| Sometimes the 3rd time is the charm! Trip Report |
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| Sometimes the 3rd time is the charm!   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Colorado, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 37.97970°N / 105.6019°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Sep 1, 2007 Activities: Hiking, Scrambling Season: Summer | Page By: mtnhiker13 Created/Edited: Sep 6, 2007 / Sep 6, 2007 Object ID: 333838 Hits: 1462 Loading... Page Score: 88.96% - 16 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
We were set to attempt Kit Carson once again on Labor Day Weekend. We had attempted this climb twice before. Aaron had actually climbed the mountain many years before with his longtime climbing partner Jim. They had done it as a one day climb, an extremely long day. I couldn’t imagine doing the mountain in one day. Aaron had enjoyed the mountain and was willing to do it again so off we went!
My first attempt was 3 years ago during the 2nd annual Summer SP gathering. Alan Ellis, his wife Jackie (cruzit), attm, Andy, saint grizzly, Aaron Johnson and I backpacked up above Willow Lake on the first day and would attempt to climb the mountain the following day by the standard route.
Attm and Andy decided to take the north ridge route up Kit Carson. The rest of us headed up the standard route and the steep climb to Challenger. We could see Andy and attm’s progress on the north ridge.
Attm & Andy climb Kit Carson's North Ridge, July 2004 |
By the time we got to the summit of Challenger, the weather was looking rather ugly. As you can see from the picture, the clouds were just swarming around the mountain so at times from Challenger’s summit – you could not see Kit Carson, our objective of the day. Alan decided he was going to go ahead and attempt to summit. Aaron encouraged me to go with him so I could summit the mountain, but I am not one to leave my climbing partner behind.
SP members Aaron Johnson & Ellen Ritt with Kit Carson, July 2004 |
Vernon and Jackie being from much lower altitude were moving too slowly given the weather conditions. Aaron didn’t want to leave them to go alone down the mountain. I believe that Jackie had been feeling a little sick from the altitude. So we all retreated down the steep slopes of Challenger back to camp. We weren’t back to camp very long when the clouds unloaded a very heavy rain and hail storm. We were thankful we were not still on the mountain. Alan, Andy and attm were successful in their climb on this trip.
Fast forward to 2006, we decided to attempt Kit Carson again but to do it as a one day climb. Somehow I now thought this was a wonderful idea! We would start really early from the trailhead in hopes that we could beat the weather and daylight down the mountain. We headed to the town of Crestone on Friday night of Labor Day weekend. We stayed over night at the Sangre de Cristo Inn (which is a cute place if you ever need a place to stay in Crestone). Aaron’s longtime climbing partner Mark was joining us for this climb. When we arrived we could tell that it had been raining.
We got up early thinking that the climb probably wasn’t going to happen but we would hike up to the lake to check it out anyway. We started hiking around 5 am and reached Willow Lake around 8 am. By the time we reached the lake, it was snowing and we could see hail and snow on the mountain - not the type of conditions we wanted to climb Kit Carson in. Just making the steep climb up to the top of Challenger would be treacherous in such conditions. We sadly turned around at that point and headed down the plethora of switchbacks back to the trailhead.
2007 – once again we decided to attempt Kit Carson over the Labor Day weekend (would we never give it up?). We would climb Kit as a one day climb (we were still enthralled with that idea) on Saturday and then head over to Westcliffe on Sunday and climb Mt Adams from the east on Monday. Aaron’s longtime climbing partner Mark was considering joining us, but due to family commitments and other issues – had to bail out. As a party of two, we could move quickly up the mountain.
We once again booked our room at the Sangre de Cristo Inn and hoped for the best. A few days before we left – the weather report was looking excellent for the whole weekend. 20% chance of rain after noon was the forecast. With our super early start – we figured we would be off the mountain by noon and be heading down to safer ground.
The Inn called a few days before the weekend to confirm our reservation. The inn keeper indicated that there had been many bears in the area. One had broken into a parked car to get into a cooler. Another had gotten into a camper’s tent looking for food. Interesting!
