Craig's Picture of the Day

By Robert Cort

Monday, September 3, 2007
Challenger Point and Kit Carson Peak

Trailhead	8,860
Camp (just below Willow Lake)	11,498
Challenger Point	14,081
Low point on the Kit Carson/Challenger Saddle	13,760
High point on the Kit Carson Avenue (above the 'Prow' of Kit Carson)	13,940
Low point on the Kit Carson Avenue	13,550
Kit Carson Summit	14,165
Total Elevation gain	6,727

My brother and I were planning to run the Imogene Pass Run the weekend after Labor Day, which gave me the perfect excuse for a late summer outing into the Colorado Mountains. On the down-side, because of work, I had been on the east coast (basically at sea-level) for the past two weeks, which would make climbing 14ers that much tougher, also making getting some time at altitude before the Run more important. Via e-mail exchange, my brother and I decided to meet in the tiny town of Crestone, CO and try Challenger Point and Kit Carson Peak. I left Las Cruces at about 5:30 am on Sunday for the planned 9 hr drive to Crestone. Figure 1: 'Welcome to CO' (hey, it's not easy taking pictures at 70 mph)

My brother (Bill) called when I was just south of Alamosa, and said he was just passing through Montros...dang, I could've stopped and lost some money at the casino! I arrived in Crestone at about 2:00. I took some time to reorganize my stuff, then I checked out the 'alternative energy fair' in the town of Crestone. Some neat stuff at the fair, but if you're expecting to see a demonstration of how to live 'off grid', this isn't the right fair. Sitting in Crestone, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains rise so abruptly, it almost started to give me a neck ache...in a word spectacular. About the time I expected Bill to arrive, a massive thunder buster drifted off the Sangre's and dumped copious amounts of hail and rain. I started to worry about packing in through that mess. Bill arrived just as the storm faded out, and we drove the approx 2 miles to the trail-head through a light drizzle.

Figure 2: Challenger Point (just right of center) from the San Luis Valley. Crestone is tucked right at the base of the mountains in the center of the photo.

At the trailhead, we enjoyed a cold pre-hike cerveza as we divided up tent/stove/cookware/water filter etc., then left the trailhead at about 5:30 pm. We passed quite a few very wet hikers coming down the trail just as the sun started to re-emerge, so even though our late start meant getting to camp late, our timing relative to the storm was perfect. We had hiked about an hour, and gained nearly 1,000 ft in elevation when we stopped for a break (see photo below), and this is when I realized that my camera was in still in the truck. Bill refused to 'run' back to the truck and get it for me...subsequently, all of the remaining pictures are Bill's.

Figure 3: The north ridge of Challenger Point after the storm

The sun set just as we approached the top of the headwall (below the lake). Since it was getting dark, we took the first good camping spot we found. It was close to the trail, but we didn't expect too much traffic during the night. In the morning, we noticed that most of the other campsites were full anyways.

At some point during the night, I woke-up with a monster headache, and had difficulty sleeping after that. I guess the two weeks at sea-level were worse than I planned. I woke-up with some classic signs of AMS (acute mountain sickness) (headache with insomnia and a little nausea). I was bummed because I doubted my ability to summit that day. I popped a couple of vitamin-I (that's ibuprofen if you were wondering), and ate breakfast. It's good to have an understanding brother...he said "no problem, we hang out here and summit tomorrow", but I knew that would kill any chance at another 14'er on Tuesday. After breakfast (Oatmeal) and coffee, we decided to gear-up, and hike above the lake then see how I felt. Since I didn't expect success, we were in no hurry, and we didn't leave camp until 7:30.

Figure 4: First view of Willow lake...beautiful!

By the time we got above the lake, I felt better, so we stopped to pump water, hoping that the weather and my head would hold out.

We started up the steep slope towards the north ridge of Challenger Point, following the 14ers.com route description and photos. The grassy sections were slick from the previous evening's rain, and at one point we came across a "no-kidding” crater where a large rock had fallen from above and splattered into the rain softened earth. As we got higher on the slope, Bill veered further left than I did (he followed the route description better). I ended up climbing some more difficult rock before angling left on some pretty solid class three rock. After crossing a steep loose gully, my route merged with Bill's near the top of the ridge on some nice grassy ledges. This was an okay alternative to the loose main route (which I descended), but took a little longer (as Bill gained the ridge top ahead of me).

We gained Challenger's spectacular ridge (very sheer right (west) side), and made quick work of the final walk up to the summit. The weather was beautiful...not a cloud in the sky, slightly stiff and chilly breeze. We didn't spend long on the summit, hoping the weather would hold for Kit Carson. My head felt great, so I took another precautionary vitamin-I, and we headed for Kit Carson Avenue. Two other climbers were arriving on the summit shortly after we left.

