Crestone Needle (14197') - 1989 Trip Report
Sunday, September 3, 1989
Alan Silverstien
The Needle is one of the more impressive peaks in Colorado. I climbed it
my second time the long way, from the west. It involved gaining nearly 6000'
and camping out two nights. As it happened, it was the only peak we visited
from that trailhead.
The previous Friday evening, Bruce Tepley and I discovered to our
delight that there is a public hot shower in the laundromat in Crestone ($1),
and that the grocery store is pretty well stocked. It was too late in the day
to start up Cottonwood Creek, so we drove 1.2 miles east of town again, toward
the Willow Lake trailhead, and camped on sandy flats. Saturday morning I set an
alarm for 0500 and observed an unusually bright comet with binoculars, without
leaving my sleeping bag. (No, I didn't meet any bears this time...)
Being in no hurry, we had a delicious hot breakfast in Crestone. Then we
drove south to the Cottonwood Creek trailhead, 5.5 miles beyond the Baca Grande
entrance gate on the south side of town. The road is paved for a while but gets
increasingly bumpy, and crosses one ``unsafe bridge'' (that you could "4 WD"
around if necessary). It passes a number of spiritual retreats.
At the townsite of Cottonwood, 8420', we had a hard time finding the
trail. After some exploring (wearing full packs), we discovered it starts as a
"4 WD" road just east of the large water tank up the hill, well left of the
creek. For about 1/4 mile you could drive it; then it becomes a rather
primitive, overgrown trail. It's always on the left side of the creek, but
after a couple of miles it gets very hard to follow.
We discovered the penalty for losing the main trail is scrambling (still
with full packs) up steep Sangre de Cristo type rock, and doing a lot of
bushwhacking. There are many cairns off the best route. It was amazingly easy
to lose the ``good'' (though unimproved) trail each time we found it. There are
some places where it drops or winds through thick forest. Even on the way back,
we lost it several times, despite serious attention to following it.
We hoped to reach Cottonwood Lake, but I was tired and couldn't march
fast enough. I'm slow with a backpack anyway. We hiked for a little over six
hours, 1155-1805, before finally calling it quits after gaining 2900'. We
parked for the night at a pleasant campsite on a flat under deep trees, about
11320', near a waterfall and the continuation of the trail up a very steep,
rocky hillside. It was just past a nearly invisible fork in the trail (you
need a map if you visit this area!) It turned out to be the last possible
place to camp under trees. Straight line distance from the trailhead to that
point is 3.3 miles, so I guess the trail distance is about 5 miles.
Sunday morning I felt well rested and we left camp with daypacks at
0700. Before long we lost the trail again, at timberline on the way to a higher
bowl. No problem; we climbed and traversed high on the rocky, grassy left side
of the valley to just below Cottonwood Lake, 12310'. We took a break at the
lake at 0810, surrounded by tundra and steep rock walls. The south sides of
Crestone Peak and Needle loomed above us. Long, low morning sunbeams decorated
the environs.
From the lake we found a mostly grassy route east and north to the
Needle's SE ridge. There was no reason to go as far as the lowest saddle on the
ridge (the crossing point to South Colony Lakes). We found the main trail and
followed it left, back on the ridge to the base of the pinnacle at 0910. There
the route drops about 50' to the left to enter the lower of two steep,
bare-rock gullies. A cold wind crossed the ridge.
We proceeded up the gully with several other parties and made the
treacherous crossing left, up, over, and down into the higher gully (the worst
climbing on the route). I thoroughly enjoyed it even though it was quite steep
and airy at points. When you are comfortable on exposed terrain, it's a great
joy scrambling on solid, knobby conglomerate rock. For some reason, though, we
were about the only hikers with the sense to wear helmets.
We arrived on the wondrously complex summit at 1025 (3:25 for 2880' from
camp). The view is of course spectacular, especially NE straight down to South
Colony Lakes. We had lovely, clear Fall weather, much better than three years
ago when all I saw was fog! There were about 15 people on the Needle,
continuously coming and going, some starting a rappel to traverse to the Peak.
There is enough room to sleep on top, if you have the gumption to carry a full
pack up there!
Bruce and I departed at 1130. Despite my having been there before, we
were led astray by cairns, too far left along the ridge above the NE face. I
was complacent. After descending a while and realizing our error, fortunately
we spotted people on the main route. We found a way to traverse over to it
before the going got any more exposed. It wasn't real risky but it wasn't fun
either. Moral: Pay very close attention to your return route once you enter the
lower gully. It's easy to get lost.
We downclimbed slowly. At the base of the pinnacle we followed the lower
gully down a couple hundred feet more until it ended in a V-cliff looking right
down on Cottonwood Lake. We backtracked and about 100' higher we crossed over a
ridge. We found the next gully east to be passable, though steeper and looser
than our up-route further east. It provided us a direct route down to the lake
again at 1355.
Once at the lake the route to Crestone Peak, up a red rock couloir, is
clearly visible. It looks easier than it was from the other side. (If camped at
South Colony Lakes, you might prefer to cross the saddle, drop nearly to
Cottonwood Lake, and climb the Peak from that side.) But it was late and
clouding up, and we'd had our fill. We decided to skip climbing another 2000'.
We mosied down to camp, following the trail this time, though it nearly
vanished at several steep spots. We arrived at 1525, 3:25 from the top, 8:25 on
the round trip, just before the heavens parted in a thunderous deluge.
We packed up inside our tents. Later when the rain stopped, we hiked and
downclimbed for nearly two soggy hours to a nice campsite by the creek at
roughly 9400'. Monday morning it only took us an hour more to finish the hike
back to our vehicles. We parted in Crestone. I stopped at the Salida hot
springs pool to convalesce from the week's exercise.
This article used with permission of the author.
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