Capitol-Snowmass (CO)

[thebeave7]

Kind of a last minute decision on Friday, but I headed to Aspen to run/scramble Capitol and Snowmass as a one day push, using a non-technical route (ie avoiding the main ridge).
I posted a TR on 14ers.com with some splits. My time of 10h44min24sec seems to be faster than the only other reported dayhike by Bill Briggs back in 1990, but on Bill Wright's site it said he started in Snowmass Village (not sure what that means?).
www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=12414&cpgm=tripmain&ski=Include

Here's a link to my SPOT tracker for the run, sorry I didn't post it out before hand, also the SPOT coordinates will probably be gone by week's end unless someone knows how to export them? Peter?
share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0OAtCT8qdLKi1s8uq3teYDliV8FmoqcMs

Eric Lee

[antonkrupicka]

I did the Capitol-Snowmass link-up from the Snowmass Ranch TH yesterday (7/3/2013) in 6:58:11. My full report is on the Ultimate Direction Blog: blog.ultimatedirection.com/capitol-snowmass-link-up/

My route was a bit different from Eric's in that after descending the Wandering Dutchman couloir I went across the Pierre Lakes Basin to the lowest point in the SnowCap ridge (~12,900'), crossed to the west side of the ridge, and then ascended Snowmass' west ridge before descending to Snowmass Lake and running the ~8mi of trail back out to the TH.

Splits:
Snowmass Creek crossing - 15:30
Left the West Snowmass Creek trail - 44:00
Crossed to the east side of W. Snowmass Creek - 1:09
Moon Lake - 1:38
K2 - 2:27
Capitol summit - 2:49:25
Left Capitol - 2:52:30
K2 - 3:13
Wandering Dutchman couloir - 3:23
Crossed SnowCap ridge - 4:12
Avalanche/Siberia divide - 4:21
Base of Snowmass W. ridge - 4:43
Snowmass summit - 5:10:40
Left Snowmass - 5:12
Snowmass Lake - 5:46
Joined main trail (1975-Snowmass-Maroon trail) - 5:55
W. Snowmass Crk trail jnct - 6:47:30
Snowmass Ranch TH - 6:58:11

Most of my time on the summit of Capitol was spent wondering if I should try dropping SW off the summit via the ridge to get on the west side of the SnowCap ridge (instead of going all the way back to the Wandering Dutchman couloir). I wasn't feeling very bold, so I obviously turned around and in retrospect am really glad I did.

[thebeave7]

Congrats Tony, great time on a fun route. I agree that your route (and Homie's) is probably a bit quicker than the one I used, thanks for the beta as I look forward to going back for the link up again some day.

Eric