Capitol's Death Route

[Sean Nunn]

Good post. I think it helps explain some of the fatalities on Capitol this summer. As Nick (Somewhat of a Prick) pointed out, anyone who does their homework knows that isn't a route. It used to be that people wouldn't even consider attempting Capitol until they had 30 or 40 14ers under their belt. I'm trying to understand what is different this summer, that hikers with limited 14er experience are being drawn to Capitol Peak?

I would tend to agree with you and Nick, except that if you are talking about someone like me, who is notoriously bad in route finding, it might be possible that a person could become confused, even if they had studied the routes ahead of time. I don't know for sure if that is possible on this route, like it is on Crestone Needle (where I got into the wrong gully on the descent and had some fairly serious trouble).

[fetishfrog]

I'd much rather see a nicely carved wooden sign like the one on Redcloud than a body.

[BillMiddlebrook]

A part of the problem is people going down this route never visit this site or summitpost to start with, in my opinion.

I agree. If they read the route description (and trip reports) here they would realize they must return to K2.

[birdgirl]

I've often wondered if there was a suitable place to post some of the common death traps on various mountains. Years before 14ers.com, when there were not so many climbers, we would talk to others who had climbed the mountain for beta. I have found that people were losing their way coming down on Mt. Holy Cross, and needed to keep looking back on the way up because the route was not obvious on the way down. Crestone Needle had a number of accidents and rescues where people continued on the main gully on the descent, rather than crossing out of the gully. There becomes a point where you cannot climb up nor down. SAR is called a lot for rescues but mostly body recoveries at that point. Now it sounds like Capitol Peak needs an alert issued for it too. Perhaps Bill Middlebrook could think of a place to post these common errors on certain mountains. It also would help if the forest service would issue specific warnings at the TH next to the map. Of course most of our 14ers are more forgiving, but some seem to tragically have the same deathly mistake repeated. And yes, signs are a great option, too.

[rpdawes]

A part of the problem is people going down this route never visit this site or summitpost to start with, in my opinion.

I agree. If they read the route description (and trip reports) here they would realize they must return to K2.

If some people ever access this website, I think that it would be beneficial to them if you insert one or two pictures posted by Scott P below what you already warned in the route description like "On your descent, you MUST return via the same route from K2 - do not try to take a shortcut to Capitol Lake because all of the terrain ends in serious cliffs." A picture is worth a thousand words. That way, it will certainly help save some lives.

[onebyone]

Yeah, I think what happens is that people get quite a ways down that face before it cliffs out. At this point, you have to decide to basically re climb all the way back to the knife edge or roll the dice and go for it. At this point in the day, you're prob pretty tired, too.

It's still a little perplexing how two people died together, but I guess s**t happens.

I know people here will rip me for this, but I think a small sign is prob a good idea. There will always be people climbing Capitol who don't even know this website exists. I don't like the idea of a sign, but I really don't want anyone else to die doing the same damn thing other people died doing.

[jamal]

It's still a little perplexing how two people died together, but I guess s**t happens.

One scenario is that the partner below was spotting the other, which is quite common. On many very steep slopes, if the climber above were to fall, that person below would also get knocked off the slope as they attempted to spot them.

Pulling a really big rock off is also going to get both climbers into trouble.

[JDG7]

Thank you, Scott, for the original post. Outstanding information.

While I fully support LNT practices, this summer has been awful to follow. I vote for a sign at that juncture, at this point. The trail seems so inviting, and leads to death.

Like on the Needle, I think a sign is best. And updating Bill's route guide with the emphasized points mentioned above, along with the extra pictures that Scott provided, would be prudent.

My humble 0.02.

[kushrocks]

Very helpful post Scott.

Bill do you think this could be added in the route description in bold faced red to not go this way? Just a thought.

[jfolwell1]

The thing with a sign is that there will still be those out there that will just gnaw on it like a marmot and take the gully anyway.
Way to many people and far to few thinkers.

[EZsummits]

Is the problem that this looks like a route or that people are in bad mental/physical state and don't know the mountain/route? Also, not every death on Capitol this year was on this "Death Route" and this sign wouldn't help with those situations. We need a solution to help with more risk scenarios if possible.

Permits which must be picked up in person, along with a 10-15 minute conversation with the forest ranger would do more good than a sign and would help prevent deaths from multiple scenarios. Especially if the ranger could deny access to people that are clearly not ready to take this peak on. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, less people getting on the mountain that aren't prepared to be there. Let's say there is a sign, and people realize not to go down this one path, it doesn't preclude them from picking bad routes around or over K2 or having missteps elsewhere that are fatal/dangerous. When you are really fatigued and/or decision making is impaired there are multiple opportunities for bad things to happen which are not limited to this one false route.

Another option would be mandatory hiker education - similar to hunter education. This could help raise money for SAR and prevent more accidents.

[rpdawes]

Do the rangers have to work on shifts in order to carry out a 10 to 15-minute conversation with hikers? That may not be practical since people start hiking at any time in a 24-hour timeframe.