A little background on Kit Carson Mountain: this name refers to the entire huge, complex massif. The highest peak is Kit Carson Peak at 14,165', a giant monolith which appears unclimbable from most sides. Challenger Point is the west peak, at 14,081'. Challenger Point rises more than 300' above its connecting saddle with Kit Carson Peak, but the separation between the two peaks is only 400 yards. Therefore, Challenger Point is included in some 14er lists but not others. Challenger Point was named in 1987 in memory of the space shuttle Challenger's demise. There is a memorial plaque on the summit; see the story of how the plaque was installed. To the east of Kit Carson Peak is a 13,980' summit nicknamed Kat Carson. Many climbers start at the South Colony Lakes and must climb over Kat Carson before reaching Kit Carson Peak. On the south side of Kit Carson rises a narrow rock fin called The Prow, a 5.8 climb from over 2000' below.

Foto ©2000 by John C. Maki

I reached the trailhead from the town of Crestone Saturday morning. My passenger car had no trouble driving all the way up the dirt road to the trailhead. The weight of my backpack was significantly down from my ascent of Humboldt Peak in June - 36lbs. When you first start hiking, you may wonder if you're on the right trail, but soon you reach a sign pointing to South Crestone Lake to the left, and Willow Lake to the right. The trail then goes through an open area with fairly deep sand on the trail. I passed a memorial for Emil Boden, 1967-1999, which was foreboding. I do not know who he was but I imagine he died on one of these mountains.

The trail to Willow Lake was very nice almost all the way, with easy switchbacks and little debris on the trail itself. I passed by a large grassy meadow, Willow Creek Park, at around 10,000'. At about 11,000', the climb steepens to get past a headwall, the creek forming a nice waterfall. I met a man coming down the trail, he told me I was about 2/3 of the way there. That was discouraging, since I thought I was more like 3/4 there. I think my estimate was closer to the truth.

Eventually I came to another waterfall, and I knew I was close to the lake because I saw signs warning campers to stay 300' from the lake. I went up a short trail and found a decent campsite, at about the same height as the fall. Within one minute of setting down my pack, I saw two deer and a bighorn sheep pass by. I set up my tent, placed my gear inside, and crossed the creek below the waterfall to scout around. Just over a large rock was Willow Lake. I hate to rate scenery, but Willow Lake rivals anything else I've seen in Colorado. The lower half of the lake is surrounded by large spruce trees and big rock slabs, and the upper end is ringed by a 200' cliff and a waterfall. You can see the valley continues after the upper waterfall, and dead ends into a series of rock walls.

                     
Fotos ©2000 by John C. Maki

After filtering some water below the waterfall by camp and making dinner, I took a little recon hike to the upper falls. The trail goes through the trees on the north side of the lake and makes its way through the namesake willows on narrow paths. Wearing shorts or short-sleeved shirts will get you scratched up here. Above the falls, I could identify some of the routes going up to Challenger, the Kirk Couloir, the North Ridge on Kit Carson Peak, and the Outward Bound Couloir.

It was cloudy most of the evening, but the clouds lifted just before sunset. I was already in the shadow at this point, but the cliffs surrounding the valley glowed orange. I went to bed, and awoke at 01:00, took a look outside, and the sky was full of stars. I awoke again at 04:00. I was hoping to be ready to hike at first light, but the next time I awoke was 06:15 and it was already starting to get light. I made some breakfast, filled my water bottle, and hit the trail at 06:45. I could see people making their way up the slope, it seemed they were undecided which way to go. They finally went more or less straight up a cleft in the face. When I made it to that point I could see cairns heading off more toward the southwest, which matched Roach's description, so I went that way. The route continued up grassy patches and talus until I reached Challenger's west ridge. Mount Adams appeared to the north:

Foto ©2000 by John C. Maki

The route led me to the back (south) side of the ridge, and followed a thin trail on the side of the south slope below the ridge crest. One of these goat trails was barely wide enough for my boots, with smooth, steep rock and a nasty amount of exposure. I believe this to be the technical crux of the climb, even though the final climb to Kit Carson Peak is rated class 3 and Challenger is rated 2+. I carefully made my way across the face, continued along on the south side for a while, then crossed back over to the north side. It was very windy on the ridge, I measured gusts up to 40mph. Once on the north side of the ridge, the route became easy and I walked up to Challenger Point at 09:30. The clouds kept rolling in, but nothing looked threatening. I thought it might snow later...

