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After planning a long weekend at my Grandmother in Law‘s Cabin near Basalt, I decided I needed to try my first Elk Range Peak by starting with the easiest. I actually did a scouting trip the day prior to scope out the 4 WD road to see how far I could get. After about 1.3 miles I approached the first creek crossing and got through fairly easily in my 4x4 stock Yukon. After around 2.9 miles, the road got quite a bit tougher and decided to park at the switchback prior to Pearl Pass. I inadvertantly hike up Pearl Pass for a couple of miles and realized this is not the way to go so I turned around and prepared for the next day. The hike was well worth the effort as the views are incredible. Monday a.m. I got to my parking place at 6:30 and headed up the 4wd trail. I would say anyone would need a fair amount of vehicle clearance beyond this point. The weather was perfect and reached the end of the trail around 8 am. I proceeded up Montezuma Basin and hit the first snowfield. The climb was fun and got to practice with my snow axe for the first time. After taking a short break I then proceeded up the Northeast Ridge Trail. There is alot of loose dirt and rock as you approach the ridge and can get fairly tiring. After reaching the ridge, I was somewhat surprised by the light scrambling and decided to hook up with some guys ahead of me (David, Ryan & Tom; if you‘re reading this) as routefinding became a little more difficult. The light scrambling to the top was alot of fun and at the same time a little challenging due to the infamous rotten rock of the Elks. Reached the summit of Castle around 9:30. The views are amazing of Capitol, Bells, Snowmass and Pyramid.
We then proceeded toward Conondrum and started heading down the ridge. The ridge is fairly straightforward except for a crux around halfway down to the saddle which requires a couple of moves with good handholds. We got to the summit of Conondrum around 10:15 and wandered over to see the path of a guy that had gone up the coular. There was a large cornice at the top of the coular and one of my buddies postholed to his chest avoiding getting to close to the dangerous spots of the cornice.
We proceeded down toward the Castle/Condrum saddle to the Northwest Ridge Route where a dozen or so people had decided to make their way up. The glissade down the saddle was a blast.
Finally was back at the top of the trail around 11:00 am where I discovered my arm was fairly torn up from the glissading.
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