Kit Carson Peak
| Kit Carson Mountain | |
|---|---|
 The Crestone Group as seen from Mount Adams. From left to right: Crestone Needle, Crestone Peak, Columbia Point, Kit Carson Peak, Challenger Point. |
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| Elevation | 14,165 ft (4,317 m) NGVD 29[1] |
| Prominence | 1,005 ft (306 m) [1] |
| Listing | Colorado Fourteener |
| Location | |
 Kit Carson Mountain
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| Location | Saguache County, Colorado, USA |
| Range | Sangre de Cristo Range |
| Coordinates | 37°58′47″N 105°36′09″W / 37.97972°N 105.6025°WCoordinates: 37°58′47″N 105°36′09″W / 37.97972°N 105.6025°W[2] |
| Topo map | USGS Crestone Peak Quadrangle |
| Climbing | |
| Easiest route | Scramble Class 2 |
Kit Carson Peak is one of the 54 fourteeners in the state of Colorado. It lies in the Sangre de Cristo Range near Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle and is named after the frontiersman Kit Carson. The peak is also known as Kit Carson Mountain, a name that is used for both the massif with three summits (Columbia Point, Kit Carson Peak and Challenger Point) or to describe the main summit only.
Contents |
[edit] Recent history
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} |
This section requires expansion. |
In 1995, the 151-square-mile (390 km2) Baca Ranch, which included Kit Carson Peak, was purchased for $15 million by a group that included Yale University.[3] By 1997, one of the partners in the group, rancher Gary Boyce, had funded a signature drive that put two constitutional amendments on Colorado's 1998 ballot, both "aimed at financially breaking the [San Luis Valley's] water establishment" which was fighting his proposal to export water from the Baca.[4] In 1997, the U.S. Forest Service led what turned out to be a 13-year effort to introduce new trails, campsites and trailheads that eased ascent of Kit Carson and other peaks in the basin; the effort, coordinated with trail restoration groups such as the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative and the Rocky Mountain Field Institute, was concluded in 2010.[5]
In January 2002, the Nature Conservancy announced the signing of a $31 million purchase agreement for the Baca Ranch.[3] The purchase significantly expanded the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in 2004.[citation needed]
The peak features complex terrain that has misled climbers in the past, contributing to a death[specify] in the summer of 2006, 2010, and 2011.
In 2011, the United States Board on Geographic Names considered a proposal to rename the peak Mount Crestone, voting unanimously against it due to the potential confusion with nearby Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle.[6] The proposal had been put forward because Carson had led a 1863-64 campaign to dislodge Navajo Indians, who had sided with the Confederacy.[6]
[edit] Climbing
One popular route on Kit Carson Mountain climbs from the west side of the range, starting at Willow Creek Trailhead (elevation: 8,900 ft/2,700 m). This route first climbs Challenger Point, just to the west of Kit Carson. Climbing from the saddle between Challenger Point to Kit Carson peak involves crossing a path commonly called 'Kit Carson Avenue'. Total elevation gain for this route is 6,250 ft (1,905 m), in a 14 miles (23 km) round-trip.
Kit Carson can also be reached from the east side of the Sangre de Cristos via the South Colony Lakes access. (A four-wheel drive road currently provides relatively a high elevation trailhead; however this road will be closed half way up on October 13, 2009.) This route starts by using part of the trail for Humboldt Peak, and then traverses a ridge and plateau toward Kit Carson. A sub-peak named Columbia Point (informally known as "Kat Carson") is climbed on the way to the main summit.
Kit Carson does not have any glaciers but it does have a semi-permanent ice patch on its rugged north face, which rarely melts even in the driest years (such as 2002 and 2006). During the summer Kit Carson and the neighboring peaks are hit with a diurnal cycle of thunder storms, which often form within a short time period; lightning occurs almost daily and has killed climbers as recently as 2003.
Fatalities also occur because climbers make the mistake of descending the coulier (gulley) between the summit and Challenger Point.[7] Though the coulier looks like a short cut down, and starts off gently enough, it leads to ice fields, and on the edges it quickly becomes cliffed-out, with patches of scree and loose rock, ending in sheer and highly technical terrain. Search and Rescue teams regularly recovery bodies from the bottom of the coulier. Bodies that do not make it to the bottom require highly-specialized technical teams, not local to the area, and thus not as quickly available to respond.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b "Kit Carson Mountain, Colorado". Peakbagger.com. http://www.peakbagger.com/peak.aspx?pid=5903. Retrieved 2011-02-23.
- ^ "Kit Carson Mountain". Geographic Names Information System, U.S. Geological Survey. http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:204778. Retrieved 2011-02-23.
- ^ a b "Complex Deal Is First Step To Create New National Park". The New York Times. January 31, 2002. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0910F7355E0C728FDDA80894DA404482&pagewanted=print. Retrieved 2011-02-23.
- ^ "A water baron takes on the establishment". High Country News. October 26, 1998. http://www.hcn.org/issues/141/4560. Retrieved 2011-02-23.
- ^ "Forest Service weighing plan to require fees from peak hikers". Denver Post. Grand Junction Free Press. May 16, 2010. http://www.gjfreepress.com/article/20100516/COMMUNITY_NEWS/100519959/1054. Retrieved 2011-02-23.
- ^ a b "Name’s the same". Editorial. The Pueblo Chieftain. February 23, 2011. http://www.chieftain.com/opinion/editorials/name-s-the-same/article_03fe156c-3f10-11e0-a131-001cc4c03286.html. Retrieved 2011-02-23.
- ^ http://www.chieftain.com/news/local/article_55700062-c536-11df-a156-001cc4c03286.html
[edit] External links
- Kit Carson Peak and Challenger Point on 14ers.com, including Climbing routes
