Kit Carson summit

At 4:00 the next morning, we left the camp and followed the GPS track up the side of Challenger Point. We were close to the ridgeline at 13,200 feet by the time the sun came up. There was a cloud bank low in the east so the sunrise and alpenglow was not that good.

Soon after sunrise, this is the type of climbing we were doing.



We reached the ridgeline shortly after and the destination was in sight. The pyramidal one on the right is Challenger Point and the rounded one in the background on the left is Kit Carson Peak.



Looking back down the ridgeline from the summit of Challenger, Rick is negotiating the boulders.



We had a pretty good view of the Great Sand Dunes National Park down below. The dunes sure look small from up here.



From the top of Challenger, we got the first good look at "Kit Carson Avenue", a ledge in the middle of a 5000-foot high cliff. That's it there where the snow is. Following this ledge for a half mile around the back of the peak is the easiest way to the top.



It's a 600-foot descent to the saddle between Challenger and Kit Carson, then up the Avenue to a notch and down the Avenue on the back. The scale of things up here can fool you. What looks like a precarious ledge from a half mile away is actually no problem at all.



Around the back, Kit Carson Peak is not as steep, but still plenty rough going. This is a class 3 section which means hands are needed in places. If you're careful, you can avoid knocking loose rocks down on those following behind. Note everyone is wearing helmets.



After a half hour of that, we reached the summit!

I went with 2 friends to the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness to climb two of the 54 Colorado 14'ers (mountain peaks over 14,000 feet elevation), Challenger Point and Kit Carson Peak. It is a 5-mile hike into Willow Lake where we camped for the night.



Near the beginning.


The Colorado state flower was everywhere.


One of dozens of waterfalls as we gained the 2500 feet elevation to Willow Lake.

We arrived at the lake some 3 hours after leaving the parking lot, close to 7 PM. The lake is at one level of a cirque carved by a glacier. You can see one of the many stairsteps at the headwaters of the lake where the waterfall cascades some 200 feet down the cliff. We hiked on up to the top of the waterfall and camped there.



The entire mountain is made of this meta-conglomerate--fused matrix holding large chunks of rock in various colors. Most of these chunks are 2 to 4 inches across, but there were some that were 1 or 2 feet across.



It was getting close to sunset when we got to the top end of the lake.



We got camp set up, ate a sandwich and watched the sun set.



To be continued...