"Awesome backpacking trip via Cottonwood Creek. Route is tedious but manageable with several short sections of willow whacking and wet groves. Camped at 10800' and took cover just before multiple spouts of hail came roaring in. Next morning on the ascent took a wrong turn at 11,100'-a right turn across a stream takes you up the wrong valley. Noticed about a half mile in, turned back, noticed I had dropped my phone, turned back again to find it. Continue straight from the unmarked junction to continue up to Cottonwood Lake. Red gulley is in great shape. Small snow patches still melting out creating wet slabs below, but water is either avoidable or traversable on the grippy crestone conglomerate. https://youtu.be/YCKHyon-cmI" — cheeseishappiness • Jul 4, 2022

"Dang I love the Sangres! Crestone Needle being my favorite climb to date, I highly anticipated this one. We backpacked in to South Colony Lake the night before, got a couple hours of “sleep”, and then headed up Broken Hand Pass to catch the sunrise. After heading down the other side of the pass to the alpine lake, we started up the endless Red Gully, which I only have one sarcastic picture of. It was a beast, and of course worse on the way down. The final summit push was awesome, exposed but solid block to the top. The more I climb the more I favor technical solid holds over less challenging scree fields. This one ended up being one hell of a haul, with 5700’ gain over 14.5 miles RT. The kick is the pants was having to climb back up broken hand pass on the return, after coming back down the red gully. Being my first 14er of the year it literally took all day, and I ended up with what is hopefully temporary nerve damage in my left big toe. Cheers! " — LGH-Dan • Aug 16, 2019

"We rapped off the Needle in snow flurries and were mostly fogged in getting brief glimpses of where we were headed. As we solved the route as the weather eased and we found our way to the red gully and climbed to the summit with open views. As we summited the clouds returned and we took a few minutes to enjoy the top before making our way down. " — Yosemike • Sep 18, 2013

"Day 2 of our Crestones trip. The plan today was to hit both the Peak and the Needle, and we pulled it off but not without some time and route miscalculations. Crestone Peak was somewhat uneventful, a quality climb but not as memorable as the Needle would prove to be. High/lowlight of Crestone Peak was Josh having to drop a deuce near the summit, in plain view of a dozen other climbers. When you gotta go..." — scott • Aug 25, 2007