From the Capitol Creek Trailhead
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Capitol Peak has got to
be the most amazing fourteener in the state. At least, it's the most
amazing
fourteener that I've climbed to date. Maybe even the best peak I've done in the
entire state. The peak itself is
breathtaking from Capitol Lake. It's a solid wall of granite that soars two thousand
feet above the lake. Aside from it's awe-inspiring presence, the peak is also one of the most
difficult in the state. I certainly agree with this assessment. It was the
most difficult fourteener that I'd done to date. Kirk, who later climbed all of the
fourteeners during the summer of 1999, agreed that Capitol was easily the most difficult
peak. The technical challenges are 4th class and do not relent at all. Plus,
the distances and elevations are huge. This is a peak that you only should try after
a couple of summers of hiking. Kirk, Ken, and I drove down to the trailhead on the 17th of July. I don't recall the road to the trailhead being very difficult but it was certainly long and bumpy in spots. We knew we had arrived when we were greeted with an amazing vista (left). This is a view of the Capitol Creek drainage. The trail starts by dropping a painful 500 feet and then winds through lovely meadows and forests all the way up to the lake. The hike isn't difficult, just very long. |
| On of the great things
about the hike in is that you almost always have views of the peak. From time to
time, you pass through thick forests but then emerge and with an even closer view of the
peak, which makes the hike very pleasant. One thing that wasn't very pleasant for us
was the flies. There were simply an inordinate amount of the flies on the trail for
some reason. They were very annoying and kept us moving, for whenever we stopped,
they swarmed all over us. As we got closer to the peak we heard some sounds we
thought might be moose. It turned out that it was cows mooing. Apparently,
ranchers use this area for cattle grazing. At one point, we came upon a
herd of them. There was one bull that must
have weighed two tons - he was giant. We stayed clear of him. I'd also heard rumors that the hike up to Capitol Lake had plenty of wildflowers to enjoy. This was certainly true. There were tons of bluebells, elephant heads, lupine, columbine, alpine phlox and many more. We headed up a final shelf where we crossed over Capitol Creek. From here, it was only about 30 to 45 more minutes to the lake. Finally, we made it. There's a small knoll next to the lake where there's good camping spots. Some of them are hard to find. Ken and Kirk ended up in a spot closer to the lake. I found a very hidden spot alone (since I was using my bivy sack for the first time) a little higher up next to a large boulder. |
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After setting up camp,
we headed down to the lake with our stoves, food, and cameras. We took some time to
fill up our water bottles as the
stoves were heating up. We spent the rest of the time taking pictures of flowers, the lake, and the peak.
The weather had been good all day. A few clouds moved in which would make for
some great sunset photos. I
also took some nice slides of the sunset and the rising moon. We stayed around the lake until it was nearly dark and then headed back to the tents to get some shut-eye. I slept really well in the bivy sack. However, later on in the night, I heard a little critter messing with my food in a plastic bag that I'd hung in a tree. I wonder how he'd gotten to it then I realized that he had climbed the boulder, then walked one of the branches over. I tried clapping my hands but that only temporarily scared him away. After a while, I reluctantly got up and moved my food to another tree that he couldn't climb. I did get a quick look at him - it was most likely a pika although it might have been a ferret. I only saw part of it for a split second escaping down the boulder. The little fella had had enough time, however, to nibble part way into my breakfast bagel! I was sleeping really hard so when my alarm went off, I turned it off and went back to sleep knowing that Kirk would wake me up, which he did. I was such a bum. |
| The morning was very
cloudy and damp feeling. We began hiking up to the saddle between Capitol and Daly.
The hike up to the saddle is very tedious and steep. But you do have great
views (right) of Capitol the whole way. Once you get to the saddle, you can't see
the peak. You can follow a trail around BUT this trail does lead you the wrong way.
