Capitol Peak

August 7, 2021 / 14,130’

RT STATS: TOTAL TIME - 15 HR & 38 MIN, 16.30 MILES, AND 5,105’ ELEVATION GAIN (Mileage/Elevation a Bit Low but close enough)

TIME STATS: 7 HR & 51 MIN TO SUMMIT,24 MIN AT SUMMIT, 7 HR & 23 MIN BACK TO TH

RATING (HOW MUCH I LIKED THE HIKE): 8/10

Capitol Peak…my 50th 14er!!! Pretty cool peak to be my 50th and it is also widely regarded as the Most Difficult 14er in Colorado!! Anyways, I will pick up on this post where I left off on the El Diente and Mt. Wilson post. JUST IN CASE you didn’t read my amazing post about El Diente and Mt. Wilson, we summited both of those on Thursday, August 5th. We spent the night in Montrose and drove to Glenwood Springs the next morning. When we got to Glenwood Springs we ate lunch at a burger place called Grind—it wasn’t good. After this, we drove to the Capitol Creek TH just to check it out.

BUT WAIT, on the way to the TH, we drove through Carbondale to….see the airbnb I spent the night at (third picture below) before climbing my favorite 14er—SNOWMASS! See the picture below…I stayed in the first floor room on the left-hand side :D. Ok, so, we drove to the Capitol Creek TH because it was a rest day and we didn’t have much else to do. We took some pictures from the TH where you can see Capitol WAYYYYY in the background. After this, we drove to the nearby Snowmass TH (third picture, second row below)….good memories :’).

We drove back to Glenwood Springs (we stayed at a Holiday Inn Express), went to the grocery store to get some bananas, went on a 1 mile walk (because active recovery!!!!!!), and went to this amazing Italian restaurant in downtown Glenwood Springs called Brava Modern Trattoria. It was all good—bread and olive oil, vegetables, and pappardelle bolognese. #CLEANPLATECLUB (still a *true* slogan from summer 2019 haha). I would definitely each there again. We got back to the hotel and went to sleep around 7:30pm because we would be waking up in just over 5 hours.

We woke up around 12:30am and were in the car leaving the hotel at 1:13am. We parked at the TH at 2:06am and started at 2:19am. Headlamps…of course….were worn. It was completely flat at the beginning so that was a nice warmup. At an hour in, we passed a TON OF CATTLE. There were probably 40 of them on the trail or around the trail. See the picture below…. it literally looks like it is a part of a horror movie. Thankfully, they just kinda looked at us as we went by, but still, it was kinda spooky. My headlight wasn’t as bright as I’d like it to be…so at 4am, I changed the batteries and look how much brighter my second kristin selfie is below compared to the first kristin selfie (taken when we started). There’s also a cattle gate to keep the cattle in the area, but some of them still escape…like my dad.

At 3 hours an 1 minute in, we hit the trail junction (elevation ~11,600’) where we would head left up to the Mt. Daly-Capitol saddle. A few minutes in, we took a break so I could change my socks. There were multiple stream crossings in the first few hours and I misstepped and got wet at least twice. I decided to finally change my socks here, since there obviously weren’t any more streams. I must say that even after changing my socks, my feet (toes) were still very cold (like how they were on Crestone Needle) and I was a little concerned…. After this, I kinda just booked it up to the saddle to get it over with and just chill up for a bit. I was at the top of the saddle at 3 hours and 38 minute mark. The hazy sunrise was still kind of pretty, but it was beyond windy. I thought I had a nice place mostly out of the wind to eat a banana and bar, but it still was very cold. My dad came up a bit later and suggested a much better spot that was not freezing cold so thank you.

After hiking along the saddle for a minute or two, we started descending a gully. At the base of the gully, we were finally in the talus field that we would stay in until we essentially summited K2.

I had seen pictures of this section on 14ers.com, and it wasn’t difficult technically; rather, it just required a LARGE amount of attention. I’m good at route-finding (just being honest), and the cairns were helpful. You just don’t want to step on nor hold on to a wobbly or loose rock in this section. Below are some pictures of this section. Also, I will say this here (and again later in this post), but from the saddle onwards was where you had to pay essentially perfect attention and have great concentration. This is so true and it’s important that anyone who attempts Capitol (or any peak honestly) is aware that this isn’t fun and games. Yes, it is fun, but it is also very serious.

At the 5 hour and 28 minute mark, we hit the K2 saddle. Getting to the top of K2 is Class 3/4 and 14ers.com said that you could go around the right of K2. This is what my dad suggested to do, but (very good thing we did not…) I couldn’t understand how that was “easier” because it was very loose (like you could slip and fall loose). So, I decided to just go up to K2 and at the 5 hour and 40 minute mark, I was atop K2. We met some guys at this point and they took our pictures on the K2 summit with Capitol in the background. These pictures look UNREAL!!!!!!! Anyways, soon enough, we descended K2 which was honestly very difficult. In my opinion, one of the most difficult sections of the whole climb. I got in an odd position, but got out of it (at the expense of my backpack taking quite a hit…hmu for more details).

