Here's a report on our CMC climbs this past weekend in the Crestones.
Drove in on Friday; the S. Colony Lakes Road is as bad as it's ever been. But with the car users and backpackers, the basin is almost like a small city on weekends.
Saturday saw us doing a leisurely 13 hour day going to Crestone Peak and back via Eye of the Needle Pass & under perfect skies. There are trails going up to the Pass, but either you start at the lower lake on a vague trail going up the gully, or you bushwhack thru some willows on the bench south of the lower lake to pick up another trail. The approach to the Pass is generally loose scree with a short 3rd class chute. The Forest Service plans to put switchbacks on this approach in next year or two. The work is overdue as there is severe erosion on both sides of the "Eye" Pass.
Descent from the Pass is easy enough with a good trail taking one past Cottonwood Lake and into the basin at the base of the Peak's South, or "Red", Couloir. For me, this col is one of the best rock scrambling routes on any 14er, with 2,000' of varying types of rock; enough exposure to excite, but not scare the s....t out of you like Capitol or Eolus; and a little rock fall danger, but nothing like Bear or the Bells.
On the descent, we avoided the water polished rock and the "stepladder" in the lower col by getting up on the east side and following part of the "Roach route." There is a small cairn of almost whitish rock marking where to come out of the col. This leads one down to a grassy bench and an easy descent to the east, then south into the basin. As an aside, there were about twenty big horn sheep in this basin when we were there.
I had to beg off the Needle on Sunday and Humboldt yesterday due to bad blisters. Thanks to John Mill for subbing for me. He reported a fun climb of the Needle, and followed the usual Roach route, including the changeover into the west col part way up the Needle's south face. Humboldt was uneventful. They did avoid following some cairns on Humboldt's west ridge. The cairns were followed in '96 and our group found ourselves doing 3rd class scrambling and at least one exposed 4th class move on Humboldt's north face before we "wised up" and got back on the easy ridge crest.
Steve
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