Ellingwood Ledges/Arete Climber's Log

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Dow Williams

Dow Williams - Jun 26, 2021 9:38 am Date Climbed: Jun 24, 2021

Ellingwood Ledges Arete (free solo)  Sucess!

Soloed the route on-sight on a Thursday. Due to an impending storm system, I encountered only one other human the entire day, a fisherman up at the lake. Zero climbers or peak baggers (the descent is the peak bagger’s ascent). I drove 2.5 miles up to the “new” trailhead (closed gate). That can easily take close to an hour for your typical 4x4. Another hour of hiking or less up to another gate on the road strewn with old camping sites. Another hour up to South Colony Lake. Less than another hour up to the start of the “full ledges”. This approach could not be more straight forward, but the contributor of this route to MP.com (2021) uses way too many words (and/or options) for how simple this approach is.

From a solo perspective, route finding is the challenge of this classic. I try and do the 50 North American Classics as they were FAed. Therefore, I started with what MP.com calls the “full ledges” start. I found that MP's beta also made this start sound more difficult than it needed to be. Simply traverse around the east side (left side) of the lake, staying high enough to avoid the marsh, and ascend the left side of the typically wet black drainage wall in the middle of the lowest wall on the Needle at the opposite end of the lake. It is an obvious break in the wall and used by big horn sheep, in fact I had to wait for one to descend before I went up through the one real option of grassy ledges. In late June, you will no doubt encounter some snow in this area. There is a significant grassy meadow up above which makes for a great foraging area for the big horns.

Once above the black wall, make a 4th class exposed traverse right and then up through the meadows and snow above to an obvious and easy diagonal upward traverse on twin ledges to the middle of the arete at least a third of the way up the Needle. Because the rock was wet and I was climbing in a cloud, I chose to climb three 150'+ corners enroute to the summit, two of which are marked as 5.9 variations on MP.com. The first two were a bit left of the arete proper. The second one, left facing, offered the best climbing on the route. The crux, in early season at least, is near the top of the wall when you traverse left up a ramp to a fixed pin (2021) via a slab below an obvious wide left facing corner. You do not take the corner, but rather make an exposed move through two pitons up a wide trough on the wall to the right. Then I got sucked into the main chimney back left. I spent a fair amount of time trying to stem through snow and wet rock up that chimney. Rather, you need to traverse right and up, exposed, after you reach the top of that short trough and locate another corner that I believe is the one that several complain about in terms of pulling through a bulge (discussion as to whether it is 5.7 or 5.9 on MP.com). It offered good secure crack climbing I thought as long as you stay in it. I can see, at that elevation, how many would think it is more difficult than 5.7. That is the third corner system I climbed and it essentially led to the top of the ridgeline just left of the true summit.

The contributor of this route to MP.com mentions descending skiers left, but in reality, you start descending the middle ridge right where you top out. There are tons of cairns and multiple descent options down the solid conglomerate. Most important, keep trending over ridges to the east (left) to avoid descending all the way down to a lake on the southwest side. Your objective is to make the Broken Hand Pass which was obvious from the lake. In late June, you typically will have snow to glissade down part of the gully before hitting the well cairned trail back to the lower end of the lake. Late June is perfect timing to see a new crop of big horn lambs (2021) above the lake.

shanahan96

shanahan96 - Aug 12, 2016 9:10 pm Date Climbed: Jul 24, 2016

third classic  Sucess!

incredible route on a great day! headwall pitches were more sustained than i remembered, yet we enjoyed them nonetheless. wish there were more routes like this on the fourteeners!

jamie

Bezoar Goat

Bezoar Goat - Sep 10, 2013 12:01 am Date Climbed: Sep 8, 2013

Bluebird  Sucess!

Beautiful day, fantastic route. Next time I'd take the direct approach.

strudolyubov

strudolyubov - Aug 18, 2013 3:49 pm Date Climbed: Aug 17, 2013

Ellingwood Ledges  Sucess!

Ledges start with Ryan. Scrambled to the base of the headwall and climbed it in two pitches. Nice rock, beautiful setting, - classic route!

