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(Photo by DB--August 04,
2004)
Little Bear Peak from high on the West Ridge
(Photo
by DB--August 2002)
Crestone Peak from the North
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This page contains
pictures and descriptions from our August 3 climb of Crestone Peak via
the Red Couloir(south face), and August 4 climb of Little Bear Peak via
the West
Ridge. Unfortunately an untimely rain storm(exactly at our
planned departure time) prevented the
ascent of
Blanca Peak and Ellingwood Point set to take place late August 4/early
August 5.
The Trip:
August 2:
We arrived at the Colony Lakes road at 11:20pm, and
4-wheeled up it to the parking lot, arriving at about 12:30.
Realizing that there was not much time for sleep that night, we camped
next to the parking lot, rising at 5:00am on August 3.
(Photo by DB--August 04,
2004)
Brady High on Crestone Peak's South side.
August 3:
We broke camp at 5:50am and
headed toward lower S. Colony Lake taking the cut off to Brokenhand
Pass. Arriving at the turnoff 21 minutes after departure, we hit
the switch
backs, and then ascended the scrambling portion of Brokenhand
pass. We arrived on Brokenhand Pass at 6:48am, almost 1 hour into
the hike.
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The descent to Cottonwood Lake went
quickly. We passed several campers at the lake, and continued
west until we could see the ramp leading into the couloir on the south
side of Crestone Peak. This is where the guidebook directions are
a bit shaky. The best way to spot where the couloir is, is to
look for the water marks coming off the south face. Essentially
you want to head north and east(to the right of the water marks) around
the vertical rock below them. You then want to angle back
west(left) along the top of the vertical rock . You should
quickly cross the water runoff and then see the entrance to the
couloir. In the summer this route is easy, but more tough to see
with snow.
The rest of the route was pretty straightforward. We climbed
straight up the couloir, breaking left(west) near the saddle at the
top. Following good cairns, we ended up on Crestone's main summit
1 hour and 37 minutes after entering the Red Couloir. The summit
register was unfortunately sheared off.
Photo
by DB--August 2004)
Key near the red saddle on Crestone's south side.
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Photo
by PCK--August 2004)
Dan on Crestone's main summit.
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We did not get a great view that day, due mainly to moisture rising
from the valley, as can be seen in the above right photo. You may
also notice the rock helmets in these pictures. During this climb
we saw two large rocks come down, so be safe and protect your
head. Off the summit, we descended the route we had
climbed. Knowing that we had to get to Como Lake, and were
looking toward Little Bear the next day, we did not make a side trip to
the Needle. All in all, the GPS Rhino measured 4100 total feet
gained and 8.4 miles round trip to camp.
From the S. Colony Trailhead, we drove south to Medano Pass, and
crossed west over the range into the Great Sand Dunes. From the
dunes we headed south further to Como Lake Road. In the
stock '98 Jeep Wrangler, heavily loaded with gear, we made it 4.0 miles
up the Como Lake road before giving it a rest. This left 1600
feet and 1.6 miles to our desired camping spot. Loaded down with
awkwardly balanced, heavy packs, we slugged into camp at 11:20pm, and
hit the sack by midnight. This was the worst haul of the
trip.
August 4: Rising
again at 5:00am we left for Little Bear at
5:50. Being pretty groggy, and tired from the night before, we
missed the turn toward the gully leading to the notch in the West
Ridge. This cost us 30 minutes, but did not turn out to be a big
deal.
At the turn off, we talked briefly to a lady that had been up there the
day before, and said that there was a rope up there. After a
short debate, we took our ropes(10.3 mm 60m & 50m) anyway, and
headed up. We achieved the West Ridge in 40 minutes. This gully
was full of loose rock and scree, and for that reason we wore helmets
on this section. From the notch, we followed the well cairned
route east past point 12,980 and the notch on the east side of that
point. We had contemplated ascending that gully(to the 1st notch
west of the summit), which looks like
loose scree, vertical rock and some snow. This probably would
have taken forever, so it was good we had not improvised. We
continued along the cairned route to the hourglass. The entire
way along the ridge, I had been looking for people that may be climbing
ahead of us, or were above the hourglass. We looked to be alone
on the mountain. The Hourglass had only a trickle of water in it,
and was only tricky at the narrowest part. This "crux" of the
route was actually the most pleasant climbing that we did all
day. This could be because of our rock climbing
backgrounds. Above the crux, we got a bit messed up. We did
not see the cairns at first, and traversed right around the block above
the rappel anchor. The route that we took made the class 3
portion more like 5.0-5.2 with some small wall and chimney
climbing.
(Photo by DB--August 04,
2004)
Brady below the Hourglass.
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This section above the
Hourglass earns a measly one sentence from the guidebooks, yet a good
route is important here. Moving on solid rock prevents rocks from
being dislodged and falling into the Hourglass. At one point it
was even
suggested that we break out the pro and I go on lead. In any
case, 2 hours and 45 minutes after leaving camp, and taking one wrong
turn, we toped out on Little Bear. From the summit, I snapped a
picture of the ridge from Little Bear to Blanca. After a
quick discussion, we decided to
save this route for another day. Taking care to realize where we
missed the route on our way up, we took our time to follow cairns on
the descent. We found that we had only missed the cairned route
by about 10 feet, but where we had been standing could not have seen
the next cairn.
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The trick is to go hard left from the rappel
anchors toward a series of cairns on, or nearly on the crest of the
ridge. From the second or third cairn, we believe that you can
see the one we missed. Had we been at this set of cairns, it
seems we would have been able to see over the gully that we ended up in
that was preventing our view of the next set.
To see this next set, you would look back right from the second or
third cairn, and then from there the route sweeps that direction, more
toward the center of the face above the hourglass. From the
rappel anchor, we quickly learned that one 60m rope rappels you to just
above the narrowest, wettest part of the Hourglass. So we tied
the 60m and the 50m together and this distance was perfect. The
"fixed" rope in the hourglass was pretty beat up, cut and re-tied, and
the slings holding it were bleached from the sun. This is
probably good for balance, if you don't mind that it is also soaking
wet. The webbing on the rappel anchor look real new, and the pins
looked real solid.
(Photo by DB--August 04,
2004)
Brady coming off rappel on the Hourglass.
(Photo by
DB--August 04,
2004)
Key signing in, and Brady breaking out the summer sausage on Little
Bear's Summit.
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One last safety
note: pulling the rappel rope out dislodges some smaller rocks in
the Hourglass. Be ready for a shower, some with a bit of
speed(ask Brady),
when you pull your rope.
August 5:
Rain starting at midnight and continued till
morning. Due to our return to Boulder requirement, we missed the
Blanca-Ellingwood climb. We enjoyed the drive down Como
Lake Road, a 1lb burger in Alamosa, and the long rainy drive
home. Rush hour traffic and thunderstorms greeted us in
Colorado Springs and Denver. E470 was well worth the few bucks to
bypass.
Little Bear Route Details -
Posted(CLICK HERE)
Crestone Route Details - Coming Soon!
DB-August 2004
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