Figure 5: Bill on Challenger Point's Summit (Plaque commemorates the 7 astronauts who lost their lives in the Challenger accident). Great Sand-Dunes and Blanca Group 14'ers in the background.

Figure 6: Me on Challenger Point with Kit Carson directly behind, and Crestone Peak to the right in the background.

The route up Kit Carson involves circumnavigating >180 degrees around the peak via a ledge system called Kit Carson Avenue, visible as a diagonal crack in the photo above. Kit Carson avenue looked scarily small (narrow) from the summit of Challenger, but I knew from previous trip reports that it would be accommodating. After arriving at the avenue proper, I found it to be a really cool feature of the route. It was plenty wide, but the exposure to the right hand side was more than I expected (I am somewhat afraid of heights). As we hiked around the avenue, the other two climbers caught up to us. As Bill and I debated which gully to ascend, the other two climbers continued on the avenue. In my mind, and based on the 14ers.com route description there are two alternatives. The first was cairned, and marked with someone's walking stick. The second appeared to match the 14ers.com photos (there is a rock rib with a deep split in it...almost a double rib?). Anyhow, since the route description matched the second gully better, we started to ascend it. The other two climbers quickly came back from the Kit Carson/Columbia Point saddle and we decided collective to stay close together to minimize the rock-fall risk in the relatively loose gully. We made the summit, and the four of us chatted for a few minutes. One of the other climbers left shortly thereafter, so the three of us remaining decided to wait until he was safely out of the gully before we started down (good time for a snack). After about 45 minutes on the summit, we decided to head down (plenty of time for the other fellow to be out of the gully). The down-climb in the gully was easier than I expected, and Kit Carson avenue came faster than I expected. I could see how people could miss it on the down-climb as we later learned must have happened to the other climber.*

Figure 7: Me on the traverse of the Avenue

Figure 8: Bill and I on the Summit of Kit Carson (with Crestone Peak behind)

Figure 9: Looking down on Willow Lake from Summit of Kit Carson

Clouds/Fog were making for some interesting scenes as we traversed back across the avenue, I worried that they were a portent of weather to come, so we didn't dilly-dally too much in making our way across Challenger (although I did make sure to touch the summit of Challenger again. Can I count it twice?) and descended to the lake. We crossed paths with a family of big-horns near the bottom of the slope, stopped at the lake for some photos, then back to camp. As we broke camp, the clouds started to build in earnest, and we heard some distant thunder. Anxious to get lower, we beat a hasty retreat towards the headwall. We were well down into the trees when the rain and hail came. And, boy did it come!!! Fortunately, the hail was small. We were pretty low in the deep valley, so we felt the best course was to continue hiking (there was no place to shelter from the lightning. In hindsight, the one thing we should have done is separated further from each other, so we couldn't both be hit by a single strike). We arrived back at the trail head just as the rain ended, and I'm sure we looked just like drowned rats.

Figure 10: Great view of Crestone Peak with clouds forming (taken from back down on the Avenue)

Figure 11: Looking back down towards the Challenger/Kit Carson Saddle from near the high point on the Avenue.

Figure 12: Bill in almost exactly the same spot only a few minutes later...shows how fast the fog/clouds were moving in and out.

After arriving back at the lake, how could we not stop and take some photos...

Figure 13: Looking back up at Kit Carson from above the lake (Challenger to the right, summit not visible)

Figure 14: Willow Lake is beautiful!!

Figure 15: Another shot of Willow Lake

*Close call on Kit Carson? This is the rest of the story about the "other climber" that I referred to earlier. Last we saw him, he was descending off of Kit Carson while we relaxed on the summit. When we got back to the lake, we came across a younger man taking a nap. As we broke camp, the "napping guy" came by our camp and asked if we'd what he described as the guy that left the summit of KC ahead of us. We said "yeah, we'd seen him, and he should be way ahead of us". He must have talked to the third climber too, because he said that he had heard the same thing from someone else. As the "napping guy" hustled down the trail, I thought holy crap, I hope that's what happened, because the alternative could be worse. The only thing I could think of is that he climbed down the gully past the exit to Kit Carson Avenue. Later as we hiked through the storm, I heard someone from behind say "can I get past"...we chatted for a few seconds, it was the "other climber", and he did indeed get lost on the descent somewhere. I'm not sure where, but I still think he missed the avenue coming down the gully. He must have gone a long ways down to be that far behind us, especially since he was a fast hiker. I was relieved that he was both fit-enough to re-climb and beat the weather. All's well that ends well?

Meanwhile, Bill and I drove to Salida, enjoyed Pizza and beer,
and decided to try Yale on Tuesday...