems like the difficult routefinding is finding the crossover from the west gully to the east gully.

And for reference, I’m the world’s worst route finder.

I agree 100%. Taking the East Gully simplifies the route finding, and it's a lot of fun.

[Reg0928]

If you descend the east gully, the routefinding isn’t difficult, IMO. Seems like the difficult routefinding is finding the crossover from the west gully to the east gully.

And for reference, I’m the world’s worst route finder.

I agree 100%. Taking the East Gully simplifies the route finding, and it's a lot of fun.

The east gully definitely simplifies the route, but there are several gullies near the summit and it's still easy to end up in the wrong one. Hell, on my 3rd time up The Needle via the east gully route I dropped into the wrong gully off the summit. I was totally socked in (which isn't unusual on The Crestones) and could only see for a for few feet. Luckily previous knowledge of the route helped me to realize my mistake and I backtracked up to the summit. Without a previous ascent of the route I likely would have had a tricky situation on my hands.

I'd recommend the Crestone Traverse as a logical next step from Cap only with a previous ascent of The Needle via the standard for route scouting purposes.

The final face is complex, but overall the route finding on Cap isn't a glaring known issue like it is on The Needle.

Are the bulge and crux wall on the traverse a logical step up from Cap's hardest climbing moves? Yes.

Is the route as a whole a good recommendation? I don't think so. Especially with the OP's limited route finding experience.

[scvaughn]

If you descend the east gully, the routefinding isn’t difficult, IMO. Seems like the difficult routefinding is finding the crossover from the west gully to the east gully.

And for reference, I’m the world’s worst route finder.

I agree 100%. Taking the East Gully simplifies the route finding, and it's a lot of fun.

The east gully definitely simplifies the route, but there are several gullies near the summit and it's still easy to end up in the wrong one. Hell, on my 3rd time up The Needle via the east gully route I dropped into the wrong gully off the summit. I was totally socked in (which isn't unusual on The Crestones) and could only see for a for few feet. Luckily previous knowledge of the route helped me to realize my mistake and I backtracked up to the summit. Without a previous ascent of the route I likely would have had a tricky situation on my hands.

I'd recommend the Crestone Traverse as a logical next step from Cap only with a previous ascent of The Needle via the standard for route scouting purposes.

The final face is complex, but overall the route finding on Cap isn't a glaring known issue like it is on The Needle.

Are the bulge and crux wall on the traverse a logical step up from Cap's hardest climbing moves? Yes.

Is the route as a whole a good recommendation? I don't think so. Especially with the OP's limited route finding experience.

I took the advice of several to climb both Crestones separately before doing the traverse, due to the route finding issues on Crestone Needle. IMO, you're giving good advice. The traverse is on my "to do list" for next year.