This route, especially the Peak-Needle traverse, is extremely beautiful. Incredible views from picturesque rock features made of the classic Sangres conglomerate- always a hold where you need it! As advertised, there were fewer people and more mosquitoes on this route than the approach from South Colony Lakes. There were also more route-finding challenges and blowdowns and willows, BUT there was also much more shade and much less loose scree. This route has a very different feel than the approach from the South Colony Lakes TH. Recommend wearing pants to protect from plants!
*FKT Write-up*
Why I wanted to try this:
I saw that there was no male FKT for this very cool-looking route that Amanda Lopez put up last summer and having just done the traverse from the East (South Colony Lakes) side last week, I wanted to see if I could beat the overall Strava segment mark for this route, which, thanks to the 30-day trial of Strava Premium (I am cheap and refuse to pay for Strava), I saw that Ludovic Gros and Jake Albright had run 5:40:09 in October of last year. So, it stands to reason that going into today an FKT submission would have to beat this mark. Going into this effort I looked at splits other folks have done, which is not something I'd done before, but it was fun to guesstimate where I might make up or lose time. I'm kind of a shmedium-speed runner but I do okay on climbing and felt pretty good about my odds of making up time on the steep, rocky parts even if I wasn't sure I could hang at the pace these two set on every single section.
My splits:
Trailhead to lake 1:40
Crestone Peak summit 2:27
Crestone Needle summit 3:24
Broken Hand Pass 3:56
Back at trailhead 5:14:45
Conditions & Route-finding:
Conditions were cool and cloudy, without rain. Kind of a perfect July day. AQI in Crestone was pretty high ~60 but I think the asthma inhaler did its job and honestly the air quality seemed fine up high. I definitely did not take the most efficient route as I lost the trail in the woods a few times but was always able to backtrack. The traverse between the Peak and Needle is well-marked and I did it an hour and ten minutes faster on this go than last weekend where I spent over two hours on the traverse taking care to stay on the route. Coming down the Needle to Broken Hand Pass I probably could have stayed further East and moved a bit faster, but it was so foggy above 13500' that I followed one cairn to the next without being able to see further than that, and so I ended up in a different couloir than I had taken last week. I thought that this had added a bunch of time (and certainly some harder climbing), but looking at splits I don't think it actually hurt me that much. I probably spent about 20 minutes with bad route-finding, and I'm not an insanely fast runner to begin with, so I think this time is highly beatable and I encourage you to go beat it!
Food/gear
I ate some CT Crunch and a stinger waffle for breakfast around 4:30 AM and started at the trailhead at 6:04 AM. I had 4 liters of water with me (drank 3) including a hydration mix and some sugar water. I had a half pack of Clif gummies (margarita flavor is not great but at least it is miles better than mandarin orange) and 4 gels. Probably could have eaten/drank more but ya live and ya learn. I took an emergency blanket and a satellite communicator in my vest with snacks and water. I wore my helmet the entire time to avoid stopping to gear shuffle and didn't stop moving except once to tie my shoes tighter before beginning some of the steeper bits.
Final thoughts:
I had a ton of fun! Was lucky to have some cloud cover without rain- this route would have been much dicier had the rock been wet. These are my favorite mountains in Colorado! 10/10 would recommend to a confident friend.