We completed the traverse known as satan's ridge going from Capitol Peak to Snowmass Mountain on Wed, 9 Sept. 2026. It took us ~10hrs from ~8am to ~6pm peak to peak. The #1, #2, & #3 factors that took the most time were:

1) Loose rock instability across nearly the entire distance of the ridge (making slow careful foot placement necessary for safe forward progress).

2) Notches between ridge segments. Many of these each took longer to down climb and climb back up to the next ridge segment than crossing the ridge segments themselves.

3) Technical portions we chose to solve and climb through instead of bypass (spoiler alert: these mostly occured at the last ridge segment before beginning the ascent to Snowmass), and we did bypass (by down and then up climbing) a final gendarme on the last ridge segment that was beyond our free solo climbing ability (we brought very little climbing gear, some webbing and a couple of cordelettes, but chose lighter packs in favor of bypassing something not free-solo climbable by us).

My pack weight, including the 4 liters of water that sustained me w/out needing to refill, was 20.7lbs.

Our party consisted of 2 men, 23yrs and 46yrs old.

Vehicle Logistics: We placed one vehicle at the Geneva Lake TH in Lead King Basin just outside of Marble, CO and then drove the 2nd vehicle to Capitol Creek TH.

We started in the night/early morning taking the Ditch trail in to Capitol Peak summitting the peak at sunrise to maximize the amount of daylight travel time on the ridge/traverse.

We traversed the ridge w/ zero injuries and created .gpx file of our route that gave us the basic statistics of our traverse.

Distance Peak to Peak: 2.87mi

Avg Speed: 0.3mph

About 4hrs moving time & 6hrs stopped time

After summiting Snowmass Mt at 6pm we down-hiked the West slope route and took the trail past Geneva lake back to the TH. This is about 4mi, ~2mi down to the creek in the valley and then ~2mi back to the TH. We completed the 1st two mi in waning sunlight, and the 2nd 2mi on the trail w/ headlamps

From TH to TH the entire route took us ~24hrs.

Obviousle, we aren't breaking any records or making any new discoveries on this traverse, just 2 average dudes successfully completing the traverse, w/ minimal gear in a single day. Hoping to remove fear from other future hikers and climbers, and the myth of 'daunting' impossibility that seems to cloud the minds of those considering hiking this ridge.

1) Be in good physical condition

2) We had perfect weather. Check the Wx and plan accordingly.

3) Be able to do the ~5.5 - 5.6 initial down-climb at the start of the small ridge just off Capitol Peak to gain the start of the traverse.

4) Take it as slow as you need to ensure no serious fall injuries.

5) Enjoy conquering the ridge formerly known as satan's ridge (he doesn't have a claim to it anymore, we re-dedicated it to its rightful owner upon completion).

Cheers

Respectfully,

Outrundeath