Saturday morning we got up at 3:30 am and had decided to skip eating breakfast and eat breakfast above Willow Lake when we got there. I am not very good with eating until I have been awake for a while in the morning anyway. We were hiking by 4:05 am. As we were hiking up the trail in the dark, all I could think about were the bears in the area. We decided to start counting the switchbacks on the trail and calling them out as we passed. I was in the lead and would yell out “one” and when Aaron went around the switchback he would call out “one”. It helped pass the time until we could see some scenery and see where we were going and where the bears were!! We counted 61 switchbacks in all!
We didn’t see any bears and arrived at the bench above Willow Lake around 7 am. We took our planned breakfast break. It was a little chilly and so I was trying to keep warm while walking around and eating a bowl of Cheerios. This didn’t work too well and we concluded that as much as we hate eating at 3 in the morning, it was a better option than trying to eat this much on the trail. Aaron managed to eat a little more than I did but not much.
After our brief breakfast stop, we headed off to ascend the Challenger ridge. It was as steep and unrelenting as we had remembered it to be. A side note: There is a disadvantage to covering terrain you have already climbed. You know what is in store, sometimes this is a good thing and you look forward to it with anticipation. Sometimes it is a bad thing. In the case of Challenger, I looked at it as a necessary evil. You have to pay your dues to get to the cool part of Kit Carson. I knew the day would be long and punishing and coming back down the Challenger slope would be grueling. But I looked forward in anticipation of the fun route up Kit Carson as the reward.
The weather was looking pretty good and I make the remark that this was the best weather we had seen while attempting this mountain! There were a few clouds forming but nothing ominous yet.
We pushed up the steep slopes – the standard route has just torn up the tundra and turned the route into a slippery, loose mess. In a way it is difficult to see the mountain in such a sad state. But Kit Carson is a very popular 14er and there is probably no way to avoid this. Perhaps someday the CFI will get around to building some sort of “trail” up the slope to prevent further erosion.
Between the soggy and slippery parts on the first 1000 feet of climbing at the bottom and the loose scree for the second 1000 feet of climbing, by the time you get to the summit ridge of Challenger, you are mentally if not physically drained!
I had been trying to force down food but nothing tasted very good. I felt like I was on the verge of losing my lunch. I tried a little bit of everything I had in my backpack and nothing was appealing. I finally managed to choke down a granola bar and we continued up the slope to the notch in the ridge. Once on the ridge, we enjoyed the solid rocks. It was then that the clouds were getting more noticeable. At this point we were not too concerned.
It had taken us about 2 hours to reach the summit of Challenger and so it was only 9:30 am. We were right on the schedule we predicted we would be. Aaron estimated it would take us about an hour to get to the summit of Kit Carson and so off we went. We were now entering new territory for me and it was exciting. As we crossed over from Challenger to Kit Carson avenue, I was in awe of the terrific exposure on the west side of Kit Carson. We started up Kit Carson Avenue - what a great feature on the mountain – it was a comfortably wide shelf with stunning views off to the side (if you like that sort of thing).
Extreme exposure on Kit Carson Avenue |
Aaron Johnson ascends Kit Carson Avenue |
The avenue then loses altitude around the corner at the Prow and goes downhill on the south side of the mountain. There are two couloirs you can climb to get to the summit; the first one you come to is a steeper class 3 couloir (western coloir) which is solid rock for the most part. If you descend a little further east – you will come to the standard route couloir which is class 2, a little shallower angle but from what I understand, the rock is much looser. We opted for the steeper west couloir. What fun climbing it was! From the avenue – we had 500 feet to get to the summit.
Aaron Johnson ascends the west couloir on Kit Carson |
At long last we reached the summit at around 10:30 am. It was thrilling to finally be where I had attempted twice before to get to! It was then I said to Aaron – hey look at that cloud! The clouds were billowing up very quickly around the sides of the mountain. We knew that this was no mountain you wanted to do battle with a thunderstorm! We took a few summit pictures, tried to eat a few more bites and started to head down. We wasted no time getting off Kit Carson and back over to Challenger.
