Here's a short summary of our weekend. We (Sheri, Homie, and I) left town on Thursday night and drove down to the South Colony Lakes Trailhead just past Westcliffe. This is the trail that leads to the Crestones. We slept at the two wheel drive parking area. The next morning we got up at 5 a.m. and were driving in at 5:30 a.m. This road is incredibly rough! It beats the heck out of you. It took us about an hour to travel the 5.3 miles to the upper parking area - 4WD only!

We ate some breakfast, packed our packs and were hiking at 7:45 a.m. We took it slow with our big loads and found a campsite at the upper lake around 9 a.m. This is only about two miles and 1000 vertical feet. We set up camp (around 12,000 feet) and repacked for the climb. We set off a little before 10 a.m. and summitted Humbolt (14,050?) less than an hour and a half later. The skies were overcast the entire time, but the wind was very light and temperatures mild. This is a very easy and pleasant climb. There is a lot of grass on the way up to this summit and not just a slag heap like most 14ers. We lounged on the summit for half an hour before starting down.

The winds now picked up greatly and the sky grew dark. Things didn't look good. We hiked backed to the saddle and thought things over. We brought climbing gear along so that we might also get Crestone Peak (14,265?). It wasn't raining yet and we decided to continue along the ridge to the other saddle. If things still looked bad, we'd just descend. This traverse is cool and would have been a lot of fun if it wasn't for the stressful conditions and tremendous wind. This took about 90 minutes to complete.

We once again decided to continue and started up the lower slopes of Crestone Peak. From this angle the peak looks formidable and indeed, we knew we were in for 4th class at least. We traversed talus fields and some short snowfields towards the north. At one snowfield, Sheri calmed called for an ice axe and then steadily picked her way across. We were just in light hiking boots. The snow was just right. Not too hard or soft, but it was steep and an ice axe gave one security.

After the traverse we headed straight up on some of the best rock I've ever climbed on a 14er. This is just brilliant 3rd/4th class scrambling. The mountain appears to be one solid rock and not a pile of scree like most 14ers. We climbed unroped for hundreds of feet when things got even steeper. We were climbing the North Buttress, just left of the North Couloir. The couloir was filled with soft snow and we weren't prepared to climb that. At this point the guidebook says to continue to the summit of this gendarme and then somehow descend and work you're way over to the real summit. This looked way hairy and well into 5th class terrain. I scouted a route back towards the couloir and it looked good. We went right into the couloir, where there was a gap in the snow, and up the right side of the couloir on loose rock. After another 150 feet of scrambling, we roped up and Homie led the way.We did a good job of route finding and didn't place any gear. Sheri and I followed simultaneously on the single rope. A couple of pitches saw us to the summit!

It was 3:40 p.m. We even got about 45 minutes of sun near the top of this mountain that did wonders for our attitude. Up until then we were stressed by the weather and I was worried a bit about descending our route in bad weather. It was hard enough going up and there weren't any rappel anchors. After eating and drinking on the summit we prepared for the descent. Sheri collected a summit photo and a summit rock as that is her tradition. Homie slung a big boulder with slings and rappelled to the end of the rope and set up another anchor. Sheri then rappelled down. Now I broke down the anchor, dropped the rope, and carefully downclimbed to them. This way we didn't leave any gear and could do 150 foot rappels. We repeated this one more time and then belayed Sheri as she downclimbed the loose section.

Once back on the solid rock we downclimbed unroped. Near the bottom of the buttress, I spotted a traverse along the face which looked like it would avoid the scree/snowfield traverse. This turned out to be a great route along a two foot ledge - airy, but very easy. This got us over to the northeast ridge and we descended further. The wind was now tremendous and it was difficult to stay upright along this ridge. After one false descent, we found a good gully to descend back into the valley.

We got back to camp just before 7 p.m. and were whipped! We had done 5500 vertical that day and lots of ridge running in high winds. Homie found his tent flattened by the winds and our tent was getting hammered. After pumping 8 liters of water, I retired to the tent to cook Sheri dinner. She was curled up in a ball and looked like she'd fall asleep if she wasn't so hungry and the tent so noisy from the wind.

After eating we tried to sleep, but it was so loud and the tent kept getting bowed way down. We got out to pee at 10 p.m. and I noticed that Homie's tent was complete flat. He had taken the poles out of his tent so that they wouldn't break. I thought my four season Kelty would be able to stand the wind. I was wrong. In the morning, I found that one of the three poles had snapped. The only thing keeping the tent up was the fly - with held the broken middle pole in place.

I got up at 5:30 a.m. to find Homie up also. Ugh! The wind was still ripping. We all decided to move camp down to the trucks at the trailhead and sleep in the vehicles if necessary. We had planned to climb the Crestone Needle that day, but after a super tiring day and a night without sleep we were in no mood to attempt this mountain in such a gale. Sheri and I eventually decided to bag the rest of the trip and return home. I've already done the Needle and the best approach for the Prow on Kit Carson is via the Spanish Creek trailhead. Of course, Sheri reminded me that I'll have to return to climb the Needle with her.

We got back to the trucks and all climbed into the back of our 4Runner to get out of the wind. We hung out for quite awhile eating Oreos and waiting for Mike Record and his brother to get there. Mike was supposed to hike up this morning as he doesn't have 4WD. We asked a couple of others if they had seen them hiking in with no luck, so we started driving out at 9:45 a.m. or so. Two tenths of a mile later, we found Mike. There were a party of four and that had thrown off our questions. He was surprised to see us driving out. Homie had driven in separately for just this situation and he turned around and went back in. I'm anxious to find out what they did the next three days.

We drove the rest of the way out. Homie gave us some great advice on this section that I didn't know because I'm very ignorant when it comes to four wheeling. The trick is to put the vehicle in 4WD Low . I had just told Sheri that we certainly wouldn't need 4WD Low on the way out since it was downhill. The advantage of this is that you don't need to brake at all! I kept the truck in second gear on 4WD Low for most of the way out. This is still very slow going. The truck drives about like an automatic in this situation. You can almost stop the truck without stalling it. Great technique! Thanks, Homie!

A little over a mile from the end of the 4WD section, I stalled the truck and it wouldn't start. It was completely dead! Yikes! I popped the hood and took a look. I quickly from a wire that had broken. It was a spliced wire that wasn't too securely attached. The bouncing had broken the battery loose from its mount and it slid forward too far and broke the wire. We didn't have anything to repair the damage, but I could slide the battery back and then touch the two wires together while Sheri started the truck. We had to to this a couple more times when we stopped for gas and for breakfast. The rest of the drive was uneventful and we surprised Sheri's mom with our early return.

I spent the rest of the weekend with the family. I did a couple of short bike rides, but the biggest highlight was swimming at the pool with Daniel. We had a blast and spent almost two hours in the water on Monday.