"Northeast Crestone"

Route: Crestone South Face
Posted On: 6/26/2025, By: clando
Info: Day 2/2 in the Sangres. Knocked out the Crestones and subpeaks. 4/4 for the traverses. I attached pictures of conditions. So they’re not pretty but should give some useful beta. Overall, very little snow. Almost total summer conditions on all parts. BHP has snow below the crux in some traversable or avoidable fields. The crux has a little bit of ice on one side, but doesn’t affect it much. No snow above the crux. Crestone’s red gully is almost snow free. All water and snow was avoidable. If doing the traverse, you’ll likely have to cross a few snow filled gullies to reach the route on the way back done. There is a bit of snow in the Crestone/EC notch, but avoidable. If anyone is planning on doing NEC, the gully down to the EC/NEC notch is full of frozen snow and ice. Not doable with spikes. I would prob want crampons and an axe or two. I ended up doing a diagonal down climb to reach the notch, not a great idea. Very few holds. The scramble up NEC from the notch is clear and solid. My only realistic option back up was the 4/5 climb up EC east face from the notch. I’d advise waiting for it to melt or preparing for a real interpretive scramble to get to that notch. The traverse from peak to needle is in good shape overall. No spikes or axe needed, unless you wanted it. Besides the aforementioned snow in the red gully to start the traverse, there wasn’t any snow until just below the 5.2 crux bulge. It’s frozen pretty well with steps kicked into it. I walked right up it, no issues. There is also more snow and some little bits of clear ice above the crux and below the knife edge. Plenty of rock to grab onto, but worth mentioning. That is the last snow I saw. Crestone Needle is essentially bone dry. Cairns are well placed, didn’t even need the 14ers guide for it. Ran into lots of great people out in the area, had a blast. 

Route: From Crestone Peak saddle
Posted On: 9/3/2023, By: daway8
Info: Repeated this climb after helping a friend tag Crestone Peak as a Finisher. I followed the tip from Ssgustafson to use the left gully descending from the Crestone Peak saddle and confirmed it felt much easier than the right - pretty much class 3, maybe a couple moves of difficult class 3. For NE Crestone itself I swung further to climber's left and had some robust low to mid 5th class that was very solid and enjoyable (and very exposed - as compared with the more protected 4th class to the right of that in the gash). Went over and partway down the far side of NE Crestone to scope out the end of the North Buttress route and confirmed it's class 5 with the skinny ridge top phenomenally exposed - not for the faint of heart. Lots more photos this time and from more vantage points so will probably do another TR to expand on the beta for this totally sweet tower of a 14er sub-summit (which is part of the list of 74). Also caught photos of someone else going up. 

Route: From the Crestone /E Crestone saddle
Posted On: 8/21/2023, By: Ssgustafson
Info: Great day on Crestone Pk and the E & NE subpeaks! The traverse to NE is mostly Class 3 but has several Class 4 or potentially Low Class 5 sections depending on route choice. There are two descent gullies from the saddle and I chose the one on the left as you face NE which was Class 3 / 4. On the return, I ascended the other gully (that looks up to pointer rock as described in some trip reports) and that was more like Class 4+/Low 5 in a spot or two. The actual climb up NE was straightforward and the route I picked didn't exceed Class 4. Some people I met in the Red Gully were cheering me on from over on the summit of Crestone which added to to the fun! 

Route: From Crestone Peak saddle
Posted On: 7/9/2022, By: daway8
Info: Since the gully coming off the saddle between Crestone Peak and East Crestone is kind of tucked away, I wasn't sure if it might still be filled in with leftover snow that would complicate getting over to Northeast Crestone but fortunately it was dry. I can confirm that climbing NE Crestone from the Crestone Peak side is indeed class 4 on mostly very solid Crestone conglomerate (as opposed to class 5 reported from the Humboldt side); however using either the gully (very loose) or the wall along the east edge of it (more solid Crestone conglomerate) to get over there felt more like low 5th class at times. The very exposed ledge just below the summit of East Crestone (class 2 or 3) provides an excellent vantage point to inspect NE Crestone from above before climbing it, allowing you to pick up two 14er sub-summits.