Crestone Needle

Crestone Needle
Crestone Needle, with the upper south colony lake in the foreground.
Elevation	14,197 ft (4,327 m) NGVD 29[1]
Prominence	437 ft (133 m) [1]
Listing	Colorado Fourteener
Location
Crestone Needle Colorado
Location	Custer / Saguache counties Colorado, USA
Range	Sangre de Cristo Range, Crestones
Coordinates	37°57′53″N 105°34′36″W / 37.96472°N 105.57667°W / 37.96472; -105.57667Coordinates: 37°57′53″N 105°34′36″W / 37.96472°N 105.57667°W / 37.96472; -105.57667[2]
Topo map	USGS Crestone Peak
Climbing
First ascent	July 24, 1916 by Albert Ellingwood and Eleanor Davis
Easiest route	South Face: scramble (class 3)

Crestone Needle is one of the fourteeners of Colorado, in the heart of the Sangre de Cristo Range. It is part of a group of four fourteeners known as "the Crestones", headed by Crestone Peak (0.6 miles/1 km northwest of Crestone Needle) and also including Kit Carson Mountain and Humboldt Peak.

While not as high as Crestone Peak, and connected to it by a high, jagged ridge, Crestone Needle is regarded as a worthy climb in its own right. The easiest route is the South Face (or South Couloir), usually accessed via Broken Hand Pass from South Colony Lakes. This is an exposed scramble with a few tricky moves, and is one of the more difficult standard routes among the Colorado fourteeners. However the classic route on the mountain is the Ellingwood Arete, also known as the Ellingwood Ledges Route. This is a steep ridge on the northeast side of the peak, leading directly up from the Upper South Colony Lake basin to the summit. It is a mildly technical rock climb (5.7 on the Yosemite Decimal Scale). It is particularly popular because of its inclusion in the well-known book Fifty Classic Climbs of North America by Steve Roper and Allen Steck.^[3]

The peak consists mainly of granite and conglomerate. Knobby handholds are frequent near the summit. Snow fields linger around the peak throughout the summer.

Some consider it to be one of the hardest fourteeners in Colorado. This is thought because of the technical traverse between Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle.

See also

• List of Colorado fourteeners
• Mountain peaks of Colorado
• Mountain peaks of the United States

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Crestone Needle, Colorado". Peakbagger.com. http://www.peakbagger.com/peak.aspx?pid=5909. Retrieved 2011-02-23. 
2. ^ "Crestone Needle". Geographic Names Information System, U.S. Geological Survey. http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:203951. Retrieved 2011-02-23. 
3. ^ Roper, Steve; Allen Steck (1979). Fifty Classic Climbs of North America. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 0-87156-292-8. 

External links

• "Crestone Needle". TopoQuest. http://www.topoquest.com/map.asp?lat=37.9647&lon=-105.5767&size=l&symshow=n&datum=nad83&layer=DRG25. Retrieved 2011-05-09. 
• "Crestone Needle". SummitPost.org. http://www.summitpost.org/page/150434. Retrieved 2011-05-09.