Capitol Peak via Northeast Ridge
July 17, 2009
Having been looking forward to this climb for a long time now, we were getting very excited to finally head out and get a weekend in the Elks. I left the front range with my friends Connor and Shaun on Thursday evening and we drove straight to the Capitol Creek TH. After quickly re-organizing our gear we hit the trail at about 9:30pm. Nothing quite like a nice clear night to see the stars!!
Shortly up the ditch, we ran into the first cows of the night. Connor nearly walked into them! We ended up herded them for several miles as we couldn't get around them. After passing through several herds sleeping on the trail, we made quick time (for night hiking) and set up camp about a mile below Capitol Lake at midnight. This led to several hours of not really sleeping and we hit the trail again about 4am.
The trail to the Capitol Daly is very easy to follow and only had one patch of snow down at the bottom. The views of the sunrise from just past the saddle were wonderful.
With the news of the recent tragedy on this part of the mountain we unpacked our axes and helmets and set out carefully towards the upper basin below K2. There were two very steep patches of snow that we needed to cross.
This early in the morning the snow was too hard to kick steps. We carefully moved across taking turns chopping steps in with our axes.
Once across these there is still a large amount of very hard snow. Fortunately the angle is much shallower than the earlier slopes and was much easier to manage. I put on my crampons, but both Shaun and Connor felt comfortable just with their axes.
The snow led up to only a few hundred feet below K2. After this we did not encounter any more snow. The rest of the route was dry.
From there we made quick progress up and climbed K2 directly. The views of the remaining route are very exciting!
After a brief rest we headed out onto the ridge. It is very manageable at first and then quickly narrows to the infamous knife-edge. It is definitely better to walk on the edge than it is to straddle and scoot. We quickly motored across and kept moving higher up the ridge.
The harder parts of the route were found higher on the ridge. We kept right on it until we came to a rappel anchor in a notch. Not sure where you would rappel to from there but it was a good landmark to approximately where to leave the ridge and venture onto the face.
From here we worked carefully up the loose rocks towards the summit ridge. Connor and I took a direct line up to the summit. It was brief and enjoyable but did hold numerous 4th class and several low 5th class moves.
The summit was great and has some awesome views.
Capitol-Snowmass Traverse anyone????
The descent went quickly and I found it very fun.
Once off the ridge the trip back to the Daly saddle went smoothly. Capitol Lake is beautiful!
On the hike out we definitely got eaten alive by mosquitoes the last few miles and dodged some more cattle.
What a great climb! It was wonderful to have the whole mountain to ourselves and we were glad we chose Friday as we passed numerous people heading in on our way out.
Back to the car was a great feeling and we took one last look at Capitol before heading out to recharge for Pyramid in the morning.
Having been looking forward to this climb for a long time now, we were getting very excited to finally head out and get a weekend in the Elks. I left the front range with my friends Connor and Shaun on Thursday evening and we drove straight to the Capitol Creek TH. After quickly re-organizing our gear we hit the trail at about 9:30pm. Nothing quite like a nice clear night to see the stars!!
Shortly up the ditch, we ran into the first cows of the night. Connor nearly walked into them! We ended up herded them for several miles as we couldn't get around them. After passing through several herds sleeping on the trail, we made quick time (for night hiking) and set up camp about a mile below Capitol Lake at midnight. This led to several hours of not really sleeping and we hit the trail again about 4am.
The trail to the Capitol Daly is very easy to follow and only had one patch of snow down at the bottom. The views of the sunrise from just past the saddle were wonderful.
With the news of the recent tragedy on this part of the mountain we unpacked our axes and helmets and set out carefully towards the upper basin below K2. There were two very steep patches of snow that we needed to cross.
This early in the morning the snow was too hard to kick steps. We carefully moved across taking turns chopping steps in with our axes.
Once across these there is still a large amount of very hard snow. Fortunately the angle is much shallower than the earlier slopes and was much easier to manage. I put on my crampons, but both Shaun and Connor felt comfortable just with their axes.
The snow led up to only a few hundred feet below K2. After this we did not encounter any more snow. The rest of the route was dry.
From there we made quick progress up and climbed K2 directly. The views of the remaining route are very exciting!
After a brief rest we headed out onto the ridge. It is very manageable at first and then quickly narrows to the infamous knife-edge. It is definitely better to walk on the edge than it is to straddle and scoot. We quickly motored across and kept moving higher up the ridge.
The harder parts of the route were found higher on the ridge. We kept right on it until we came to a rappel anchor in a notch. Not sure where you would rappel to from there but it was a good landmark to approximately where to leave the ridge and venture onto the face.
From here we worked carefully up the loose rocks towards the summit ridge. Connor and I took a direct line up to the summit. It was brief and enjoyable but did hold numerous 4th class and several low 5th class moves.
The summit was great and has some awesome views.
Capitol-Snowmass Traverse anyone????
The descent went quickly and I found it very fun.
Once off the ridge the trip back to the Daly saddle went smoothly. Capitol Lake is beautiful!
On the hike out we definitely got eaten alive by mosquitoes the last few miles and dodged some more cattle.
What a great climb! It was wonderful to have the whole mountain to ourselves and we were glad we chose Friday as we passed numerous people heading in on our way out.
Back to the car was a great feeling and we took one last look at Capitol before heading out to recharge for Pyramid in the morning.
