Climbing Capitol Peak - The Hard Way

gusbatcho

Aug 30, 2023

The goal of this route is to allow the combination of two long Colorado 14teerners, Snowmass and Capitol. By starting at the snowmass trailhead we no longer have to shuttle a car, and by sleeping in the valley between the two peaks we can break the behemouth 27mile 9k Vert trip into a more resonable slices.

The read outline marks our approx path to the Capitol Summit.

Our plan was to then take Hekert Pass to meet up with the snowmass trail the next day, after camping in the valley.

We started at approx. 6:30am which was probably too late for the desired pace + the weather window which indicated afternoon showers were a possibility.

1.5miles into the snowmass trail we branched off crossing snowmass creek. I dropped my shoe into the water and had to chase it down the riverbed. Luckily it got snagged pretty quickly.

The trail (West Snowmass Trail) gains ~1400 feet before entering the west snowmass creek basin where it begins to climb up to a pass below haystack mountain. We departed from the trail still in the creek basin but kept to the northside of the creekbed.

(This route description is purposly vauge as part of our group returned this way and indicated that our initial navigation had some errors. We did find a sudo trail marked by orange ribbons which aided travel somewhat)

To find this sudo trail we crossed the cow pasture for a while, then hiked the hill shown in the photo below.

Crossing over a creek/bog at some fallen timbers had us bushwacking for some time which lead to Cullen stepping squarely on a wasps nest. Eventually we were able to break treeline and naviagte to the lake at the terminus of West Snowmass Creek.

Looking Back after breaking treeline:

Looking at the Lake from the south bank. The route goes around the north bank then up the valley:

Pretty much from this lake to our exit in the valley over would be a talus scramble. The Circle marks the saddle between Capitol and Mount daily on the standard Capitol Route. We could see people comming over and starting their traverse into the valley.

We lugged our bags to the notch below K2 (Cullen, Josh, and Ayden had to turn around due to Cullens severly sparined ankle) and the remaining Five set out to quickly bag the summit.

The Notch from below:

Snow Feilds Getting to the Notch:

The summit of Capitol was made ominous by darkish clouds... but the return of cellular service provided some assurances that the weather would hold and we set out across the Knifes Edge and then up the Capitol Direct route... staying ridge proper.

At the top Mickey hit a wall (he was still recovering from SOAS). It took less than an hour to gain the summit but nearly 3 to return to K2. Logan, Dom, and I descended from the notch to setup camp by the lake below the peak (Not Capitol Lake). While Mickey and Connor took their time on the descent.

Downclimbing the Notch:

Looking at the Notch From Peirre Lakes:

Our campsite was very photogenic:

At the lake we decided that Mickey would not be able to go over Heckert Pass. We considered having Connor and Mickey take the Bear Creek exit while Dom, Logan, and I make a morning summit push but eventually we decided to stay together. This was the right decision as the unknown Bear Creek exit pushed the class 3 designation and would have been extremely difficult without getting some beta from other climbers.

You have to stay to the north side of the valley to avoid a waterfall which forces you down the Class 3 slabs. There are Cairns, but it is easy to get off course. Mickey stepped in a wasps nest. I have more extensive photos of the descent... if this is something you are interested in feel free to reach out. e

Once done with the downclimb and back in the valley we picked the wrong side of the river, adding about 1.5miles of sloping talus traverse. That sucked. Eventually we got back to the snowmass trail and made it to the car around 3:30PM on sunday.

While this route is definitley possible, and has the benefit of the Bear Creek exit... the naviegtion/talus make travel signifigantly more difficult than following a defined trail. In the case of a more serious emergency the Bear creek would not have been a quick/easy enough exit, once you commit to the Pierre lake valley you are in for a long exit no matter which eay you go.