Summer in the High Country

Me on the third class section of Ellingwood Ledges.

Josh and I were both able to get Friday off so Thursday night we headed down South to the Sangre de Cristo range for some backcountry alpine climbing. We bounced our way up a bumpy 4WD road for a few miles to reach the trailhead followed by a headlamp approach to Upper Colony Lake. In the morning we were up at first light and roped up for the Ellingwood Ledges route on Crestone Needle (III 5.7, 2000'). This is one of the 50 crowded climbs in North America which we observed firsthand with four other parties on route, on a Friday no less. The climbing was fun on a bomber welded conglomerate and we moved quickly staying ahead of the other groups. Josh put in a great lead up the crux pitch in a right facing dihedral just below the summit.


Ellingwood Ledges route with Upper Colony Lake in the foreground.

From the top of Crestone Needle we headed to nearby Crestone Peak. This is one of the classic fourth class 14er traverses in Colorado. We opted to down climb the Needle instead of rappelling. this was a bit exposed with challenging route finding, but it went off without a hitch. The down climbing completed it was another fun scramble up more conglomerate to the summit of the Peak. We descended the Peak via the NE Couloir to Bear's Playground just as the skies opened up. By the time we made our tent we were soaked to the bone.


Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep that liked the salt in Josh's pee.

Saturday we intended to climb the Prow on Kit Carson but were feeling a lack of motivation so instead opted for a leisurely hike up Humboldt Peak. The highlight of this fun grassy ridge was all the baby animals. We saw lots of baby marmots, pikas and some baby ptarmigan. On the way down I took a slight detour to do a wonderful mile long ridge traverse to recover some gear we had cached the day before in anticipation of our Kit Carson climb. Josh had a nice warm lunch ready for me when I made it back to camp and we spent the afternoon swimming in the lake, bouldering, napping, eating, playing with sheep, and generally having a great time. Somehow the rain showers avoided us for the majority of the afternoon.