October 2, 2016
Several years ago while working on climbing all of Colorado's 14ers for the first time, I was camped at upper South Colony Lake when at 4 am I was awakened by a climber yelling "rock", followed by a loud crashing sound. At first light I exited my tent to find two or three parties all on the direct start to the classic climb on Crestone Needle, the Ellingwood Arête. I don't know if any or all of the groups on route made the summit that day but it was my first introduction to the route as listed in 50 classic climbs of North America.
Fast forward a few years and Laura and I are driving south on a beautiful Saturday morning. We make our way toward Westcliffe but decided to make a detour to Bishop's Castle. Hand built by one man, the castle is an interesting work of rock and metal. Interesting character Jim Bishop must be, but a cool place to spend a few hours nonetheless. We spent an hour exploring the "work of art" and then made our way back toward the main objective for the weekend.
Arriving at the main trailhead for the mountain, we set up camp and noticed that our friends jeep was parked right next to where we were camping. Being a goofball, I placed a large rock behind his rear tire so when he tried to leave he wouldn't be able to back up. If he knew we were there, he would know it was me, but since he didn't...fair game!
In the morning, Laura and I started hiking early. Quickly arriving at South Colony Lake, we stopped for a water fill up and caught a spectacular sunrise.
We made our way to the base of the climb and geared up. Within a few feet, I dislodged a rock and sent it flying at Laura. Was I now the one waking up campers at the upper lake as I was awoken years ago? 
Anyways, I settled into a good climbing groove and lead the way up the first sections of the climb as Laura followed behind. When we reached a ledge system, we unroped and Laura took the lead. She had climbed the route previously so she had a better idea of where to go than I did. After some scrambling and route finding, we found ourselves at the final few technical rock pitches to the summit of Crestone Needle. We reached the summit and joined two others who had climbed the standard route on the mountain that morning.
Descending and back near the lake, I looked over to see who I thought was my friend, Joe and his partners for the weekend. I yelled and probably confused or scared them. Walking over to their camp, we laughed as great minds think alike and knew we were smart having all had the opportunity to spend a perfect weekend in the mountains! We took a break and chatted with Joe, Mareshah and her friend while they broke down camp and then continued our hike out. Back at the car, we gave a guy a ride to the lower trailhead, dropped him off at his car and then headed toward home, satisfied with the achievement and spectacular classic climb.
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