This past Sunday, August 19, I joined my good friends Andy Dionne, Brett Wamsley, and Reid Jennings on a climb of one of my favorite Colorado 14ers, Capitol Peak. I truly always enjoy going back to this majestic mountain as it is the most dramatic mountain in our state in my opinion. Many people call Capitol Colorado’s hardest 14er by its easiest route and I would tend to agree. In terms of scrambling and exposure, it has all the of the other tough 14ers beaten. However, in terms of objective danger, i.e. rockfall, etc,  I think a few others have Capitol beaten. I tend to think of it as the Grand Teton of Colorado with its most impressive north face standing as one of Colorado’s highest mountain walls above Capitol Lake. Andy is currently trying to finish up his goal of climbing all 55 of Colorao’s 14ers and Capitol would be his last of the tough peaks. Brett will be climbing Aconcagua with Kristine & myself this coming winter as Brett’s girlfriend, Maura, will be coming into Aconcagua basecamp with all of us, so this was a great kick-off to Brett’s training. Also, this was his first really tough climb and he did extremely well. This was my 3rd time up Capitol and always enjoy going back with good friends.

Reid backpacking in the 6.5 miles to Capitol Lake as the towering north face of Capitol looms behind

After briefly saying hi to Ted & Christy Mahon at the trailhead, who were finishing up one of their ridiculous 8 hr trail runs, Reid & I backpacked in the 6.5 miles to Capitol Lake Saturday afternoon/early evening in a quick 2 hrs and 20 minutes to find Andy, Brett, & Maura fishing in Capitol Lake. It was a nice evening of camping and sleeping out under the stars. We woke up at 5am and were on the trail at 6:15am after some oatmeal and coffee. The weather could not have been better and the fun and exciting northeast ridge, aka knife-edge ridge, was a great scramble as always. Everyone did great and we all summitted around 9am. We ran into Alan Arnette and his crew just after the knife-edge ridge portion of the scramble and were able to chat with him on the summit for a bit about big mountains and plans in the works. It was great to see him again and it looked as if his crew was having a wonderful day. I think the last time I saw him was at his 7 summits presentation in Vail this past winter. Check out Alan’s awesome blog and site at www.alanarnette.com. We then descended back to Capitol Lake and met up with Maura at 12:15pm. Sometimes on these types of peaks, going down takes as long as going up. After a quick dip in Capitol Lake, Reid & I said our farewells to Andy, Brett, & Maura and boogied out to the trailhead arriving at 3pm. A great 24 hrs out in the backcountry and I think it helped to cure my jetlag from Australia. A few Capitol pics below:

Some initial scrambling at sunrise en route to the boulderfield that leads up to the point called K2

Capitol’s northeast ridge from the summit of K2 (13,664′)

Brett crossing Capitol’s knife-edge proper

Reid on an airy portion of Capitol’s northeast ridge proper

Capitol Peak summit (14,130′) – Congrats, fellas!