Kit Carson Peak & Challenger Point, CO

Objective:  
Summit Kit Carson Peak (14,165') (successful).
Summit Challenger Point (14,081') (successful).
  
Date:  
July 30-31, 2004
Photogallery:  
Party:  
Nina Lanza, Robin Blume-Kohout, and Mouser Williams
Summary:  
An unexpectedly long backpacking trip up to Willow Lake and then to the summits of Challenger Point and Kit Carson Peak. The weather was perfect for the entire trip.
Route:  
From Los Alamos, NM, 502 to 30 to Espanola. 285 north to Alamosa, 17 north to Moffat, east to Crestone. Followed the trailhead instructions in Roach. Hiked the standard Willow Lake approach and west ridge routes as described in Roach. Approximately 6,300' of gross gain and 18 miles round trip on foot.
Noteworthy:  
My fifth and sixth fourteeners, Nina's first and second, Robin's ninth and tenth.
The most gross gain of any hiking trip I've ever done. The second longest hiking distance.
Lessons Learned:  
Don't always trust distances given in trip reports, even from Gerry Roach.
Put fruit in a puncture-proof bag.
Friday, July 30
Nina and I had the day off, so we drove up to Colorado in the morning. As we got onto Colorado 17 north of Alamosa, we could see our destination and a large storm descending on the peak. By 11:00am, the peak was obscured in a dark cloud. Strangely, as we got to the trialhead just after noon, the storm was totally gone, leaving a clear sky. The storm persisted for less than an hour and never rematerialized.

After getting our stuff together, we backpacked in to Willow Lake. Roach's book implies that the trail distance from the South Crestone trailhead to the Willow Lake campground is less than four miles. The straight-line distance between the two points is 2.3 miles, but including all 62 switchbacks along the way, I estimate that the hiking distance is more like 6 or 7 miles.

We were expecting a short hike, so we were taking our time. As a result, the hike in took forever. We left the trailhead at 1:00pm, and arrived at camp just after five. Willow Lake is beautiful, but camping isn't allowed along the shore. The good campsites are all just below the lake at the base of a small waterfall. There were two other groups setting up camp when we arrived.

Unloading my pack, I discovered that my apricots had been crushed and furthermore that the bag had torn and apricot goo had gotten all over everything. It wasn't as bad as it sounds; I was able to clean off just about everything with some wet wipes. I fed the apricot goo to a nearby chipmunk who seemed to enjoy it.

We made a fire and hung out with a couple from Colorado Springs until it got dark just after 8:00pm. We were both tired from hauling heavy packs up 3,000' to the campsite, and we knew we were waking up early, so we went to bed at about 8:30.

Saturday, July 31
Robin couldn't take Friday off of work and wanted to practice his trailrunning skills for an upcoming pace run in the Wasatch 100. His plan was to drive up to the trailhead Friday night, get up at 4:00am, and run up the trail to meet us. I lent him one of my FRS radios so that we could communicated while he was en route.

Nina and I woke up at 4:00 and made breakfast. An incredible amount of dew had settled onto everything which made getting ready a little less comfortable. I made contact with Robin on the radio a bit after 5:00 and he had apparently lost the trail in the dark just below the headwall, and decided to climb directly up it (class 4). When we left camp at 5:45, he was above the headwall and bushwacking his way towards the lake.

Nina and I followed the trail around the lake and up on top of the cliffs down which the waterfall drops before Robin caught up to us. By this time the sun was starting to shine on the highest portions of Challenger and Kit Carson. The route up Challenger is really simple, just annoying. The slope varies from about 30 degrees to as much as 47 degrees and the upper half (the steep half) is mostly scree and loose talus. It took us a couple hours to go up the 1,500 feet to the ridge.

From the ridge, the walk to Challenger's summit is easy. The weather was still great so we decided to green light our attempt at Kit Carson. We could see a few people on the summit of KC which is only a few hundred meters away. After some food, we descended the 300 feet to the saddle and started making our way along the bizzarely-perfect ledge that wraps around Kit Carson's west side. The whole west face is vertical except for a nice 10' wide ledge that is easily passable. Too weird, but appreciated none-the-less. The view of the prow from this ledge is creepy.

Once past the prow saddle, the ledge drops back down about 200' on the other side before reaching a series of steep class 3 gullies that can be ascended to the summit. This was Nina's first class 3 experience and she did very well. It took awhile to ascend several hundred feet of class 3, but it dumps you out right at the summit which is nice. There were three people aside from our group on the summit.

Robin needed to get back home so that he could pack for his Rainier trip, so he left us at the summit and started running back down all the way to the trailhead. He's a maniac.

Nina and I took our time. Getting down the class 3 section was surprisingly easy and quick, but by the time we got back to the ledge, I was starting to feel pretty bad on account of dehydration, lack of good sleep, and exhaustion. I had a really hard time ascending back to Challenger to pick up my backpack which I had left at the summit. Whenever I would stop moving, I would have a really hard time motivating myself to start again. However, while moving I didn't feel all that bad - it's as if the problem was really just in my head. I took a short nap at the summit of Challenger and then Nina and I started down the 1,500' slope that seemed to take forever.

Once I was moving down for awhile, I started to feel a lot better. Nina and I got to talking about how hungry we were and how it would be really great to have a steak at True Grits steak house in Alamosa. About half-way down the slope, we decided that if we could do it fast enough, we would descend all the way to the car that day and go have steaks.

By the time we got back down the valley floor, it was already 4:45 [at this time, Robin McSpeedy was already in Alamosa deciding between the steak house and Wendy's, and he went with Wendy's] and we were feeling pretty worked. Nina fell into a bush and scraped her leg pretty badly. We got back to the tent at about 5:15. We guessed that we could get to the steak house in an hour from the trailhead, so if they closed at 9:00 and we could hike down in two hours (half the time it took to get up), then we could leave in the next 45 minutes and still make it.

We packed up camp in a hurry and took off down the trail at exactly 6:00pm. There is no way that this trail is only four miles long... We were hauling ass the whole way down, to the point of enormous foot pain, and we made it down in about two hours and fifteen minutes. Based on my understanding of my hiking speed, I would estimate that the trail was actually six or seven miles long. Robin confirms this with his statement that he was able to jog down the trail in just over an hour [he had no 40 pound backpack, the cheater].

Anyway, the fast hike out with the heavy packs was excruciating and really tested our limits. By the time we got to the trucks we were feeling a little delirious. It was getting dark and we had missed our goal of an 8:00 trailhead departure. In fact, by the time I got into my regular shoes and we got some water out of the back of the truck, it was after 8:30 and there was no way to get to Alamosa by 9:00pm. On the long shot that they might be open until 10:00, we left anyway and I put a bit of lead in my shoe for the drive south on 17.

As luck would have it, True Grits is open until 10 (at least on Saturdays) and our steak dreams were realized.
Written by Mouser Williams on 2004.08.01