Peak(s): Capitol Peak
Location: Elk Mountains Range, nearish Aspen, CO
Date: Monday, August 17, 2020
Start time: 3:00 AM
Summit: 12:56 PM
End: 12:42 AM
The saying goes, this isn’t my first rodeo, and this wasn’t our first go at the mighty Capitol Peak. Up until mid-last summer on my quest to summit all the 14ers in Colorado, there was an asterisk beside a few that I thought I might never go for. The list includes Capitol, Little Bear, and Pyramid. However, when planning last year’s trip, Erick dropped Capitol and then ghosted me for a week. He then played it off, allegedly thinking I wanted to do it, not that I was ok never doing it. So, we took a ride on the bull – Erick, Jenny, and I attempted to summit this peak last summer in early August. The area had record-setting snowpack, and we got as far as K2 (13,644 ft) and decided to turn around due to time of day, some rain/hail on the way up, and we were running out of gas. Ever since, it has been on my mind!
We decided to go after Capitol first on this trip to Colorado and play it smart with some drawn-out acclimation before going for the summit.
Trail Head
Breakfast at the Trailhead
We drove from Parker to the trailhead on Saturday and stayed the night at the trailhead. There are no privies at the trailhead, but there are free wag bags! Additionally, there is not much space for camping, but you can set up a tent right behind some of the parking spots. Getting to the trailhead is a dirt road, it is mainly just dusty and nothing technical. Take it slow and watch your clearance as there is a couple of dirt whoops to go over. That said, I drive a stock 2019 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road for reference.
After staying the night near the trailhead, we had a substantial breakfast. Veggies from Marc and Jenny’s Garden done up on the camp stove, rice per Erick and the multi pound bags of rice and cooker he brought for the trip.
The Hike
Hiking to Capitol Lake
To get to Capitol Lake, we took the ditch trail, same as last year’s attempt, due to it not having the elevation loss and regain of the Capitol Creek Trail. The challenge with this trail can be the rogue paths that cows create from grazing. While we saw and smelled many cow patties, we saw no cows! I suspect they were recently evacuated due to the nearby forest fires. Hiking among your cow friends goes for the first 4ish miles until you get to a gate. The rest of the way to the lake is cow pattie free. Near the lake there are several designated campsites. The total hike from the car to the campsite using the ditch trail was 6.2 miles, with an elevation gain of 2,149ft. We made some meals on the jetboil for dinner. Thankfully, we had two as mine was not working. Then we went to bed early in preparation for round 2 of going for Capitol the next morning!
We left the campsite the next morning at 3 AM. The first move is up the saddle of Capitol and Mt. Daly. Once back on the trail from camp, you will make a left to head to the saddle. The trail gets steep quick. From the campsite to the top of the saddle is 1.16 miles of switchbacks with 1,052 feet of gain. We went full send, hiking it in 45 minutes with no breaks. It was a bad idea.
Why was it a bad idea? Once at the top it was still pitch black. We took a quick break and then went to push on. I could imagine this upcoming part of the trail vividly from last year. However, memory was not good enough; we quickly decided to go back to the saddle and waited for the sun to rise in the dark. At this point, Marc and Jenny decided they were not going any further and returned to camp. We waited for an hour and a half, staring at the stars, waiting for the sun to start coming up. Wrapping around to the other side of the mountain, you go down some switchbacks for a little. Stay high, follow the cairns, and you will quickly get into a boulder-like terrain.
Majority of hiking terrain from the Capitol and Mt. Daly saddle to K2
We had a couple snow fields to cross which already had clear tracks and in the morning the snow was still solid. I crossed most on foot, for one or two I broke out the micro spikes. Eventually you will hang a right and go up towards K2. Once K2 is in sight, you can continue following the cairins or just find a route over the boulders that look good to you. Once at the last pitch of K2, you have some options, summit K2 or hang right and go around it. Last year in our failed attempt we summited K2 which is where we
Photo Break in front of K2
decided to call it. K2 provides a solid view of Capitol and the path ahead. We went to the right which is where all the sketchy moves began and the margin for error is 0.000000000000%. We were well on our way to the iconic Knifes Edge. Erick went first, we both took the straddle approach to cross the knifes edge. With one leg and arm on each side, with some very progressive moves, like a fish out of water, well after you would have thought, we made it across! Shortly after we ran into the only other hikers we saw all day beyond the camp site area, three guys about our age from the Boulder area. Much cooler than us, they mainly walked along the ridge, rarely using their hands from K2 across the knife edge and other narrow sections riding the ridge to the top.
Approach after the Knifes Edge
Once past the knife edge, the trail doesn’t get any easier, everything is very technical from K2 to the summit. Infact, I found several sections and moves on the way to the summit to be much more gut turning than crossing the Knife Edge. After more slow going, we made it to the summit and I couldn’t be more half relieved than I was! What a great accomplishment, especially after coming so close last year, but I was still on needles and knew I would be until we got back to the saddle. We started making the slow go back, taking the same approach. This time crossing the knifes edge I ripped my pants! The knifes edge is surprisingly sharp, not even mother nature with all her force after years of trying has been unable to weather it down. Once we got back to K2 we changed things up a bit, heading left around it and then up K2, and down it instead of just staying the left of it. Erick and I both felt this was the less risky route. Once down from K2, there is still good bit of following cairns and going
Headed up a funnel of loose rock to get back on trail
over boulders to get back to the saddle between Capitol and Mt. Daly. This is where the cairns were being more like Karen’s. With the high ground on our side going down, you can see cairns everywhere. There are too many cairns to even know the route, which led us to take a little lower route. This time around with the snow being slushier I broke out the micro spikes for all the snowfield crossings. Right before getting back to the saddle via some switch backs, we got ourselves into a little bit of a bind. We were lower than we were in the morning with no clear route on how to get higher or get on the switch backs in the right place. Now is probably a good time to mention we were about out of water, my first time having this challenge on a 14er. We ended up going up a trough of loose rocks that was quite sketchy to get onto the switchbacks and eventually back to the saddle in 12 hours. We made it, time to really celebrate.
From there we made quick work of going down the saddle to the campsite on the switch backs, which are steep at times but nothing technical. We filtered a lot of water out of the nearby stream, packed up our tents and headed for the truck around 7:30 PM thinking we would get back to the truck by 10:30 PM. As the sun set we ran into some problems on the ditch trail, after the last major water crossing. We would come up on open field sections in the dark and the trail would seem to just disappear into the brush or have multiple paths thanks to our cow friends. We were on a trail for a while, headed roughly in the right direction, but we knew it wasn’t the right trail. Finally with about a mile and a half left we found the main ditch trail and made it back to the truck at 12:42 AM, nearly 22 hours after starting the adventure. We turned on the truck so we could break out the rice cooker, porked up on some rice with soy sauce and oranges and slept in the truck. I am now sitting at 13 of 58, 14ers complete. With one of the toughest of them under my belt.
Last modified: September 7, 2020