We ascended a little bit of talus and such before coming to the knife edge…the most hyped part of Capitol even though it was ONE OF THE EASIER “HARD” AREAS. Like actually though, the KNIFE EDGE is not the hardest part in my opinion. Honestly, the exposure on both sides didn’t faze me one bit. It took me maybe 4 minutes to cross? I guess the angle of the pictures don’t do it justice below because you just can see the complete drop on one side. But REST ASSURED! There is an equal complete drop on the OTHER SIDE!!!!!!!!!

So, we both safely made it across the knife edge and continued on our way. As mentioned earlier, from K2 to the summit require perfect attention. Unlike the Knife edge, a lot of the remaining terrain to the summit was quite loose, so we were extremely careful (as usual). There was a lot of route-finding in this section, but it went well. I picked an appropriate/good route to the summit. Below are a lot of pictures of this portion.

7 hours and 51 minutes later, we were standing on the summit of CAPITOL PEAK!!!!! MY 50TH CO 14ER and MY DAD’S 47TH CO 14ER. The views were not great because of the smoke. I could kind of see Snowmass Mountain—my favorite 14er that I summited on 9/6/20. It makes me smile looking at my Snowmass Mountain summit shot with me atop the summit block because I can see Capitol and K2 in the distance. THE PICTURE IS EVEN COOLER NOW THAN IT ALREADY WAS NOW THAT I’VE SUMMITED CAPITOL!!!!!!! We spent 24 minutes on the summit before heading down. I felt great but wasn’t (completely) excited yet because descending Capitol safely was still yet to be done.

As usual, I didn’t take as many pictures on the descent as I do on the ascent, but don’t worry, I still took some ;). Descending the motto was: DO NOT KICK ROCKS DOWN (on me). I guess I mean, I was extremely careful in choosing my path and was likewise extremely careful watching the people around me because I didn’t want to get hit. Only one scary moment hearing a few rocks above me falling but they weren’t anywhere close to me. BUT STILL, I had no clue where they were coming from so I put my body against the rocky area that I was in. We saw quite a few people still ascending which I thought was kind of late but oh well.

Additionally, I write this as a warning. I saw the most probable spot where people think they can take a shortcut down a gully and towards Capitol Lake (third picture below). You see, it looks like a nice path, but it soon cliffs off and you would fall 100s of feet. I post this picture just to show the deception of this “path”. IF THERE WAS AN EASIER ROUTE, IT WOULD PROBABLY BE THE STANDARD ROUTE.

Some more pictures of crossing the Knife Edge (second row—my dad from behind in first picture, me from the front in second picture, and me looking like a dork in the third picture after finishing it).

It was SO NICE when we basically got back up to the saddle (I say basically because it was probably a minute before the saddle that we took a break. We made it there in about 12 hours and 14 minutes and chilled for a bit. We took off our helmets and just got recuperated. In my mind, we were done even though we had a ways back to the trailhead. I took my poles out finally here. I have to say that my quads were dead and every downhill step just felt awful (not injury-wise, but just extreme soreness from El Diente and Wilson 2 days prior). Anyways, we got back down to that junction and took some pictures with Capitol in the background (second row of pictures below). :)

As mentioned in the paragraph above, my quads were just so sore, but, still, in my mind, I viewed it as “we were done”… even though we still had 6 miles of hiking before us. I feel like I have developed some catch-phrases that I say multiple times at the end of longgg days—ask me if you’re curious ;). It was funny seeing all the people backpacking in to spend the night at Capitol Lake (and maybe or maybe not do Captiol since a lot of people will just hike to the lake). We were like “it’s great that that is not us…”. Even though I LOVE THIS STUFF, it is nice knowing that you are (basically) done. 15 hours and 38 minutes later, we arrived back at the TH. The longest time that I have ever been out on a 14er… >:)

We left the trailhead and drove into Aspen to get FOOD AT MY FAVORITE ASPEN RESTAURANT— WHITE HOUSE TAVERN. We actually ate here last year after Castle and Conundrum. I got 2 entrees (lmaoooo) and ate every single bit of both. I got a massive burger (that was so tall because it was loaded with things inside) and a kale salad with rotisserie chicken. Both of these entrees were hella rich, but sooo good. After this, we drove over Independence Pass and to a hotel near DIA. Our flights the next morning were leaving at around 10am. We got to the airport early, so we got breakfast at Snooze….very good also. It was sad that the trip was already over, but was so much fun!!!!!!!!!!! Until next time ;) (and next time and next time…etc.)