Crestone Needle is considered to be one of the hardest 14ers. It was definetly a challenge for me and a peak not to take lightly. It was also great fun and I loved it. Basically, you start at a trailhead and head up to a pass known as Broken Hand Pass, you than hike over to the bottom of a gully (the east gully) and climb up it to a traverse just below a dihedral at around 13,600'. The traverse is the crux of the climb and was hardest for me when descending. You then follow the west gully to the summit ridge and the summit of Crestone Needle at 14,197'. The two gullies are class 3 climbing on excellent conglomerate rock. You can follow the east gully to the summit ridge, but that is class 4 climbing. Pictures are worth about 4 paragraphs of detailed description....