Kit Carson Peak

Route: Via Challenger Point
Posted On: 10/2/2025, By: CraigE
Info: Great fall conditions. There were snow patches near the notch below Challenger’s ridge, and also on the first section of the Kit Carson avenue. But it was mostly avoidable. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 9/28/2025, By: MaryinColorado
Info: Did not climb, but in case anyone would find these pics helpful I figured I'd share. Obviously, we're in a time where conditions will start changing quickly, though. 

Route: Via Challenger Point
Posted On: 9/27/2025, By: 14er101
Info: Left from TH at 6pm, top of Kit Carson a bit before 11pm, back at car 3am.

Minimal snow, all avoidable, no need for traction. 

Route: Willow Creek Approach
Posted On: 9/15/2025, By: R7777777
Info: Hiked in on Saturday, Sept 13 and camped just below Willow Lake (most campsites are near 37.99322, -105.61349). It hailed and snowed that night, leaving significant accumulation that made climbing very difficult without spikes. I was able to reach about 13k on Challenger before turning back due to icy, slippery conditions, and many others were also turning around. With proper traction, the route was still doable, but expect the ascent and descent to take significantly more time. Not sure how much has melted since then, but conditions may remain challenging. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 9/14/2025, By: ryansappleid
Info: A strong hail storm dropped snow and ice onto the crestones last night (9/13/25). I attempted anyways. Trail from Willow Creek TH to the Lake was fine, no snow. Once I continued above the lake and through the willows to the end of the valley, I was encountering a significant amount of snow, at least 1”. Trail finding was impossible. The next part, up to the couloir and across to the ridge was treacherous. It was slippery and getting steeper.

At this point I encountered two seperate groups who had bailed on their attempt to summit due to poor conditions on the north ridge.

The ridge had snow and ice and as it was melting it was making the entire rock wet. I moved upwards a few moves on the ridge but realized that I would need to fully commit as I wouldn’t be able to downclimb this icy mess. I wasn’t ready to do that as nobody had been up there today and the conditions further up was unknown.

All in all, 0/3 groups summitted via North Ridge today, but I believe a few groups made it up the standard route. I would recommend this over the North Ridge at this time. Spikes are likely needed. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 9/3/2025, By: daway8
Info: Went up North Ridge the day after the last report and the route was already totally dried out - no snow or ice in sight except down below the saddle between KC and Challenger (nowhere near the North Ridge or standard routes - and even that was covered in enough dirt that it looks like it was maybe leftover from last winter). This route is a sheer delight - I literally laughed out loud for joy at some portions where I intentionally targeted the hardest lines and think I probably milked it for a little class 5. Delightfully robust exposure and epic views! 

Route: Willow Creek Approach
Posted On: 9/3/2025, By: ScottHendrick
Info: Camped at the trailhead just south of the outhouse, there was a nice flat roomy space there. Left at 5:15 AM and were in darkness for a couple miles. The first five miles are beautiful, up to Willow Lake, many stream crossings and waterfalls. The climb up Challenger is very difficult and steep with a poorly-defined trail and much loose dirt and talus. It was quite a relief to gain the saddle before turning onto the ridge. Challenger Point summit at 11:35, then quickly off to Kit Carson. The Avenue had ice and snow on it during the morning and looked ominous, but was nearly dry when we arrived there. It was pretty warm all day with few clouds.

The Avenue is much easier to climb than it appears from a distance. After the downclimb on the other side, we used the first gully to reach the Kit Carson summit. It had nice grippy rock and was pretty fun to climb. I used my nice new climbing gloves for additional traction. We summitted at 1pm and hustled down just in case any weather was approaching. The climb back up 95% of Challenger was hard on the tired legs! Descending Challenger was awful, as bad as descending Sneffels - awful loose and slippery conditions. Of the 44 fourteeners I've done, Challenger is in my bottom 5 of "worst climbs". We all liked Kit Carson though. I hope the CFI will work on this trail sometime in the future!

We returned to the car at 7:45 pm, so that was a difficult 14.5 hour day. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 9/2/2025, By: evanc
Info: Willows were dense and covered in dew on the approach after breaking from the trail. Wearing pants was a good choice. Grassy ledges on the north ridge held small amounts of snow and ice that crunched under foot and wasn’t too slippery. Rocks were clear until above 13,800’ ish, where rocks that stayed in shade all day held some snow and were covered in black ice. Mainly found this on the exit ramp around 13,900’. Western side of the Kit Carson Avenue held snow and black ice too, mostly around the saddle between Challenger and Kit Carson.

