Jaime Bravo and I wanted to do a fun trip over Labor Day Weekend for most of the summer. After a bit of debating and deciding and backstepping and re-evaluating, we decided on Colorado. My friends Paul and Stephanie live in the Front Range and wanted to join us as well. After some more stewing about forecasts and travel times, we all decided on the Sangre de Cristos as our destination.
Paul and I had both climbed most of the 14,000 foot peaks in the South Colony Lakes Basin, with the exception of Crestone Peak. We decided to make that the focus of our efforts. It's a fortress of a mountain, with steep conglomerate walls blocking easy access on all sides. The easiest route, the Red Couloir, makes a pretty straight line up a large weakness toward the summit, where above 14,000' it winds its way across exposed Class 3 ledges. It sounded like our best option, but first we had to get there.
September 5th, 2015: Backpacking into South Colony Lakes Basin
After a nice night with a surprisingly large chunk of my extended family, Jaime and I drove South to meet Paul and Stephanie at the 4WD road leading to South Colony Lakes. We piled into one vehicle and drove the rough road to about 10,000', where we had to get out and hike.
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| Hiking into South Colony Lakes |
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| Navigating a stream crossing near our campsite |
The weather was cloudy and rainy, so we didn't dawdle much. It was about a 3.5 mile hike into the basin, where we scouted around for a nice campsite. Unfortunately, it rained off and on most of the afternoon and night. Paul and Stephanie were very unlucky and got caught in a freak downpour/hailstorm while out pumping water, getting them very wet. We had an early start, so we all retired early in an effort to get some sleep and stay warm.
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| Sweet campsite |
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| Filtering water for camp |
September 6th, 2015: Humboldt Peak (14,065')
We awoke around 4am to high winds, but thankfully no rain. Given the difficulties with the weather the previous night, we decided to go for an easier mountain first. Humboldt Peak is a gentle giant which forms the East wall of the South Colony Lakes Basin. Humboldt Peak isn't much more than a hike, so we thought it would be good to do in fouler weather as well as a great way to acclimatize to the altitude. We left camp around 5:30am, covering the 2500' to the summit in about 4.5 hours.
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| Early breakfasts are the best |
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| Windy sunrise (~12,700') |
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| Admiring the imposing Crestone Needle (14,203') near dawn |
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| Summit Ridge |
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Summit! |
We dealt with high winds and icy conditions to reach the cold summit around 10:15am. Luckily, the clouds began clearing up and the sun appeared to warm everything up. We got some nice views of the Crestones on the descent. We returned to camp around 1pm.
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| Crestone Peak (14,295') finally free of clouds |
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| We made some friends along the way |
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| Crossing the creek near camp |
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| Lounging after a successful summit |
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| Some pre-dinner bouldering |
September 7th, 2015: Crestone Peak
At camp that night Stephanie decided that she was going to skip Crestone Peak and take a rest day. With a forecast similar to the previous day, Paul and Jaime and I got a much earlier start. Though the Red Couloir is the easiest route up Crestone Peak, it starts in a different basin. In order to reach it we have to climb and descend a high pass both directions, adding considerable effort to the trip. We left camp at 3:00am.
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| Climbing Broken Hand Pass (12,900') |
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| Descending down the back side of Broken Hand Pass to Cottonwood Lake Basin |
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| Approaching the South Face of Crestone Peak near dawn |
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| Dawn over the Southern Sangre de Cristos |
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| Scrambling in the lower gully just after daybreak |
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| The upper mountain was shrouded in cloud |
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| Leaving the couloir and heading for the summit ledges |
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| Exposure is meaningless when you can't see more than 30 feet in front of you |
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| Jaime makes the final moves to the summit |
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| Success! Jaime's 2nd 14er in as many days |
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| A well deserved summit snooze |
We tagged the summit of Crestone Peak at 8:45am, and began the long trip home. We descended the same route we climbed, basically retracing our steps all the way back to camp.
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| Downclimbing back into the Red Couloir |
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| Slow going down the couloir |
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| A throne in the Hall of the Mountain Gods |
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| Chorizo all the way from the Lebanon Co-Op |
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| Finally on terra firma |
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| Bighorn Sheep with Broken Hand Peak behind. We still have to hike up and over that deep notch in the ridge on the left. |
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| Cottonwood Lake Basin |
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| Endless trail to Broken Hand Pass |
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| Endless |
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| It gets steep near the top of the pass |
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| Our reward? A loose, miserable descent back down into South Colony Lakes Basin. Humboldt Peak looms behind. |
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| Finally back in the basin. Near camp. |
We returned to camp just after 2:00pm, making for an 11 hour round trip. We could have been faster, but since Jaime and I only had two days and three nights to acclimate, I feel pretty happy with our time. Also, when we reached camp we realized Stephanie had done a tremendous amount of work breaking down camp. All we needed to do was pack our bags and head out.
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| Jaime the Diva, getting his knee taped |
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| One last goodbye to the South Colony Lakes Basin |
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| Success! Happiness is a comfy pair of shoes. |
We reached the trailhead after what seemed like an eternity on the easy trail back. Feeling tired and depleted, we stopped for some food in Westcliffe and then headed back to Golden where Jaime and I stayed at Paul and Steph's place, awaiting our flight home.
All in all, this was an excellent trip. We fit an awesome amount of stuff into a short weekend with only marginal weather and marginal acclimation. Jaime had been to Colorado only once before and that was only for a couple of days. He summited two 14,000' peaks, including Crestone Peak which is one of the hardest in the state. Pretty good for two dudes from the East Coast.