You have to drop down into the valley on the other side and it's better to do this
sooner rather than later. We ended up going too far, then had to backtrack and
downclimb a steep loose gully to get into the rocky drainage on the other side. The
other side looked completely different. There were no flowers, water, or
greenery...just rock and ice. It looked quite extreme. Looking back, you get a
great view of Mount Daly. Capitol is still a long way off from here. You need to climb some steep snow slopes and scramble up to the summit of K2, the point right before the infamous knife edge. The climb up to K2 itself is very tricky. We actually made the mistake of contouring to the right below K2 and climbing up the back side. I contoured above Ken and Kirk, since I was traveling much faster, and it was one of the more dangerous parts of the hike. It would turn out that the knife edge was one of the easier sections. Anyway, after finally getting to K2, I realized that indeed the best way to tackle K2 is to climb it directly. On the way down, we took the direct route and even though it was sorta tricky, it was much much easier than contouring around. |
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The views from K2 are
absolutely amazing. Capitol Peak dwarfs everything around it and is quite
intimidating. We were pretty excited though because this is where the fun really
began. The Pierre Lakes basin is
also visible from here and doesn't even look like Colorado. It more resembles
something that I've seen in the Himalayan picture books. You can also see Snowmass
Mountain and the Maroon Bells from here. The weather had gotten progressively worse since we had awakened. There were low rain clouds all around us but thankfully, there weren't any thunderheads. We began downclimbing K2 and making our way towards Capitol's ridge. The climb down K2 was difficult as well. It was tough 3rd class climbing. After some 3rd class scrambling on less significant knife edges we arrived at the true knife edge. It is indeed a long way down on either side of the ridge but it's not terribly steep. Still, if you slip, you'd be hard pressed to stop yourself but the good thing is that it really is difficult to fall. The ridge is very solid and there are plenty of holds. So, if you're afraid of heights, this part will give you some grief. I'd conquered my earlier fear of heights and totally enjoyed the knife edge - even though it did start snowing on us! I walked parts of it and scooted across parts of it. It totally depends on your comfort level. The scrambling doesn't relent at all on this peak. Ken and Kirk seemed to think that the remainder of the peak was even more difficult than the knife edge. I wouldn't go quite that far for the standard route, but I made the mistake of getting off route to "enjoy" some more difficult scrambling. I felt really strong that day and was consistently way in front of Ken and Kirk. So, after getting about 2/3rds the way up the peak, I decided to leave the standard route and climb up to the ridge proper. At this point I was climbing with some other groups that were in front of us. They all, however, remained on the standard route. |
| In this photo (right), I
left the main route and headed up to the ridge. I quickly realized that this was a
one-way route; a downclimb back to the standard route would have been very difficult.
Once I got up to the ridge, I was able to look down the north face of Capitol Peak.
It's every bit as steep as it appears from Capitol Lake. The ridge is very
thin and I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone alone. I made up my mind right
then and there that I would never do this again. But the most difficult part lay
just in front of me. About 100 feet below the summit, the ridge is blocked by an
impassable chockstone. The only way around it was on the right side, right above a
2000 foot drop over the North Face. To get around, you simply had to make one quick
yet hugely exposed move. It was basically like stepping over air. I sort of
clenched my teeth and made the step and got quickly to safe ground. I reiterated my
promise to myself not to do this ever again. The remainder of the hike up to the
summit was fairly easy - difficult 3rd and occasional 4th class. Finally, I made it
to the summit and talked with the other climbers.
I had left my water on K2 and was really thirsty. One of the climbers was
about to dump his water. I stopped him and offered to drink it for him! I was
very thankful. The clouds were very thick around us. This was some of the most extreme alpine scenery that I'd ever seen in Colorado. What a treat. I took a nice panoramic picture from the summit too. I then began heading down the standard route. Finally, I met up with Kirk and Ken who were still on their way up. The climb back down wasn't bad at all. I zoomed over the knife edge then paused to take a picture of some of the other climbers returning over it. |
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I waited for perhaps an
hour on the summit of K2 for Ken and Kirk. They made it back safely having summitted
the peak. They both looked dead tired. We started back down K2 and then
glissaded down the snowfield. We hiked over the
Capitol-Daly saddle then back down to our tents. It had started to rain too and we
had to break out the rain gear. I sort of enjoyed hiking back to the tents in the
rain though. It changed the scenery and was beautiful in it's own way. This
picture to the left was taken in the rain. We packed up our stuff then began a long march back to the car. The weather improved on the way down. The flies were gone as well. I don't know the reason for that. We ended the brutally long day with a painful climb back up the 500-foot drop to the trailhead. What a bad way to end the hike, but it made us appreciate what we had done all the more. This was a really great trip. Capitol Peak should not be missed by any hiking or climbing enthusiast. |
