Chris Davenport, the Aspen skier who is trying to ski all of Colorado's fourteeners in one calendar year, did Capitol Peak yesterday. It's the toughest peak to climb in summer, by the standard route, and seems absolutely brutal in winter. There are no shortage of cliffs on the route that could spell adios if you made a wrong turn. Now it's done.
Here's another view of it:
Here's what Lou Dawson posted on his blog, www.wildsnow.com, this morning:
Both men described being "shattered" by a day of skiing bony no-fall terrain above 500 foot cliffs. The route was first spotted several years ago by Pete Sowar of Crested Butte, who's authored such new-wave lines as the South Face of Castle Peak. Pete has been up there a few times to try and piece it together, but never quite got it. Dav and Neal put it together, and from Neal's description (he called on the phone a short time ago) the descent sounded incredibly marginal. Basically, the route starts from the summit and follows my 1988 line a short distance down to the upper east face. Instead of skiing to the Knife Ridge as I did, it continues down steeper and more rocky terrain, eventually requiring a short section on foot (about 70 feet) to reach snow on the south east face, which is then descended to the Pierre Lakes bowl
Wow. We'll definitely try to tag along with this guy when he skis Pikes Peak.
No comments:
Post a Comment