Capitol Peak To Ring In My Independence

Guys, I’m so excited that I can barely handle typing up this post! Guess where I’m headed for the long holiday weekend? To climb Capitol Peak!

Capitol is one of the 15-or-so remaining fourteeners in Colorado that I have not summited…and with good reason! Touted by many as the most difficult fourteener in the state, Capitol is not a mountain that is meant for the inexperienced. First of all, it’s located outside of Aspen, so it’s a good 4+ hour drive from the Denver metro area. This alone makes it a bit of a trek, but there’s more! Additionally, climbers are facing a 17-mile round trip hike with 5,300 feet of elevation gain when they choose the standard, northeast ridge route. Because of this, most peeps choose to spend a day backpacking into Capitol Lake, located 6 miles in at 11,500 feet. The pack-in is relatively mellow, but it does cover a fair bit of the mileage, making summit day a whole lot easier! (Although I do have some friends that have done the entire 17 miles in a single day….crazy!)

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We plan on packing in tomorrow and spending the next three nights at the lake. We’ll hopefully go for the Capitol summit on Friday, just to give us some breathing room. This way, if we fail, we can head back up for attempt #2 on Saturday!

Even though we’ll be covering a lot of the miles by packing into the lake on Thursday, summit day is no joke. The distance from camp to summit is just at 2.5 miles, but it includes almost 2,700 feet of elevation gain—yup, we’re looking at well over 1000 feet of climbing per mile. That’s insane!

Even better? The Capitol fun doesn’t end there! Capitol is notorious for a single, 100-foot ridgeline known as the Knife Edge. This is the northeast ridge that is the namesake of the route, and unfortunately, fatalities have occurred. The Knife Edge is an incredibly sharp and exposed ridgeline that climbers must cross in order to reach the summit. Some choose to straddle the edge and scoot across on their butts, while others walk on a supposedly solid ledge while using the actual ridgeline as a guide for their hands. I’m hoping to choose the latter, but I’ve heard the vertigo can get pretty intense—each side of the ridgeline is incredibly exposed with a couple thousand feet of drop in all directions. Check out this video I found on YouTube of a climber crossing the Knife Edge in 2011:

Does this sound scary or intimidating? Sure does. However, I know it’s possible, and from I’ve heard, this ridgeline is a total mental game. The ledge is solid, the rock is sturdy, and the only thing that holds people back is fear. I’m hoping I don’t look at this ridge and chicken out, but who knows, right?!

I’m bring both my GoPro and Sony Action Cam so both Will and I will hopefully capture some epic footage to show y’all next week. Other than that, I’m going to be totally off the grid for the next four days. I love being in the wilderness with zero cell service! Hope everyone has a safe and fun Independence Day, and I’ll catch y’all on the flip side next week!

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What are your plans for the holiday weekend?