Matt Lemke

Matt Lemke - Jun 12, 2013 8:00 pm Date Climbed: Jun 8, 2013

Great climb!  Sucess!

http://www.summitpost.org/crestone-needle-ellingwood-arete/852720

zoomloco

zoomloco - Jul 16, 2011 4:34 pm

ellingwood arete direct to traverse  Sucess!

http://zoomloco.xanga.com/732717261/purple-mountain-majesties/

Dropmo40

Dropmo40 - Feb 18, 2011 2:41 pm Date Climbed: Sep 3, 2010

wait for the wind  Sucess!

waited till the wind died down and got a start after 9 am. Multiple groups attempted the route that day but only 2 made the summit.

benners

benners - Jan 31, 2011 1:37 pm Date Climbed: Aug 20, 2009

Awesome Route  Sucess!

Climbed direct start with Tom Pierce. Roped up for five pitches.

mbdickhut

mbdickhut - Sep 21, 2010 4:08 pm Date Climbed: Sep 6, 2010

Potential New Pitch (FA?)  Sucess!

Took the Direct Start from the Upper Col. Lake. Added a bit of good adventure climbing to the route. Altitude got to me a bit since we drove up the day before from Arkansas. Forgot the topo in the vehicle and got off route at the headwall. See link on this site for potential new pitch. Regardless of an FA or not I was happy to add a full pitch to this outstanding classic. Please contact me if you have any beta on the potential new pitch!

BLong

BLong - Aug 29, 2010 1:10 pm Date Climbed: Aug 28, 2010

Classic route!  Sucess!

Great, exposed scrambling leads to fun high altitude climbing -- what more could be said of this awesome route? I do remember wishing that there was another pitch :)

We had 2 two-person rope teams leave the campground/trailhead at 6:00 AM and were back by 6:30 PM. It was a long, fun day in the mountains. Not recommended for those who aren't fans of exposure.

sierrasclimber

sierrasclimber - Apr 7, 2009 10:35 pm

Nice  Sucess!

Oh this was such a long day for me so long ago. Lucked out on the weather and no rain or storm. The biggest feat was I drove the road 4x4 road in less than 1 hour. Guess that is why my CJ7 was dead after that summer.

ripper333 - Oct 4, 2007 10:28 pm Date Climbed: Oct 3, 2007

snow/ice fun  Sucess!

the amount of snow and ice on the route took things up a notch to say the least.. but got the job done nonetheless.. long day big time....

Flex

Flex - Dec 19, 2006 7:58 pm Date Climbed: Jul 5, 2006

Fun Route  Sucess!

My B-day route for '06. We were camped at the Lower Lake, climbed 3 pitches of the direct start, unroped and soloed most of the route, belayed 3 more pitches at the the top and were back down at the lake for my B-day party at noon! Fun day in the mountains.

Isaiah

Isaiah - Sep 3, 2006 1:15 am Date Climbed: Aug 8, 2006

First true alpine lead  Sucess!

Wow, from the campground it took two of us 13:30 to do the entire thing. We left with the sun and returned as it did. Great weather (Thank God) and it gave me a ton of experience. The best and hardest mountain I have climbed to date.

Dan Leonhard

Dan Leonhard - Aug 24, 2006 12:20 am Date Climbed: Aug 23, 2006

what a day!  Sucess!

4:30am to 7pm. Parking in the passenger lot adds a lot of time but well worth it for this gem. Beautiful weather on a classic route! Need I say more?

Mountain Jim

Mountain Jim - Aug 18, 2006 4:04 am Date Climbed: Aug 21, 1987

Classic  Sucess!

Albert Ellingwood and Eleanor Davis were way ahead of their time. This is an impressive alpine route.

spenceinboulder

spenceinboulder - May 8, 2006 11:50 pm Date Climbed: Jul 26, 1998

Memorize The Descent Route on This Climb  Sucess!

We got a bit of a late start from the parking area (6am) and gambled with the weather. Great morning, great climb, but we were pinned down on a ledge in rainstorm two pitches below the summit for most of the aftenoon. We finally summitted at 9pm and promptly realized that neither of us had a clue about the descent. Kinda' complicated in the dark, zigged when we should have zagged. We optd for a cold bivy and then descended in the AM.

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