Any beta on linking Capitol and Snowmass?

[Ap0them]

I'm looking at connecting Capitol and Snowmass by camping a night between them. I'm not interested in Satan's ridge but I can't find a ton of resources for this route, does anyone have any beta or (ideally) a gps track? From what I can tell the best option looks like summiting capitol, then returning to K2 and dropping down to the basin east of the knife edge using some buttress below K2, then descending further to camp followed by climbing back up to the east side of the ridge and regaining the Snowmass trail somewhere (pretty lost on this part).

I feel like this should be doable but am I missing anything? How do people get back up Snowmass (Snowmass will be a new mountain for me)? I've seen a post (https://blog.ultimatedirection.com/capi ... s-link-up/ ) about this route but I don't really understand how he rejoined the east slopes route because on the map there looks to be a ridge in the way. The other option is just following the drainage all the way out of that basin and following the standard route from there. Thoughts?

[Ptglhs]

I don't know a shortcut but I do know that if you hike up and camp at Capital Lake you can hike back down and continue taking rights at the trail Junction and then go in between Haystack mountain and mount daly, across Snowmass creek, and hike up to Snowmass lake. Figure a day to hike in, a date is on a capital, a day to move camp, a day to do snowmass, and a day to hike out. YMMV.

If you went from the saddle between capital and daily you might be able to drop to West snow Mass Creek thereby saving yourself some mileage. I haven't done this route, I haven't looked at it, and I have no idea if it goes. I have done the loop around capital and Snowmass so I know that the overall Trail systems connect.

[Anima]

Using Heckert pass:
https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... trip=21401

https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... trip=23186

Using the Capitol/Snowmass Saddle:
https://justinsimoni.com/fastpacks-from ... -hagerman/

[jfm3]

The Ultimate Direction report you linked is written by Anton Krupicka, Boulder local, record holder of the Longs Peak Triathlon, and multi-time Leadville 100 winner, among many other mind-bending accomplishments on all the summits in Colorado. His reports are excellent, but beware that he operates on a different level than the rest of us.

[jdmorris]

Can you follow the link, below? I did the route you're considering to scout that part of the Elks Traverse.

https://www.strava.com/activities/9757399475/overview

Getting off of Capitol to head to Snowmass is easy. At the notch where I crossed over Satan's Ridge, I recommend choosing steeper, solid rock over loose dirt / choss if you can't climb snow. The dirt chute I chose got steeper until it became untenable and I ended up climbing nice rock but I'm a lot more comfortable soloing near my climbing limit than I was on dirt that steep. I didn't have any beta to descend Snowmass because I was planning to descend Hagerman before my day ran long. I'm sure the steep and unstable dirt I was on there, above the lake, was also not the preferred route. It was a memorable adventure!

[seannunn]

The Ultimate Direction report you linked is written by Anton Krupicka, Boulder local, record holder of the Longs Peak Triathlon, and multi-time Leadville 100 winner, among many other mind-bending accomplishments on all the summits in Colorado. His reports are excellent, but beware that he operates on a different level than the rest of us.

Hahahaha, true that last statement for sure.
I was in a group hiking up Handies Peak a good decade ago, everyone with 2 layers of long sleeves on, full day packs, etc.
A man comes running by us with a small water bottle in each hand, wearing shoes, socks, and a pair of shortie running shorts and probably moving 3X faster than us (a group of pretty fit high school distance runners and coaches).
Anton was nice enough to pause at the top for a few pictures with some of our group.

Sean Nunn
Peculiar, MO

[justiner]

Camping in the Pierre Lakes Basin would be interesting. I'm not saying there isn't any (I'm sure people have), but it's a pretty alien place. You could almost think of it as one of Colorado's largest rock glacier.

If you go up and over Jackass Pass, the camping on THAT side of the ridge is really spectacular, once you get down to like Little Gem Lake. Then do Snowmass via S-Ridge on the west, descend to the east face, and return to your starting point.