Capitol-Snowmass Conditions?

[roguejackalope]

Capitol standard route has some small amount of snow on it, but is very manageable. Snow free until the talus field in the basin after the saddle. The snow is too shallow and mixed in with the talus to make it much fun, so we avoided most of the snow by climbing right on dry rocks. A short snow field coming off K2 getting onto the ridge, and then only the occasional step or two on snow the rest of the way. We did it yesterday without any snow gear. Would recommend staying on the cairned route after exiting the ridge if you can.

I can only speculate, but I think Snowmass must be a nice climb right now.

[Dancesatmoonrise]

Anna, looks like you're ripping through the 14ers pretty fast! Congrats!

You'll have no problem on Capitol. Like rouguejackalope says, stay hard right in the talus field as you round the corner toward the K2 slopes, and avoid much of the snowy blocks. There's a rock rib you can ascend midway through the lower basin that will take you to drier blocks that can be traversed up and left till you get to the good, huge orange block field below K2. The descent off K2 has snow, but staying to the right on a rib avoids much of it. The knife edge is clean and dry, as is most of the upper section to the summit.

I hope to have some photos up by later in the week - if not, and you need them, remind me.

Good luck, be safe, kick butt!

:D

[roguejackalope]

Anna, looks like you're ripping through the 14ers pretty fast! Congrats!

You'll have no problem on Capitol. Like rouguejackalope says, stay hard right in the talus field as you round the corner toward the K2 slopes, and avoid much of the snowy blocks. There's a rock rib you can ascend midway through the lower basin that will take you to drier blocks that can be traversed up and left till you get to the good, huge orange block field below K2. The descent off K2 has snow, but staying to the right on a rib avoids much of it. The knife edge is clean and dry, as is most of the upper section to the summit.

I hope to have some photos up by later in the week - if not, and you need them, remind me.

Good luck, be safe, kick butt!

:D

Dancesatmoonrise, really nice to meet you up there! Hope the rest of the climb was good for you, and congrats!

[Dancesatmoonrise]

Dancesatmoonrise, really nice to meet you up there! Hope the rest of the climb was good for you, and congrats!

Hey, thanks man! Yes, it was a blast, went very well. The two folks up ahead on the knife edge were Connie and Brian - they got photos of the end zone dance!

It was great meeting you. And congrats on one of the toughest peaks!

:D

[chicagosky]

I was stopped short at K2 on 9/24/2011because of snow on the west side and I didnt feel comfortable about footing but now looking back - there probably was a better route to the top of K2. Here is a picture

[Dancesatmoonrise]

Dancesatmoonrise, really nice to meet you up there!

Thought you might like this shot of your crew on the knife edge.

-Jim

[mtgirl]

Anna......just sent you a PM with S-ridge conditions on Snowmass from Saturday, 9/24.

[roguejackalope]

Thought you might like this shot of your crew on the knife edge.

-Jim

Great picture, thanks! And completely relevant to this thread because it shows the little bit of snow on the upper route. :D

[freeflyfreek]

this was my first 14er attempt. I admit I was quite nervous being on K2 at the 13,360 ft mark, I guess we didn't know that the route went straight up that bad boy... it appeared to be too much snow to be safe no matter which route we took, up, around ... but I guess other climbers made it onto Capitol's summit. Congrats to them. I'm gonna get that summit next time I go for Capitol !
Climbing is fun

[roguejackalope]

anna, I posted a trip report and tried to emphasize the snow conditions as of Sunday. I really can't wait to see what Jim puts together though.

http://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=11109" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

freeflyfreek and chicagosky, I'm glad you guys had a good time even though you turned back. I think if you had climbed Capitol as your first 14er, maybe you would have had to climb the rest of them in descending order of difficulty :D

[Dancesatmoonrise]

anna, I posted a trip report and tried to emphasize the snow conditions as of Sunday. I really can't wait to see what Jim puts together though.

http://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=11109" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

freeflyfreek and chicagosky, I'm glad you guys had a good time even though you turned back. I think if you had climbed Capitol as your first 14er, maybe you would have had to climb the rest of them in descending order of difficulty :D

Dude, you've got some fine photos there. Thanks for getting that out before the weekend - mine might be a little longer - inundated around here this week.

"What Jim puts together.." ?? I think Jim is just going to post a TR that says "See roguejackalope's TR"

Fine job, on and off trail, right down to the excellent taste in backup plans.