Drove from Colorado springs to the Willow Creek Trailhead and arrived around 1:30am. With a planned departure of 2am, I was able to nab 10 whole minutes of sleep, score 1 Kit Carson. I departed the trailhead at 2am and made great progress, maybe too good of progress, up to the creek crossing where I switched from approach shoes to boots and skins. At this point, I started to feel not so good. I felt nauseous and all energy drained out of me, and I began to get really cold (It was a cold night and I had gone very light, expecting to do a big day, so was very light on insulation). In hindsight, I probably was going too fast at first, wasn't taking sips of water or having anything to eat, all mixed with the 10 minutes of sleep. I slowly zombie-ed my way up to meet Natalie (snowalien) at her campsite, just before Willow Lake. I sat down in the snow, accepted some warm water and passed out for another 10 minutes or so until Natalie was ready to move.

We took the standard left traverse that goes above the lake and the cliff bands, and I clearly remember feeling like a zombie: eyes closed, walking towards the sound of Natalie skinning ahead of me. Thankfully Natalie said "We can take a break once we hit the sunlight" which would end up being the cure to my personal zombie apocalypse. We got to the sunlight on the apron below the Outward bounds couloir, I plopped down, ate a snickers bar, and chugged some water and proceeded to pass out for 30 minutes.

Zombie-Matt with his patented bent-over-inefficient-AF skinning body position #ProStatus

Pretty sure I am sleep walking in this picture, Natalie can confirm, my eyes were closed and mouth open looking real intelligent

I awoke to a random alarm, it wasn't Natalie's and I had never heard that alarm before.... super strange. I felt a lot better and we began booting up towards the O.B. Couloir. With so much new energy and feeling almost myself again, I quickly ascended the well put in boot pack and offered to lead the boot pack. As we ascended the O.B. Couloir, we were both making comments about the awesome conditions that there were, soft and uniform but appearing to be well bonded. The boot pack went fairly quick, but with awesome skiing conditions sometimes comes not so awesome boot pack conditions, we weren't salty!

Natalie leading the boot pack from my nap spot

Me taking over the boot packing, feeling like a normal human being again!

Natalie booting up the O.B. Couloir

We topped out the O.B. Couloir and I immediately started traversing to the right towards the south face of Kit Carson. I recommend descending to the right and then ascending one of the main snow couloirs, I wasted time and energy doing weird traverses across the multiple rock ribs to get over into the main snow couloir. Once in the main snow couloir, the rest was easy bootpacking to the summit ridge and then the summit itself. The views of Crestone Peak's NW couloir were absolutely stunning! Everything in the area was plastered with rime and it gave everything a mystical look, super cool scenery!

Natalie, after traversing over a rock rib (recommend going below the ribs then heading up the main snow couloir)

Crestone Needle's NW Couloir looking absolutely amazing! Natalie down below

The route up NW Couloir on Crestone Peak (I really would like to do a link up with this from Kit Carson via the Cole Couloir!)

Natalie topping out onto the summit ridge, looking back towards the Westcliffe area

Another beautiful shot of Crestone Peak, the Great Sand Dunes, and the Blanca, Ellingwood, and Little Bear cluster

Natalie topping out on the summit

Me on top, in my sweet La Sportiva jacket they gave me for our #ClimbingForCasualties trip #ShoutOut #AlmostSponsored haha

Thought about giving the camera some "Blue Steel" action, but didn't want to try and take center stage with Crestone Peak in the frame....

Gotta show off the #ClimbingForCasualties shirt. If you don't know, check out our webpage at https://www.specialforcesfoundation.org/climbing-for-casualties or find us on Instagram/Facebook!

We spent a few minutes on top, enjoying the amazing views and beautiful weather, but then it was time for the fun part: SKIING! Check out my youtube video below for a summary of the skiing (Can someone tell me how you can actually put the video on the trip report? I've seen it done). From the summit down the South face, we had nice and soft corn, and when we got down to where we would have to boot up a little to the saddle for O.B. Couloir and Cole Couloir, I couldn't resist getting a couple turns down the Cole Couloir and adding some more booting to the day, WORTH IT! Once we topped back out over the O.B. Couloir, we were STOKED to drop in on the awesome snow we had climbed earlier. I dropped in first and was super stoked about the conditions, stable powder! We ripped turns all the way down to the apron where we reconvened at my nap spot. What an amazing ski descent! Natalie said it was probably the best ski conditions she has had on a 14er!

Super-Duper-Dope Ski Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC6UUKx24y8

Natalie Skiing down the South Face

Booting back up after skiing a portion of the Cole Couloir, just getting some extra credit in!

Looking down into the O.B. Couloir

Natalie ripping turns in the O.B. Couloir

Me getting some sweet turns in on amazing conditions!

Natalie ripping down the apron, SUCH STOKE!

Once we got to the nap spot, we headed back down to Natalie's camp and I left back for the trailhead within 10 minutes or so. Made it back down to the car at about 3pm for a 13 hour day on ~50 minutes total sleep, booyah!

Thanks for reading!