Capitol Peak

Colorado peak questions, condition requests and other info.
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greenonion
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Re: Capitol Peak

Post by greenonion »

aadi_duggal wrote: Tue Oct 05, 2021 9:18 pm
JaredJohnson wrote: Tue Oct 05, 2021 8:59 pm I wonder how much snow is in the Indian Peaks Wilderness around this time, as it's lower altitude perhaps not as much? OP, Lone Eagle Peak (solo flight) and the Mohling Traverse could be perfect for you if they're dry. Really great climbing and a significant accomplishment. Here's one TR: https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... trip=15534

Unfortunately I can't give any insight into the conditions there, but maybe others can. Not as high but not as far south so I can't venture a guess
Thanks! I’m not sure if you’ve done this, but I just remembered about the tenmile traverse. That would be a great addition to my trip, since I’ve yet to do a long alpine ridge traverse yet (Building my way up to the WURL within the next few years? We’ll see lol.) Not sure about the conditions for that though, and I couldn’t find much about that recently here.
Someone died on the WURL (wasatch ultimate ridge linkup in Utah) this summer. Don’t know the full details but do be careful and know that one is like a 24 hour kind of thing. Only 11ers there but you don’t have to misstep off a 14er to temp gravity’s fate.
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greenonion
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Re: Capitol Peak

Post by greenonion »

greenonion wrote: Wed Oct 06, 2021 11:52 am
aadi_duggal wrote: Tue Oct 05, 2021 9:18 pm
JaredJohnson wrote: Tue Oct 05, 2021 8:59 pm I wonder how much snow is in the Indian Peaks Wilderness around this time, as it's lower altitude perhaps not as much? OP, Lone Eagle Peak (solo flight) and the Mohling Traverse could be perfect for you if they're dry. Really great climbing and a significant accomplishment. Here's one TR: https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... trip=15534

Unfortunately I can't give any insight into the conditions there, but maybe others can. Not as high but not as far south so I can't venture a guess
Thanks! I’m not sure if you’ve done this, but I just remembered about the tenmile traverse. That would be a great addition to my trip, since I’ve yet to do a long alpine ridge traverse yet (Building my way up to the WURL within the next few years? We’ll see lol.) Not sure about the conditions for that though, and I couldn’t find much about that recently here.
Someone died on the WURL (wasatch ultimate ridge linkup in Utah) this summer. Don’t know the full details but do be careful and know that one is like a 24 hour kind of thing. Only 11ers there but you don’t have to misstep off a 14er to temp gravity’s fate.
Further WURL details and caution… https://www.google.com/amp/s/kutv.com/a ... more-lives
Skimo95
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Re: Capitol Peak

Post by Skimo95 »

Looking forward to attempting Cap this Winter. Just crossing my fingers avalanche conditions are going to be worth the risk! For those who have done it, have you found better conditions early or late Winter?
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cottonmountaineering
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Re: Capitol Peak

Post by cottonmountaineering »

Skimo95 wrote: Wed Oct 06, 2021 12:04 pm Looking forward to attempting Cap this Winter. Just crossing my fingers avalanche conditions are going to be worth the risk! For those who have done it, have you found better conditions early or late Winter?
I think there's two strategies, one is early winter when the mountain gets blasted by wind for a while and snow is patchy and dry, other strategy is last weeks of winter if you have decent avalanche forecast and somewhat consolidated snow
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Barnold41
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Re: Capitol Peak

Post by Barnold41 »

BTW someone posted a conditions report of Crestone and said it is mostly dry. Who knows if there will be any snow accumulating tonight/tomorrow tho.
brousseau
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Re: Capitol Peak

Post by brousseau »

Barnold41 wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 9:07 am BTW someone posted a conditions report of Crestone and said it is mostly dry. Who knows if there will be any snow accumulating tonight/tomorrow tho.
Tonight

A 20 percent chance of snow showers after 4am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 25. Windy, with a southwest wind 25 to 30 mph, with gusts as high as 45 mph.

Saturday

A 20 percent chance of snow showers before noon. Mostly sunny, with a high near 37. Windy, with a west southwest wind 20 to 25 mph increasing to 30 to 35 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 55 mph.

Probably no snow, but that wind!!
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aadi_duggal
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Re: Capitol Peak

Post by aadi_duggal »

brousseau wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 9:45 am
Barnold41 wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 9:07 am BTW someone posted a conditions report of Crestone and said it is mostly dry. Who knows if there will be any snow accumulating tonight/tomorrow tho.
Tonight

A 20 percent chance of snow showers after 4am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 25. Windy, with a southwest wind 25 to 30 mph, with gusts as high as 45 mph.

Saturday

A 20 percent chance of snow showers before noon. Mostly sunny, with a high near 37. Windy, with a west southwest wind 20 to 25 mph increasing to 30 to 35 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 55 mph.

Probably no snow, but that wind!!
I figured that little bear was close enough that it made sense to go up it today. I summited! Super stoked.
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Salient
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Re: Capitol Peak

Post by Salient »

aadi_duggal wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 8:06 pm
brousseau wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 9:45 am
Barnold41 wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 9:07 am BTW someone posted a conditions report of Crestone and said it is mostly dry. Who knows if there will be any snow accumulating tonight/tomorrow tho.
Tonight

A 20 percent chance of snow showers after 4am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 25. Windy, with a southwest wind 25 to 30 mph, with gusts as high as 45 mph.

