On Tuesday, Sept. 14 I was crazy enough to attempt to climb Capitol and Snowmass in one single day. I made it to the top of Capitol but fell a little shot of Snowmass. Here are some details of my journey, which ended at Snowmass Lake after about 15.7 miles and a ton of elevation gain (Stava says 9,200ft of gain but I'm not sure that's accurate):

After making my way to Moon Lake (a 7-mile adventure in it's own right) via the Maroon-Snowmass TH and then the West Snowmass trail followed by a bush-whack that followed West Snowmass Creek, I ascended to the Cap-Daly saddle to climb the Northeast Ridge direct route to Capitol (best decision of the day!). I was able to follow the ridge properly all the way to the K2-Cap saddle, then once across the knife edge I continued to follow the ridge to the summit. The ridge-direct is an exposed route but it offers really fun climbing (I encountered nothing over class 4) and the rock is pretty solid. It ended up being about 2.5 miles to Capitol from Moon Lake and 9.5 miles total from the TH.

From the summit I followed the ridge back across the knife edge, skirted around K2 and made my way to the Wandering Dutchman Couloir on the ridge between K2 and Clark Peak. This is where the day was truly beginning as I carefully descended this steep and somewhat loose passage into the Pierre Lakes Basin. Once in the basin, it was a giant game of boulder hopping for what felt like forever as I passed three lakes and over a few rolling hills to reach my next objective -- Heckert Pass, which allowed access into the Snowmass basin and onto the standard East Slopes route up Snowmass.

THIS PASS WAS AWFUL. As steep as can be and probably the loosest terrain I've ever ascended. I was sketched out the entire time, but I was so far into the route that I was committed to making it over the pass. Heckert was relatively short but it took so much out of me. The ground moved every step. Just an absolute mess of a place that should probably only be climbed with snow. I have plenty of experience in the CO mountains but that climb might rank as the most terrible!!! Once at the top of Heckert I was 13.5 miles and 10.5 hours (4.5 hours to cover 4 miles from the top of Capitol) into this slow moving, utterly strenuous excursion.

From the top of Heckert, the view was spectacular, however, as Snowmass Lake and the surrounding mountains popped with beauty. I still had plenty of work to do to get to Snowmass and I was exhausted, but knew I had to at least try to make it up the second peak of the day after coming so far. Plus the weather was good (I had a few sprinkles of rain throughout the day but nothing worrisome) and I still had some daylight. So I made my down the other side of Heckert (so much easier than the other side but still steep) and started a sort of ascending traverse toward Snowmass and eventually intersected the standard route. I got to about 12,800ft, sat down and saw how far I still had to go, realized how bad my feet hurt after hours and hours and hours of traveling on rock, and I said I was done.

I had not much left in the tank after 11.5 hours on this route and knew I still needed to at least descend to Snowmass Lake to sleep (some super talented athletes have completed this entire hike (car-to-car) in 1 day, but I brought a sleeping system as I knew I'd need to camp). So I told myself it was OK not to summit Snowmass and that I'd had a crazy successful day and made my way down to the nearest campsite I could find. A crisp, frosty night under the stars was a great end to a pretty intense adventure that I'm not sure I'd ever repeat......probably not.

A 9+ mile hike back to the trailhead the next morning provided me an opportunity to reflect on what I’d accomplished. These mountains always motivate me to push myself, even after climbing all 58 14ers and doing numerous different routes. I love finding new adventures and this state has endless opportunities for new adventures, and even when things don't go exactly as planned, a day or two in the mountains is usually a great time. I also was proud of myself for being able to not finish this incredibly difficult combo hike and still be happy with my trip.