The Ellingwood Arete is a minor technical route on one of Colorado's most beautiful fourteeneers, the Crestone Needle. The peak stands at a booming 14,197 feet above sea level with the crux move of 5.7 at an even 14,000. There are more difficult variations for this climb if you feel comfortable above 5.7 with over 2000ft of exposure.
The group included Mark Turner, Mike Wooldridge, Will Wright and myself. We decided to take five days for the trip giving us a couple of days for acclimation and study. Mark, having the most technical background in climbing was deemed our fearless leader. I had only led one other natural route and did not feel comfortable doing one of this size, so Mark was kind enough to take the lead (I don't think he minded). Will came with us to do some fishing and to keep us laughing. Mike was looking for unexplored natural climbing gyms and trying to climb another fourteener after having summited Mount Rainier the previous month.
We really only had 3 days to play with, so we decided to climb the nearby Humbolt Peak, also a fourteener, to get warmed up and acclimated. We set off at 4:00a and summitted around 7:30 in the morning. The climb was beautiful and the sun was rising on us the entire hike. Every minute revealed new faces of the mountains, all with a morning glow. After napping and scouting around on the summit, we headed back down. The quick ascent from Dallas left all of us with headaches and nausea. Mark almost spewed on some friendly hikers and their dog.
The second day was spent scouting the route on the Needle. Mike claimed at least seven more "Climbing Gyms" and proceeded to break them in. After feeling so bad on the previous hike, Mike had basically decided to skip out on the Ellingwood climb. Mark scrambled up the first 200 ft of the route to check things out. His assessment revealed that we could not afford to rope up the entire route. Colorado in August brings many storms and you have to be off the top by 1:00p, or you are asking for trouble. We had already seen storms the previous two days, so we knew we had to ascend quickly and get off. The rest of the afternoon we spent watching a couple of climbers try to rope up on all the class four rock. They made it about half way up when the storms blew in causing them to retreat. This is when Mark and I made the final assault plans. We would be at the base of the climb by first daylight at around 6:00a. We would then have 3 hours to solo the 1400ft of class four rock. If we did not reach the headwall by 9:00a, we would turn around. If everything went as planned, we would have 3 hours to complete four pitches and 600ft of class five rock. This plan would give us some summit and descent time before the storms blew in. We would try tomorrow.
That evening we wined and dinned, literally. We hauled everything but the kitchen sink. We had wine, cheese, and crackers. Will even managed to cook us up some blueberry muffins.
We woke at 4:00a on the third day to make the hour run to the base of the mountain. We got there a little early and proceeded to "Gear Up" and "Psyche Up". As soon as we had the least bit of light, we started up. Most of the climbing was easy but exposed. We gained 1400 feet in about 3 hours and barely made the cut off time of 9am at the head wall. From there, nothing was easier than 5.5, and the altitude made those ratings seem harder. Right when we were ready to start the first pitch, a solo climber approached and climbed past us. Looking up at the headwall I could not image doing it without ropes, but I am basically a newcomer with little technical experience. The pitches definitely seemed harder than the ratings. Mark did not seem to have any trouble with the climbing and I wondered if I would ever be able to lead something like this. Maybe someday! During the third pitch and crux, the storms started to blow in a little early. It was about 12:00 and we were behind schedule and it had started to hail and I was getting really nervous. I could hear the lightning and it was starting the get really cold and I still had to climb the hardest section. The hail finally died off and we knew we were close to the top. The final pitch was basically a scramble to the summit, borderline class 4 stuff. We had made it! I have hiked in Colorado many years, but never thought I would be climbing more technical routes. The feeling was incredible. We took some pictures and met three other guys coming over from Crestone Peak via the ridge. We spent maybe 10 minutes on the summit when major lightning and storms finally blew in. It was around 1:30 and we thought we could be in trouble. We immediately packed up and started down the less technical route on the backside of the mountain. We spent about 4 hours descending in rain, snow, and sleet, but by 5:00p the storms subsided and the sun sprayed us with warmth.
We spent another evening in camp getting fat. What a life.....
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Crestone Needle
