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Trip Report: Challenger Point and Kit Carson Peak
Date: June 12-13, 2004
Route: West Ridge II, Class 3 (4.2 miles, 3,600 ft.)
Time: 7.5 hours roundtrip from Willow Lake
Approach: Willow Lake (7.4 miles, 2884 ft.)
Time in: 3 hours from Willow Creek TH to Willow Lake
Time out: 2 hours from the lake to the TH
Dan, Kenya and I left Conifer at 10am on Saturday and arrived at the Willow Creek TH (also signed the South Crestone TH) just before 1pm. We hit the trail a little after 1 and headed up up up. The trail was beautiful with some very nice vistas along the way. Many backpackers and day hikers were on the trail. Three hours and 63 switchbacks later, we arrived at Willow Lake. There were already a few campers and we found an open campsite on the west side of the lake. This has to be one of the nicest campsites I’ve been at. A gorgeous lake, with a huge waterfall feeding it, while surrounded by the rugged Sangres!
We left camp Sunday morning at 5am. We headed up the trail above the lake where we saw two other tents. We then started up the North Slopes of Challenger. Most of the climb is just steep and up until you gain the ridge. Then you cross onto the other side of the ridge (south side) when it gets more interesting. You traverse a series of cool ledges that were far more exciting and more "technical" than anything I encountered on Kit Carson. These ledges eventually spit you out back on the ridge and you take an awesome, airy ridge walk to the summit. Three hours after leaving camp we made it to the summit.
We left the summit and headed down towards the saddle between Challenger and Kit Carson. The first section of the Avenue was in view, and, as with most things, it looks much harder from far away than it is. Once we reached the Avenue, we noticed it was going to be easier than we thought. There is still snow, but enough has melted that you can pretty much avoid it all together. There is enough exposed rock on the ledge to stick to that, which we did. A few spots had a little snow to cross, but there were already solid steps kicked in. No snow gear is necessary (in my opinion) and our dog did it fine. We stayed on the Avenue for a while (as Roach directs) until finding the correct gully to go up. It was pretty easy going, and an hour after leaving Challenger we were on the summit. I’m not sure where the Class 3 scrambling was on this route… I found Challenger’s top section to be more fun and more challenging.
We left the summit and headed back down. The Avenue is a bit trickier this way since you are heading down. We quickly made it to the saddle. (If we had brought ice axes, we may have descended the Kirk Couloir.) We headed back up to the summit of Challenger (1 hour). We repeated the fun ridge walk and ledge traverse and started the knee-busting climb down. This has to be one of the more unpleasant descents due to the steepness and terrain. We were back at camp after about 2 hours. With time on the summits, our total roundtrip from camp was 7.5 hours. We saw a few other people during our climb, but as far as I know no others summitted that day.
We packed up our stuff and headed down the 63 switchbacks back to our car in 2 hours. Fun stuff! |
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