Saturday

A 20 percent chance of snow showers before noon. Mostly sunny, with a high near 37. Windy, with a west southwest wind 20 to 25 mph increasing to 30 to 35 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 55 mph.

Probably no snow, but that wind!!
I figured that little bear was close enough that it made sense to go up it today. I summited! Super stoked.
Good job, how dry was it?
Be the best you that you can be.
Aphelion
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Re: Capitol Peak

Post by Aphelion »

aadi_duggal wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 8:06 pm
brousseau wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 9:45 am
Barnold41 wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 9:07 am BTW someone posted a conditions report of Crestone and said it is mostly dry. Who knows if there will be any snow accumulating tonight/tomorrow tho.
Tonight

A 20 percent chance of snow showers after 4am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 25. Windy, with a southwest wind 25 to 30 mph, with gusts as high as 45 mph.

Saturday

A 20 percent chance of snow showers before noon. Mostly sunny, with a high near 37. Windy, with a west southwest wind 20 to 25 mph increasing to 30 to 35 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 55 mph.

Probably no snow, but that wind!!
I figured that little bear was close enough that it made sense to go up it today. I summited! Super stoked.
Grats! I'm glad us naysayers turned out to be wrong. Not having climbed anything in California, how would you say the difficulty stacked up to what you have previously done?
aadi_duggal
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Re: Capitol Peak

Post by aadi_duggal »

Salient wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 8:54 pm
aadi_duggal wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 8:06 pm
brousseau wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 9:45 am

Tonight

A 20 percent chance of snow showers after 4am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 25. Windy, with a southwest wind 25 to 30 mph, with gusts as high as 45 mph.

Saturday

A 20 percent chance of snow showers before noon. Mostly sunny, with a high near 37. Windy, with a west southwest wind 20 to 25 mph increasing to 30 to 35 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 55 mph.

Probably no snow, but that wind!!
I figured that little bear was close enough that it made sense to go up it today. I summited! Super stoked.
Good job, how dry was it?
Thanks! The largest patch of snow en route was about 10in2 . The real issue was a giant patch of ice in the middle of the hourglass.
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Re: Capitol Peak

Post by aadi_duggal »

Aphelion wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 9:01 pm
aadi_duggal wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 8:06 pm
brousseau wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 9:45 am

Tonight

A 20 percent chance of snow showers after 4am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 25. Windy, with a southwest wind 25 to 30 mph, with gusts as high as 45 mph.

Saturday

A 20 percent chance of snow showers before noon. Mostly sunny, with a high near 37. Windy, with a west southwest wind 20 to 25 mph increasing to 30 to 35 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 55 mph.

Probably no snow, but that wind!!
I figured that little bear was close enough that it made sense to go up it today. I summited! Super stoked.
Grats! I'm glad us naysayers turned out to be wrong. Not having climbed anything in California, how would you say the difficulty stacked up to what you have previously done?
It was physically less challenging than some of the other things I’ve done. I had enough energy to drive to sand dunes National park! It was technically on par with getting lost on the summit block of Lyell. The real kicker was that there was a giant slab of ice in the middle of the hour glass a few inches to climbers right of the the fixed line. So right when I saw ice, I was almost ready to call it. But we noticed if we stayed really to the far left of the chute, it got more exposed but there were better, dry holds. The ice just complicated things as it provided fewer options, especially for the downclimb, so that took longer than expected. The route down wasn’t obvious, and I had to at one point retrace my steps and traverse to some other part of the chute to figure out how to get off the last 20 feet or so. It felt more like a puzzle to solve than anything else.

So all in all, it was definitely a challenge, but I thought it was doable, within my limits, and a great experience.

Edit: I feel like someone’s going to call me out on this, but I did end up bringing micro spikes just in case there was ice. But I just wanted to avoid the ice all together because I didn’t feel like the equipment was really all that appropriate for that scramble. It was nowhere near mixed conditions, so it wouldn’t have made sense to bring ice climbing gear. If it really was true mixed conditions, I would not have attempted it.
Last edited by aadi_duggal on Fri Oct 08, 2021 9:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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bdloftin77
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Re: Capitol Peak

Post by bdloftin77 »

aadi_duggal wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 8:06 pm
brousseau wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 9:45 am
Barnold41 wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 9:07 am BTW someone posted a conditions report of Crestone and said it is mostly dry. Who knows if there will be any snow accumulating tonight/tomorrow tho.
Tonight

A 20 percent chance of snow showers after 4am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 25. Windy, with a southwest wind 25 to 30 mph, with gusts as high as 45 mph.

Saturday

A 20 percent chance of snow showers before noon. Mostly sunny, with a high near 37. Windy, with a west southwest wind 20 to 25 mph increasing to 30 to 35 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 55 mph.

Probably no snow, but that wind!!
I figured that little bear was close enough that it made sense to go up it today. I summited! Super stoked.
Nice! How was it? What route did you take?

Edit: Typed too slow. I’m glad you enjoyed it! How was the infamous Lake Como Road?
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