October 3, 1999
These magnificent Fourteeners are about six miles East of Crestone, Colorado. The Willow Lake trail provides the most direct access to Challenger and then Kit Carson. The trailhead is on the right fork of the South Crestone road about 2.3 miles East of Crestone (the left fork dead ends). Washed out sections in the road require high clearance 2WD or 4WD. The Forest Service sign at the TH only says "South Crestone," but 50 yards up the trail there is a sign which shows the Willow Lake trail cutting off to the right. The only other climber I met Sunday thought he had reached the wrong TH and had driven all the way back into Crestone for directions to the Willow Lake TH. The USFS should clarify on the sign that two trails are accessed from the South Crestone TH. I would have been confused too except for the warning note in Gerry Roach's Fourteener Guide. There are several, large campsites at the TH. Take 5 minutes to drive around quaint Crestone, an old gold mining town with several restored log homes.
Willow Lake is the largest alpine lake I've seen in Colorado, probably 8-10 times larger than St Mary's Lake. There is a majestic 200+ foot high waterfall at the East end of the lake. The standard route is about 4 miles and 2500 vertical feet to the lake. The route then pushes through dense willows around the North side of the lake and across a shelf above the waterfall. (Coming down, I found a better route around rather than through the willows. On the ascent, at the West end of the lake, take one of the well worn climbing trails up above and around the willows. It sure looks better than wandering on the braided trails through the willows. You have to gain the elevation anyway to reach the shelf above the waterfall.)
The shelf above the waterfall provides a view of the intimidating climb ahead. The best climbing route is along the left rock rib of the obvious deep couloir on the far right side of the ridge. A rock filled gully leads up to the bottom of the couloir. (The couloir had snow and is probably climbable with ice tools and crampons. The snow in the morning was rock hard, and some sections had not softened even late in the afternoon. The Kirk Couloir, below the saddle between Kit Carson and Challenger was a long, steep snowfield about 300 feet wide and appeared to have been climbed. I considered a glissade down it on the descent, but from the top it appeared to be around 60 degrees. Not wise in the best of conditions. Plus, this would be prime avalanche terrain.) The climb up the couloir and rock ridge seems to take forever (about a mile) and you can't see Challenger until you gain the ridge and then traverse the ridgeline across to your left to the Point, with it's bronze plaque memorializing the space shuttle Challenger crew. The route is pretty much unmarked with a few sections of faint trail. Some cairns lead you to the right of the side of the couloir, but previous posts have indicated that right side leads to 4th Class climbing. On the ascent, remember the steep cliffs left of the couloir. After climbing Kit Carson, you have to to regain Challenger and follow the ridgeline back to the top of the rock ridge. It's vertical you don't want, but there's little choice to avoid being cliffed.
>From Challenger it's a short downward traverse to the saddle between Challenger and Kit Carson. Around the right side of Kit Carson is the obvious wide 6-8 foot wide ledge system which leads you around to the opposite side of Kit Carson and the easy 2+ scramble up a rock filled gully to the small summit. The ledge was about half snow and half melted out dry scree. Although the ledges are wide, this route would be extremely slippery if covered with hard snow. If you exit Kit Carson Avenue just before the gully, it's fun 3+ Class scrambling on solid rock with good holds up to the summit. Continuing around to the gully is the easiest route to the summit.
Retrace your route around Kit Carson (the ledges are an unwelcome steep climb to regain the Kit Carson/Challenger saddle), regain Challenger Point, and traverse down the ridgeline to the top of the rock rib and the descent route. I made the mistake of downclimbing from the saddle to check out Kirk Couloir and ended up traversing the steep face, about 50% covered with 2-6 inches of snow, for an infinity back across the face below the ridgeline until I intersected the rock ridge. The traverse would have been impossible to negotiate without an ice axe for three/four point stability and self-arrest (thankfully uneeded!).
This is one of the harder Fourteener routes I've completed. It's rated as 11 miles round trip from the TH and 6000+ feet. Round trip took me 15 hours, with nearly no breaks, starting in the dark an hour before sunrise and ending at 9:30 PM about 2.5 hours after dark. Definitely a long, tiring day. Possibly a better plan would be to camp along beautiful Willow Lake, but the backpack in would also be challenging. A simple elevation difference between the TH and summit is 5300 feet. With the ascents and descents along the route, 6000 feet is likely - although by the end of the day it seemed like 8000! The day was 40-45F, barely a breeze, with a perfectly clear blue sky. Views from the summits of the San Luis valley and nearby Crestones were breath taking. This is undoubtedly one of the classic "must see" Colorado climbs.
I hope this information is helpful for everyone planning a trip into this area. Special thanks for recent trip reports by Steve Bonowski and Gary Hellenga which provided a lot of valuable information on the routefinding and problems to avoid. The Roach and Dawson guidebooks were also helpful, each providing insight into the climbing routes.
Doug Cook 05 October 1999 ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- Terms and conditions for this server: send any email to info@climber.org Administrative commands like unsubscribe send email to lists@climber.org Help: Try rockies-owner@climber.org first, then email admin@climber.org