Descent from Challenger to the lake took about an hour and a half and was not fun - very steep with loose rocks and scree.

North ridge ascent was awesome and took about 2.5 hours from the bottom of the boulder field to the summit. Rock quality on the ridge was great and most moves were class 3. Class 4 moves were here and there, but class 5 exposure persisted for the whole ridge - any fall would be fatal without a miracle. There were two good rest spots at the notches. No rockfall once on the ridge, but always a good idea to wear a helmet and check rocks before putting weight on them - there were a few loose rocks that we avoided.

OnX tracked 14.3 mi and 6,150’ vert trailhead to trailhead. Took 11.5 hours. 

Route: Via Challenger Point
Posted On: 8/10/2025, By: mijoflynn
Info: Did Challenger and Kit Carson as a dayhike with parsaGh. 12 hours TH to TH, and wow, did it feel like it by the end of the hike out. Beautiful day: few clouds, minimal smoke on the peaks (though you could see it hanging over the western horizon), and best of all, no mosquitos anywhere on the route. The Challenger gully sucks both up and down no matter what you do, but in the Kit Carson gully, I agree with previous CRs that staying on the solid class 3 rock to climber’s far left was preferable to the loose stuff in the middle. 

Route: Willow Creek Approach
Posted On: 7/20/2025, By: Swelchy
Info: Camped at Willow Lake on 7/18 and then climbed Challenger and Kit Carson on 7/19. There was a good amount of mosquitoes at the Lake but we had bug spray and bug nets and that made it manageable. The route up Challenger was a grind and we opted to stay on more Class 3 solid rock on the way up and down to avoid the crappy loose rock. As we were going up Challenger we passed a few groups who had turned around at Challenger’s summit because Kit Carson was totally socked in with fog. We got to the summit of Challenger and the fog had gotten a little better but not much, but we decided we wanted to get a closer look, and as we made our way down from Challenger the fog cleared out and the weather was beautiful. There was rain forecasted for 10am, 12pm, and 2pm, but none came until a little after 2pm. The turnoff from the avenue was pretty straight forward, we also saw the red bandana and that helped mark where to turn. We again opted for more solid rock up the final ascent of Kit Carson and stayed on the left side of the gully. 

Route: Willow Creek Approach
Posted On: 7/13/2025, By: kritifer15
Info: It killed my energy for the descent down Challenger, but man I had a lot of fun on Kit Carson. Avenue is completely snow free. The Class 3 scrambling is so much fun! And I echo the red bandana praises! Very helpful coming down. 

Route: Willow Creek Approach
Posted On: 7/6/2025, By: two lunches
Info: the avenue is mostly clear; a couple of snow patches remain but are all easily avoidable.

a large cairn with a red bandana marks the turnoff to the summit (thank you whoever put that there!). solid rock is abundant on climbers left past the avenue, whereas anything in the middle is loose crap, which you can find plenty of on challenger— might as well mix it up, amirite

no mosquitoes above the lake! 

Route: Willow Creek Approach
Posted On: 6/29/2025, By: Ptglhs
Info: Route is snow free but not snow melt free. Water makes things slippery from 12.7-13.1. Mosquitos are fierce up there right now. I have never seen them as bad on any CO peak I've done. They were worse up there than the wind river range in either July or August. 

Route: Via Challenger Point
Posted On: 6/23/2025, By: mountain_guy
Info: Steep and loose from a Willow Lake to Challenger Point, some of the trail is still buried under snow. Dry and clear on the ridge up and over Challenger. Kit Carson Avenue has some snow still, but I was able to avoid it all with some careful scrambling. Should be pretty straightforward after a few more days of melt. Pictures of both sides of the avenue attached. Took the steeper route up to KC after the avenue to avoid some more snow, which was a fun scramble on solid rock. 

Route: Via Challenger Point
Posted On: 6/22/2025, By: AurumSun13
Info: The snow is almost gone from the top of both peaks. I didn't need to use spikes at all, but using my pick to traverse the last bits left was nice. The main thing, however, is that the Avenue melted out enough to traverse! Snow patches still remain on route, but they were avoidable (see attached photos). The front-side has a nice strip of dirt to walk along and the back side patches can be walked around by climbing down a touch. In another hot week like this one, they'll melt out even more for a more direct walk. Do note that coming down Challenger was tough because all the melt made some of the steeper sections of scree slippery.