CRESTONE NEEDLE
(14,197')June 10, 2006
By Tim Briese
Several months before the climb I received an e-mail out of the blue from an old friend, Dallas Virchow, who lives in Lincoln, Nebraska. He said he was going to be in Colorado for a conference in early June and wondered if I would like to climb the Crestone Needle with him. The Needle, of course, is one of my favorite 14ers and I was immediately interested. Dallas is an experienced alpinist and veteran rock climber, having climbed the Grand Teton, Devils Tower, and Denali, among other things, but had done little of this over the past 20 years or so, and had not climbed much in Colorado. He initially suggested climbing the Ellingwood Arete on the Needle, but I feared I would be getting in over my head on that classic technical route and proposed that the standard south couloir route would provide adventure enough.
Dallas drove to my house on Friday evening, the night before the climb, and we rose early the next morning and headed south to the Sangre de Cristos in my truck. I forewarned him about the horrors of the South Colony Road, and true to form, it turned out to be an adventure in itself. Every time I drive up that rough route, which is somewhat generously called a A road@ , I might add, I swear to myself it will be the last! The road was scheduled to be temporarily closed starting the following Monday for some sort of A road improvement@ project. We incredulously wondered what the road builders hoped to do with the numerous gnarly rock protrusions and gaping holes in the horrible road. We drove about three and a half miles up the road and parked, then walked the last mile and a half up the roughest part to the four wheel drive trailhead.
We walked past several parked vehicles and a few campsites and continued up the fine trail to Lower South Colony Lake. The Needle was an impressive sight towering above the basin. The morning was clear and beautiful, with a bit of a chilly wind blowing out of the northwest. After a brief rest on a slope above the lake we began climbing up the trail toward Broken Hand Pass. A nice new trail has been built for this purpose since I was last here a few years before. The trail switchbacked up the talus slope above the lake and then curved toward the couloir below the pass.
I suspected that we might encounter snow in this couloir on such an early season climb, in spite of a light winter snowpack in the Sangres. Sure enough, there was a considerable amount of it lying in the steep, shady couloir. Fortunately we had our ice axes along in anticipation of this possibility. We met two climbers who wisely turned back at this point because they did not have axes. The snow was rather icy in the early morning chill, so we carefully climbed up the steep slope, with Dallas in the lead. Upon reaching a narrow and steep gap through some rocks, we awkwardly squirmed through and continued a few more feet up the snow until we reached dirt and scree above. A few minutes later we topped out on the crest of 12,900 foot Broken Hand Pass. We were greeted here by a shaggy white mountain goat who stood nonchalantly a few feet away.
After sitting down for a short break in a rocky gap just north of the pass we continued on the nice trail that goes along the western side of the Needle=s southeast ridge to the base of the south couloir. The Needle loomed imposingly ahead. Just before reaching the base of the couloir we were faced with a 20 foot descent down a rocky face. I did not recall such a difficult obstacle the last time I was here. We looked around for a way down for a couple of minutes, and Dallas proposed that we might rappel off the rock with a rope he was carrying along, but we shortly found a way to drop down without it.
With helmets on we began the climb up the 800 foot couloir on the south face of the Needle. This was a great deal of fun, especially with the fine knobby holds afforded by the conglomerate rock found on the Crestones. Dallas scrambled nimbly upward, with the athleticism of a true rock climber. He apparently hadn=t lost much of his alpine touch after several years with little climbing activity, I noted. We rapidly ascended to the top of the couloir and then headed northwest on steep slopes toward the summit. At times I suspected we were not necessarily on the easiest route, but that was okay with me.
A little before noon we stepped on top of the dramatic summit, which was quite a thrill. After a few minutes we peered over the edge to the north and inspected the difficult ridge traverse to Crestone Peak, which we had discussed possibly attempting today as well. It was quickly apparent that this involved far more than we cared to tackle. While we sat resting on top two other climbers clambered up to join us. They were carrying technical equipment and told us they had come up the Ellingwood Arete (Class 5.7). They had left the two wheel drive trailhead about 5 a.m., hiked five miles up the rough road to the upper trailhead, then hiked up the approach to the Needle and scaled the arete. We thought that feat was quite impressive, particularly in such a short amount of time.
Fine weather graced our climb today, except for a chilly wind that whistled across the summit. We sat on top and enjoyed the summit experience for over a half hour before taking our leave. We found our way back down into the couloir, generally following about the same route we had taken up. Like a nimble mountain goat Dallas scampered on ahead. We could see several climbers approaching from below so we were careful to avoid rolling loose rocks down on them. When we encountered them I noticed that none had helmets on, which seemed rather risky to me in this steep couloir. I asked them to yell loudly if they knocked any rooks loose when they got above us.
We quickly descended to the bottom of the couloir and began the traverse back to the pass. We found a rather easy way to climb the 20 foot step that we hadn=t noticed going the other direction. The steep snow below the pass was now softened by the afternoon warmth, which made for a comparatively easy and enjoyable descent.
Upon reaching Lower South Colony Lake we sat down to rest our legs after the steep descent. The Needle towered magnificently a vertical half mile above. After resuming the hike we continued down toward the four wheel drive trailhead, and encountered several casual hikers admiring the scenery along the lower part of the trail. As with most trails, the number of hikers encountered was inversely proportional to the distance from the trailhead.
Around 4:30 we returned to my truck, completing the eight and a half mile hike in about nine hours. This was my third climb of the Needle, and I have thoroughly enjoyed each ascent of this dramatic peak.