Thermals rapidly rise around Kit Carson |
As we headed back up to the summit of Challenger to traverse the ridge –we ran into the largest group of ptarmigan I think I have seen. I counted about 10 of them – there were also the fattest ptarmigan I think I have seen.
We quickly traversed the ridge. We noticed all along the southwest side of Challenger the clouds were as thick as fog. Pic here It was very reminiscent of our trip in 2004. We took one look at that and said – thank heavens it was on the side of the ridge we were not descending. We quickly started heading down the steep slopes. It was unrelenting going down as it had been going up. We only stopped briefly once for a quick bite to eat and we kept going to get off the slopes before they were wet with rain or hail.
Scary clouds on Challenger's ridge |
We were relieved to reach the bench above Willow Lake only 90 minutes after leaving the summit. We took a long deserved break and filtered some water for the trek out. By now the weather wasn’t looking too bad down in the basin and towards town. Clouds were still circling the summit of Kit Carson and the ridge of Challenger. When we were heading down we still saw people heading up. We thought they were crazy!
We hung out for about an hour before reluctantly started to pack up and head down the 61 switchbacks.
As we headed down the switchbacks through the rocks below the lake, it started to rain and thunder. We stopped to put on our rain gear at this point. After we crossed the major stream crossing and were heading down more switchbacks, it started to hail. We kept seeing more and more people heading up the trail to set up camp. It was quite funny as we got closer and closer to the trailhead, people kept asking us “How far is it to the lake?”. When we told them at least 2 hours, they didn’t look too happy! I told Aaron if they had to ask how far it was, then they probably shouldn’t be up there hiking in at 3 pm in the afternoon!
If there is ever a friendly trail on a mountain, the trail down Kit Carson qualifies. At the bottom there are nice gentle switchbacks and the trail is very soft sand/dirt. This is very comforting on your feet and legs at the end of such a long tiring day. You really couldn’t ask for a nicer trail than this!
We were very happy to be going back down the mountain. We finally arrived at the trailhead around 5:30 pm. We quickly drove down to Crestone to shower and find some food. We really had not eaten that much all day except at our one long rest above the lake.
The Mexican restaurant across the street from the Inn was closed. We opted not to eat at the bar and grille and headed east out of town to check out the golf course restaurant. We probably should have kept looking for better food but by this point we were the walking dead and just wanted to go to sleep! We decided the veggie burger and fries sounded good. Well it wasn’t! I don’t know how you can mess up French fries but they were not even cooked. The veggie burger was like a hockey puck. I managed to choke mine down so my stomach wouldn’t be empty and be growling all night.
We wearily headed back to our room and searched through our backpacks for some additional items to munch on. Chili Cheese fritos did the trick for dessert and we laughed about our wonderful dinner. We had planned to eat breakfast in Crestone in the morning before heading over to Westcliffe but we knew we probably would be out of luck finding somewhere that was open. But alas, while looking through some tourist information left in the room, I discovered another restaurant in town called the Desert Sage and they served Sunday brunch! I quickly called them to make sure they were going to be open the next day. They said they would be!
We headed there in the morning and it was a great breakfast. We wished we had discovered this place the night before because we could have eaten dinner there. The omelet was so huge I could not even finish it.
After our great breakfast we took off and headed to Westcliffe to continue our climbing weekend in the Sangres. If you want to continue reading about our adventure on Mt Adams, go here.
Final note: If you decide to climb Kit Carson as a one day climb instead of backpacking to Willow Lake and climbing the mountain the second day, make sure you have the strength, conditioning, stamina and endurance to pull it off. This is especially important if you need to descend quickly in the event of a storm (which is frequent in this area). Get a very early start which will increase your chances of success on this wonderful mountain! Images
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Sangre de Cristo Mountains > Kit Carson Peak - Challenger Point > Sometimes the 3rd time is the charm!