Foto ©2000 by John C. Maki

I snapped a couple pictures and left for Kit Carson Peak at 09:35. The descent to the Challenger-Kit Carson saddle was easy enough, then I found the ledge called "Kit Carson Avenue" traversing up toward the top of The Prow. This 10' wide ledge provides an easy way to traverse around the peak to the easier terrain on the east side. Without it, Kit Carson Peak would be the most difficult peak in the Crestones. The steep cliffs above the ledge make wearing a helmet advisable. Shortly I was at the Kit Carson-Prow saddle, where Kit Carson Avenue turns a corner and heads down a couple hundred feet. After turning another corner, I passed an area that looked like it might be climbable, but heeded the advice of the guidebooks and continued along the ledge. I reached two cairns marking a path upwards, and climbed up, following more cairns, until I reached the class 3 gully which marked the climb's finish. My biggest concern here was rockfall; I had two climbers following me and I took great care to avoid kicking rocks down on them. The climb was technically easy, I'm not sure if it rates class 3 or not.

I reached the summit at 10:30. There was a group of climbers on the top that was just leaving as I summited, so I sat up there alone for a few minutes until the pair behind me arrived. They had come up via the east ridge from Kat Carson, which is slightly more difficult than my route. We discussed climbing the Crestones for a while. I could see the Great Sand Dunes and the Sierra Blanca to the south. After 10 minutes or so, I headed back down. Again, rockfall was my primary concern on the descent. I found the cutoff from the gully to the ledge, and climbed back up Kit Carson Avenue. By the time I reached the end of the avenue a lot of people were arriving, and I gave a couple of them tips on where to leave the ledge and climb toward the summit.

Foto ©2000 by John C. Maki

Not wanting to return to Challenger's summit, I contoured along on solid talus at the 13,800'-13,850' level, which appeared to clear the cliffs below. There were two climbers ahead of me, and I caught up to them as they were asking a man how to best get down. They had climbed the North Ridge of Kit Carson, so they were unfamiliar with the standard ascent route. They decided to go straight down a steep gully. I saw some people crossing the ridge from the south side, so I went up to where they came from and traversed the same goat trails I crossed on my ascent. At the far end of my "crux" section there was a group of 4 people clustered together, it looked like they were waiting for somebody. I remembered that the easiest way was to drop down a few feet and cross at that level, and quickly made it across. I told them that was the scariest part of the climb, and one woman said they'd been stuck there, afraid to cross. She paid me a compliment and said of all the people they'd watched cross, I was the smoothest. :-)

Soon after that, I was back on the north side of the ridge, heading back down the occasionally grassy slopes toward the waterfall. It took me a while to find the cairned route, and I eventually made it down to the flat area above the waterfall. At the same time, the pair who went down the gully showed up, and the guy said the gully wasn't much fun. I asked him about the 4th class North Ridge route, and he said it was more like class 3, and highly recommended. This agreed with Roach's assessment, but Dawson makes it out to be a bit harder, so I was glad I did the standard route the first time there. Maybe next time I'll try the North Ridge. I made it back down to camp at 13:15.

I was tired and hungry, and filtered some water for lunch. My plan was to cook some food, take a short nap, pack camp and hit the trail by 15:00. After I ate, I felt invigorated and skipped the nap, and started down at 14:30. Thanks to the excellent trail, I made great time, moving along as fast as I would have without a pack. I reached the trailhead in just over 2 hours, and drove home.

All in all, a great trip, and a fun time climbing on a fairly challenging route. The routefinding is definitely the trickiest part here. My knees didn't even bother me all the way down. I was very impressed with the wonderful Crestone conglomerate, so much so that I started to write a haiku while climbing. It remains unfinished...