Challenger Point

July 3, 2003

Overview
Challenger Point is a companion to Kit Carson Peak, located in the Sangre de Cristo Range, the first significant mountains to the west of Pueblo.  The range is extremely narrow, between 10 and 20 miles wide, and though it technically stretches over 200 miles to the south, the mountains between Salida and Alamosa form a very distinct sub-range.  The fact that such genuine mountain backcountry can rise so quickly out of the flat, agricultural plains below (especially  to the west and south) is amazing to me.  The Sangres seem isolated and almost forgotten compared to the ranges closer to Denver and Aspen, and to the vast, breathtaking San Juans to the southwest, yet somehow the mountains, valleys, roads, and towns that make up the area combine to create one of my favorite places to be.

We approached Challenger from Willow Lake, to the west.  Not far away, on the eastern side, the South Colony Lakes provide an alternate approach, and one of the most beautiful valleys I have encountered.  Between the Willow Lake watershed, South Colony Lakes, the Crestone Group, and the nearby Sand Dunes National Park, this is one spectacular region.  Challenger Point was named in honor of the crew of the space shuttle Challenger, who died in 1986, and nearby Columbia Point was similarly named in February following that shuttle disaster (prior to that these two peaks that flank Kit Carson Peak were popularly known as Johnny Carson and Kat Carson respectively).  My hiking companion was Sharon Crutchfield.

(Note:  for more information about the naming of the two peaks, see http://edition.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/06/11/sprj.colu.columbia.mountain/index.html)

Getting There and Back
July 4th weekend traffic along highway 24 was heavy, and it took three hours to reach the trailhead (behind the town of Crestone) from Colorado Springs.  Returning via highway 50 took slightly less, but the two routes normally take almost exactly the same amount of time.

The Approach
It was well into the afternoon when we left the car, and despite the dry, sandy heat, we were inundated by mosquitoes whenever we stood still for more than a few minutes.  We were hampered by illness, and the hike in was a brutal five hours.  Do not underestimate this hike!  We felt every step of the 7.4 miles and 2,700 feet, and arrived at dusk, exhausted.  The hike out from Willow Lake took us 2.5 hours at a pretty steady clip.  The trail has three sets of switchbacks, each of them long and steady.  The first one occurs leaving the trailhead, and ends overlooking a swampy-looking paddock far below.  A long level stretch leads to the beginning of the second set, which is the approximate halfway point in terms of time expenditure.  The third set is distinct from the second mostly due to its rocky, treeless nature.  Another noteworthy point about this trail:  There is no water available until the third set of switchbacks, so be sure to take enough.

Camp sites abound from the top of the last switchback, but it is still a half mile to the lake. Camping is prohibited around the lake, and the area above the lake is above timber line.  Fortunately the area below the lake is expansive, and we were fortunate to find a place near the lower waterfall, so we slept to the lull of moving water, and did not feel like we were surrounded by the masses.

The Mountain
Roach's description of this ascent struck us as inadequate, so I will try to provide a little more information.  The best way around the lake is the lower trail along the lake's edge, which cuts up just before the cliffs and is well-marked and easy to follow.  After crossing the top of the upper waterfall, the trail winds up a little way into the valley beyond, and continues to be well marked.  Kit Carson Peak comes into view, and the trail turns upward with increasing steepness.  This is where consistent trail markings end.

In retrospect, there seem to be roughly three ways to tackle this ridge.  Two follow a similar course, diverging close to a notably large boulder, and converging at the bottom of a couloir close to the top of the ridge.  The third is further south (off to the left), on the far side of a snowfield that stretches most of the length of the hill.  The third has the advantage of avoiding much of the scrambling along the top of the ridgeline, but from a distance (and from accounts of other hikers) it is more difficult and much steeper. 

If I were to do it again, I would select the route we chose, the furthest north of the three.  Though not easy, and not well-marked, we were almost always following a traveled pathway, and most of the way was soft and grassy.  Below the large boulder, we followed foot-wells going off to the right, and continued around the hillside, climbing all the while, and bearing to the north.  For most of the climb we were not far from the cliffs that drop down into Willow Lake.  Higher up we had to do some scrambling over rocks, and then cutting back to the south we met up with the other trail.  The final climb up the loose-gravel couloir to the ridge-top was neither long nor difficult. 

The trail along the ridge is mostly below the ridgeline, on the westward face.  Much of it is a clearly visible path along hard stone that drops away steeply.  Some other hikers turned back at that point because of the exposure, but it was not dangerous enough to be bothersome for us, and I don't have a lot of stomach for exposure.  After traversing several of these stone couloirs, we went the rest of the way along the top of the ridge, meeting up with trail number three at the top of the snowfield.  The remainder of the climb is quite straightforward.

Kit Carson looks to be an easy second peak from Challenger, but my hasty attempt to climb it was foiled by a snowfield on the descending south side of Kit Carson Avenue.  I came very close to taking the half dozen steps required to traverse it, but alone and without ropes or axe, the potential consequences of a wrong step were enough to discourage me.

We were again plagued with illness on the Challenger ascent (probably altitude related), so the five hours it took us to make the climb from Willow Lake was probably more than one would usually expect.  Our descent was a more typical 2.5 hours.  We spent 0.75 hours together at the summit, and my hijinks on the slopes of Kit Carson took another hour (mostly spent deliberating over the snowfield!).