Kit Carson Peak

{{Short description|Mountain in the state of Colorado}} {{Distinguish|text=Mount Kit Carson in Washington}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox mountain | name = Kit Carson Mountain | other_name = Kit Carson Peak | image = kitcarsonmtn.jpg | image_caption = The Crestones as seen from Mount Adams.<br/>From left to right: Crestone Needle, Crestone Peak, Columbia Point, Kit Carson Peak,<br/>and Challenger Point. | elevation_ft = 14165.2 | elevation_system = NAPGD2022 | elevation_ref = <ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1007/s00190-024-01831-8|doi-access=free| title=Moving mountains: reevaluating the elevations of Colorado mountain summits using modern geodetic techniques|date=April 2024|first1=Kevin | last1=Ahlgren|first3=Brian|last3=Shaw|last2= Van Westrum | first2=Derek |journal=Journal of Geodesy|volume=98|issue=4 |article-number=29}} {{open access}}</ref> | prominence_ft = 1025 | prominence_ref = <ref name=PB>{{cite peakbagger|pid=5903|title=Kit Carson Mountain, Colorado|access-date=October 20, 2014}}</ref> | isolation_mi = 1.27 | isolation_ref = <ref name=PB/> | listing = Colorado Fourteener 23rd | location = Saguache County, Colorado, United States<ref name=GNIS/> | range = Sangre de Cristo Range, Crestones<ref name=PB/> | map = USA Colorado | map_caption = '''Location in Southern Colorado''' | coordinates = {{coord|37.9797219|N|105.6025089|W|type:mountain_region:US-CO_scale:100000|format=dms|display=inline,title}} | range_coordinates = | coordinates_ref = <ref name=GNIS>{{cite gnis|id=204778|name=Kit Carson Mountain|access-date=October 20, 2014}}</ref> | topo = USGS 7.5' topographic map<br/>Crestone Peak, Colorado<ref name=GNIS/> | easiest_route = Via Challenger Point: Easy Scramble, {{YDS|3}}<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.14ers.com/routelist.php?peakid=10023 | title = Kit Carson Peak Routes | publisher = 14ers.com }}</ref> }}

'''Kit Carson Peak''', officially known as the '''Kit Carson Mountain''', is a high mountain summit of the Crestones in the Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The {{convert|14165.2|ft|0|adj=on}} fourteener is located {{convert|8.4|km|order=flip}} ESE (bearing 102°) of the Town of Crestone in Saguache County, Colorado, United States.<ref name=PB/><ref name=GNIS/> The name Kit Carson Mountain is used for both the massif with three summits (Columbia Point, Kit Carson Peak and Challenger Point), or to describe the main summit only. The mountain is named in honor of American frontiersman Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson. The Crestones are a cluster of high summits in the Sangre de Cristo Range, comprising Crestone Peak, Crestone Needle, Kit Carson Peak, Challenger Point, Humboldt Peak, and Columbia Point. They are usually accessed from common trailheads.

==History == In January 2002, the Nature Conservancy announced the signing of a $31 million purchase agreement for the Baca Ranch.<ref name="NYT013102"/> The purchase significantly expanded the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in 2004. As part of that complex transaction Kit Carson Mountain was transferred to the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness within the Rio Grande National Forest.<ref name="NYT013102"/><ref>{{Cite web |title=Nature group secures ranch near park site |url=https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2002/jan/31/20020131-035232-2105r/ |access-date=2025-02-17 |website=The Washington Times |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Erin |title=The Nature Conservancy agrees to buy Baca Ranch |url=https://www.chieftain.com/story/news/2002/01/31/the-nature-conservancy-agrees-to/8789291007/ |access-date=2025-02-17 |website=Pueblo Chieftain |language=en-US}}</ref>

Kit Carson Mountain features complex terrain that has misled climbers in the past, often contributing to their perishment in the most recent years.<ref>{{Cite web |title=100summits - Kit Carson Mountain |url=https://www.100summits.com/trip-reports/itemlist/tag/Kit%20Carson%20Mountain |access-date=2025-02-17 |website=www.100summits.com |language=en-GB}}</ref>

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".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://crestoneeagle.com/archives2008/apr08_b1.html |title=The Crestone Eagle Newspaper Home |website=crestoneeagle.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612142417/http://crestoneeagle.com/archives2008/apr08_b1.html |archive-date=June 12, 2018 |url-status=dead |access-date=December 31, 2016 }}</ref>

==Climbing== One popular route on Kit Carson Mountain climbs from the west side of the range, starting at Willow Creek Trailhead (elevation: {{convert|8900|ft|disp=or|abbr=on}}). 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 {{convert|6250|ft|m|0|abbr=on}}, in a {{convert|14|mi}} 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 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.{{citation needed|date=December 2016}}

Fatalities also occur because climbers make the mistake of descending the couloir (gulley) between the summit and Challenger Point.<ref name=chieftain2010/> 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.

==Names== *Frustum Peak *Crestone peak *Haystack Baldy *'''Kit Carson Mountain''' – 1970 <ref name=GNIS/> *'''Kit Carson Peak''' *Ritrö Gonpö, coined by American Buddhist teacher Reggie Ray

==See also== {{portal|North America|United States|Colorado|Mountains}} *List of mountain peaks of Colorado **List of Colorado fourteeners

==References== {{reflist|30em|refs= <ref name=chieftain2010> {{cite web |url=http://www.chieftain.com/news/local/article_55700062-c536-11df-a156-001cc4c03286.html |title=Parker man found dead in Sangres |publisher=The Pueblo Chieftain |date=September 22, 2010 |access-date=2016-12-31 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120731055120/http://www.chieftain.com/news/local/article_55700062-c536-11df-a156-001cc4c03286.html |archive-date=July 31, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> <ref name="NYT013102"> {{cite news|author1=Seelye, Katharine Q. |title=Complex Deal Is First Step To Create New National Park | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/31/us/complex-deal-is-first-step-to-create-new-national-park.html | access-date=September 29, 2016|work=The New York Times|date=January 31, 2002 | quote=The ranch and the national monument are to become the nation's 58th national park in 2005}}</ref> }}

==External links== {{sister project links}} *[https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/14er.php?peakid=10023 Kit Carson Peak on 14ers.com]

Category:Mountains of Saguache County, Colorado Category:Fourteeners of Colorado Category:Four-thousanders of the United States Category:Sangre de Cristo Mountains