Colorado Mountaineering

No range is more rich with Colorado history than the Sangre de Cristo's. Specifically, their historical references in relation to Colorado's Native Americans who frequented the area. Legendary pioneers such as Kit Carson frequented this area too. And the Spanish influence of the named range Sangre de Cristo or blood of Christ when not long ago this was a Mexican territory. Albert Russell Ellingwood was also one of those names I remembered from those massive textbooks.

Legendary pioneering mountaineer and climber Albert Russell Ellingwood was the first to climb the last climbed of all Colorado's Fourteeners, and often thought to be unclimbable: Crestone Peak. Crestone Needle's dramatic north east route, named the Ellingwood Arête, has since been imortalized by Steve Roper and Allen Steck's book: 50 Classic Climbs Of North America. These peaks have something to offer to everyone.