The Thumb and Needle are 2 crags on top of Prospect Mountain. The routes on The Needle vary from 5.0 to 5.13b. Some routes on the Needle have bolts and some have rings to rap off of. The Needle is short (2 pitches at the very most) but offers excellent exposure to the town of Estes Park.
The original description for The Thumb & The Needle was split for clarity.
Getting There
The Thumb and the Needle lie on top of Prospect Mountain and the eaisest way to get there is to drive either from CO Highway 7, leaving town until you reach Peak View drive. Take PVD until you see a gold sign on your right that says "Prospect Highlands". This is Curry. Take that sharp right turn. Continue up this short road that will eventually turn into gravel and park at the cropping just short of the gate. Please do not attempt to park in the way of the landowners. The trail starts just up the gully and goes for an enjoyable yet steep 5 min. approach. The first rock you will see is the Needle. Less than 100 yards further uphill is The Thumb. The Thimble is a sliver of rock lying just E of The Thumb.
Descents
To descend the Needle, you can rappel from the anchors on the sport climbs or there are two 2 bolt anchor with chains on the N face. If you are ambitious, you can descend no-hands, a la John Gill....
The Classics
Mountain Project's determination of some of the classic, most popular, highest rated routes for The Needle:
Back in the 1950s and 1960s these were pretty popular with locals. Rich Goldstone and I and friends made several FAs on the Needle. One was something we called Angel Overhang, to the left of the downclimb. Another was the no-hands FA of the Needle by Bob Williams and me. We did our balancing act up the downclimb face! I don't remember any bolts, but that was in an era where bolting from rappel was considered unethical.
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