Broken
Hand Peak 13,575', Crestolita Pt. 13,270', Crestone Needle 14,196'
August 3, 2025
Last
season Laura and I spent quite a few days in the Crestones area climbing on the
excellent and stable conglomerate rock that the Sangre de Cristo range offers
up. Since we had not had the opportunity to get to the area yet this year, I
presented a plan to climb a few lower peaks that I thought would
have some engaging scrambling. After having dinner with Hazel and my mom in Manitou, we set off
Saturday night toward the 4wd trailhead below South Colony Lakes. While driving up
the rough 4wd road, I asked Laura if she thought there would be a Subaru at the
trailhead. She answered confidently, “yes”. No further discussion required. Sure
enough, upon reaching the trailhead, there was a Subaru…along with about 20 Toyotas.
Anyways, we noticed that the spot we parked in last time we were there was
open, so I backed in and leveled the Jeep. We were sleeping by 9pm with a 3:30
am wake up alarm set.
Under
starry skies, we set off hiking up the road to South Colony Lakes at 3:45 am
but after 10 minutes of hiking I realized I had dropped my phone somewhere. I
hurried back to the car and found it under my pillow, and once again started up
the road – it was now a few minutes past 4 am.
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| Hiking up the road by light of headlamps |
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| Sunrise from near the old mine site |
Our first objective was to climb the east ridge of Broken Hand Peak. We hiked at a reasonable pace up to a bend
in the road and cut off to the old mine site which is marked on the topo map.
From near the mine the terrain looked like solid cliff bands but after conversing
about a route through, we scrambled up to a ramp and angled left to grassy
ledges.
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| Cliff bands with passable grassy ledges on the right |
We were able to reach a rock filled gulley from the grass filled ledges
and soon came to a short, low 5th class chimney. We continued to climb
and scramble thru rock fields and broken terrain along base of Broken Hand Peak, climbing the mixed terrain until we reached
the saddle at roughly 12,900'.
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| Chockstone in one of the chimneys |
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| Typical class 3 climbing to reach the ridge |
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| A bit of low class 5 for added fun |
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| Climbing around a chockstone before reaching the ridge |
After searching around for easier ground, we gained the ridge by climbing about 100 feet of low 5th class rock, and once on the ridgeline proper, followed over a couple of gendarmes. Several times, we dropped off to the east along grassy ledges as well as a few on the west side further up the ridge until eventually scrambling along the ridge directly to the summit.
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Climbing to reach the ridge proper
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| Low 5th class to reach the ridge proper |
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| Ridge was exposed in a few areas |
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| Bypassing a gendarme |
We rested here and took in the amazing views that surrounded us. Milwaukee, Pico Aislado, Crestolita, The Crestones to name a few.Soon we began our descent along steep grass covered slopes from Broken Hand Peak, aiming for the general area of Crestolita, Point 13,270’. We descended for about about 1,000 feet and were able to pick out the gully that we wanted to climb to reach the saddle as well as a ridge that appeared to lead to the summit. We ended up choosing grassy ramps and scrambling over a few rock ribs to reach our chosen exit point. Upon reaching the saddle, we realized there was broken ground ahead of us, rather than the ridge we thought would lead directly to the summit. We picked our way through several gullies and eventually scrambled our way to the to the top of Point 12,270' at 9:45 am.
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| Descent off of Broken Hand Peak |
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| We chose to climb to the small grassy area in the center |
Leaving the summit, we consulted the pictures we had taken from our descent of Broken Hand. We chose what we thought would be our best downclimbing option and made our way down broken cliff bands, grassy areas and eventually a very loose rock filled gulley that lead directly to the trail that leads up broken hand pass. |
| Crestolita descent |
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| Crestolita descent gulley |
Climbing the pass, we decided that we had enough time to climb Crestone Needle and still make it home in time to pick up Hazel for dinner, so at the top of the pass, we cut left along trail leading to the needle. From the base of the south face, Laura and I were able to negotiate the 4th class terrain fairly quickly and reach the summit in just one hour. At the top, we chatted with a few groups who had climbed Ellingwood Ledges, a route we climbed nearly 10 years ago, and one I’d like to climb again. The descent was the standard slog from the summit of Crestone Needle. To the car took us right at 3 hours. We finished the day with 13.5 miles and 6,500' of elevation gain.The Crestones area is beautiful and always enjoyable and we were happy to have a wonderful time here once again. The scrambling is (mostly) solid and there are many lesser known routes to explore if you just look for them off the beaten path of the crowded 14ers.
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| Fun scrambling on Crestone Needle |
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| How you know you've reached the top |
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| Descending Broken Hand Pass |
