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Sunlight Spire Rock Climbing

Climbing Area Map This is our best guess at this area's location.
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Routes in Sunlight Spire

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Standard Route, Sunlight Spire T 5.10 6b 20 VII- 19 E2 5b

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Elevation:	14,000 ft	4,267 m
GPS:	37.64627, -107.58777 Google Map · Climbing Area Map
Page Views:	21,802 total · 93/month
Shared By:	George Bell on Jun 19, 2007
Admins:	Leo Paik, John McNamee, Frances Fierst, Monty, Monomaniac, Tyler KC Page Updates (admin only)

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Description

Sunlight Spire is a quarter mile southeast of Sunlight Peak in Colorado's Needle Mountains. It lies on the ridge between Windom and Sunlight. It would be Colorado's most difficult fourteener, except that it is so close to Sunlight Peak and there is very little drop between the two. The topo map lists its elevation as 13,995' but a recent survey upgraded to an even 14K.

You walk right past this Sunlight Spire on the usual route up Sunlight Peak. Sunlight Spire doesn't look very impressive except for the monolithic summit block which makes it so hard to climb. The top is a hundred-foot tall "obelisk". If you look carefully you'll see a beautiful splitter crack facing you as you near the summit of Sunlight Peak. This slightly overhanging crack faces southwest.

Getting There

The usual (and shortest) approach is to take the train to Needleton and hike up into Chicago Basin. This is the standard approach for climbing the 14ers Windom, Sunlight and Eolus. A longer approach with no train ride begins from Vallecito Reservoir and crosses Columbine Pass.