Kit Carson Peak is a high

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually highe ...

summit of the Crestones in the

Sangre de Cristo Range , country= United States , subdivision1= Colorado , subdivision2_type= Counties , subdivision2= , parent= Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Rocky Mountains , borders_on= , geology= , age= , orogeny= Fault-block mountains , area_mi2= ...

of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...

of North America. Officially designated Kit Carson Mountain, the fourteener is located east by south ( bearing 102°) of the Town of Crestone in Saguache County,

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The name Kit Carson Mountain is used for both the

massif In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...

with three summits ( Columbia Point, Kit Carson Peak and

Challenger Point Challenger Point is a high mountain summit of the Crestones in the Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The fourteener is located east by south ( bearing 102°) of the Town of Crestone in Saguache County, Colorado, Un ...

), or to describe the main summit only. The mountain is named in honor of frontiersman Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson. The Crestones are a cluster of high summits in the Sangre de Cristo Range, comprising

Crestone Peak Crestone Peak is the seventh-highest summit of the Rocky Mountains of North America and the U.S. state of Colorado. The prominent fourteener is the highest summit of the Crestones and the second-highest summit in the Sangre de Cristo Range ...

Crestone Needle Crestone Needle is a high mountain summit of the Crestones in the Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The fourteener is located east-southeast ( bearing 108°) of the Town of Crestone in Saguache County, Colorado, ...

, Kit Carson Peak,

, Humboldt Peak, and Columbia Point. They are usually accessed from common trailheads.

Recent history

In January 2002, the

Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in 1951, The Nat ...

announced the signing of a $31 million purchase agreement for the

Baca Ranch Baca may refer to: * Baca (surname), including a list of people with the name *Baca, Hungarian name of , a village in Romania * Baca, Yucatán, seat of Baca Municipality, Mexico *Baca County, Colorado * Baca Municipality, Yucatán, Mexico *Baca, t ...

. The purchase significantly expanded the

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is an American national park that conserves an area of large sand dunes up to tall on the eastern edge of the San Luis Valley, and an adjacent national preserve in the Sangre de Cristo Range, in sou ...

in 2004. As part of that complex transaction Kit Carson Mountain was transferred to the

Sangre de Cristo Wilderness The Sangre de Cristo Wilderness is a long and narrow wilderness area covering of the Sangre de Cristo Range centered about Saguache and Custer counties, Colorado. Smaller areas are located in Fremont, Alamosa, and Huerfano counties. The wild ...

within the

Rio Grande National Forest Rio Grande National Forest is a 1.86 million-acre (7,530 km²) U.S. National Forest located in southwestern Colorado. The forest encompasses the San Luis Valley, which is the world's largest agricultural alpine valley, as well as one of the ...

. Kit Carson Mountain features complex terrain that has misled climbers in the past, contributing to deaths in the summer of 2006, 2010, 2011 and 2019. 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

and

. The proposal had been put forward because Carson had led an 1863-64 campaign to remove Navajo Indians, who had increased raiding of settlements in New Mexico during the Civil War. Incidentally, local residents for decades had called the mountain "Crestone Peak" (the official name of a neighboring peak), and never called it by "that other name".

Climbing

One popular route on Kit Carson Mountain climbs from the west side of the range, starting at Willow Creek Trailhead (elevation: ). This route first climbs

, 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 , in a 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 Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer cas ...

road currently provides relatively a high elevation trailhead; however this road will be closed halfway 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 couloir (gulley) between the summit and Challenger Point. Though the couloir 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 recover bodies from the bottom of the couloir. 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.

Historical names

*Frustum Peak *Haystack Baldy *Kit Carson Mountain – 1970 *Kit Carson Peak

References

External links

Kit Carson Peak and Challenger Point
on 14ers.com, includin
Climbing routes
{{Colorado Mountains of Colorado Mountains of Saguache County, Colorado Fourteeners of Colorado North American 4000 m summits Sangre de Cristo Mountains

Recent history

Climbing

Historical names

See also

References

External links