7/16/2011 Route: Posted On: 7/18/2011, By: taylorzs Info: The Cresones are mostly dry now. The Ellingwood Arete was dry and there was no snow present. The traverse was dry as well. There was patchy snow and running water in the Red Gully in a few places. It was not difficult to go around. We brought axes and crampons, they were not necessary. I would not bring them any time soon on these routes. The south face of the Needle looked pretty dry from Cottonwood Lake and the summit. |
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7/9/2011 Route: South Face Posted On: 7/10/2011, By: tmathews Info: Red Gully is climbable without axe or crampons. Traverse to the Needle is in good shape, too. |
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7/1/2011 Route: South Face Posted On: 7/2/2011, By: Nelson Info: I climbed this on the 1st of July. There was a good freeze the night before and crampons and ax were a must to get up Broken Hand Pass. There are two snowfields in the red gully. I needed ax and crampons to get up but as the sun hit (9 am) it softened quickly. I climbed the Needle on 7/2. It was much warmer the night before and crampons and ax were not necessary to get up to or down from Broken Hand Pass. Things are melting fast. |
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6/26/2011 Route: South Face Posted On: 6/26/2011, By: blues311 Info: I climbed Crestone Peak today. The Red Gully has two long stretches where crampons and an axe were necessary. In areas where there was no snow, water was running down the middle and for the most part I stayed to the left of it. Attached pic is the gully from the notch at 14100. |
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6/11/2011 Route: South Face Posted On: 6/12/2011, By: dmccool Info: The climb up Broken Hand Pass was very solid snow early in the morning. There is boot pack through the snow field and up the couloir to the top of the Pass. The descent to Cottonwood Lake to is completely snow free. The Red Gully was a mixed bag of solid snow, ice, and rushing water (on top of snow and underneath it). The top of the Red Gully holds solid snow, but is a pretty steep snow climb. Be very careful on the downclimb of both the Gully and BH Pass in late morning/early afternoon because the snow is getting pretty soft. |
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6/4/2011 Route: Posted On: 6/6/2011, By: tmathews Info: The NW couloir was a mixed bag of conditions. Snow was kind of soft at the base, but firmed-up as I got higher. There are several sections of water-ice that can be bypassed, but one large section near the top required me to remove my crampons, climb up some dry rock, and put them back on again immediately afterward (not comfortable enough on ice yet). The Red Gully was a sloppy wet mess. About half-way down, there was evidence of a recent slide -- probably within the last 2-3 days of my climb. Due to the rapidly-melting snow, there were also sections of water-ice on top of the snowpack. I had to again remove my crampons and downclimb some rock to my right. There is not enough exposed rock through the length of the red gully to NOT make this a snow climb right now. |
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4/2/2011 Route: South Face Posted On: 4/3/2011, By: BillMiddlebrook Info: Continous snow top to the bottom in the gully with the exception of a short (10') patch of rock approx. 1/3 of the way up. Once at the saddle, there was snow on the ledges up to the summit that ended about 30 yards from the top. More info on the approach from South Colony Lakes TH: Parked near 9,000 and the road was on/off snow for about a mile. Then it was continous snow all the way to SC lakes. Snow/bare spots from the lake up to 12,400' and then snow up through the difficulties leading to Broken Hand Pass (bare near the top of the pass). On the other side, snow starts 100' below the pass and was continous past Cottonwood Lake and up Crestone Peak. |
