I climbed Snowmass Mountain yesterday from the Lead King Basin trailhead. I arrived a day ahead of time to explore. I got to the trailhead by driving the Lost Trail Creek from the town of Marble in my Subaru Crosstrek with stock tires. If the trail had been any rougher I would not have continued. Two small streams had to be forded but they were barely 3 inches deep. I parked at the top of the switchbacks above the trailhead. I walked the switchbacks the day before and there were two spots that I would have cringed if I were driving. I started at 4:50 am and had enough moonlight that my headlamp was barely necessary. After passing the numbered campsites at Geneva Lake I lost the trail and I think I trended too far to the hikers' right

. I ended up thrashing through willows a couple of times as I used instinct to gainaltitude towards the base of the mountain. My intent was to climb the South Ridge route

but looking up at it, I couldn't wrap my head around where to gain access to it, so I continued hiking west with the new goal of climbing the South Face route. There are numerous ways to climb and descend the South Face and there are herd paths and cairns going up the various gullies. I ended up picking the gully that had some tundra greenery near its' base. Not too soon after I climbed higher out of the gully to gain the rib because the talus was larger and cemented better than the smaller gully rubble.

The summit is extremely rewarding with views of the Bells and Capitol, and the Snowmass Lake route.

Capitol Peak

On the descent, I again found staying on a rib instead of a gully to be more secure. This mountain has never been climbed the same way twice and instinct and route finding are necessary. I am a 64 year-old flatlander with 7 days of acclimatization and it was a 14 hour day for me, including 35 minutes on the summit and the additional mile hike, each way, to my car 800 feet above the trailhead 14er #29.