Big lines going down daily in Colorado...

[Karl Stall]

new route on Capital, pyramid hit again, N. Maroon N. Face almost daily

http://www.wildsnow.com/

playing golf in Missouri

[cj001f]

new route on Capital

that route is some serious shit

Chris Davenport and Neal Beidleman did a 14 hour car-to-car push and descended a super extreme Euro style route on the east side of Capitol Peak.

[robokill1981]

"It was the steepest and most committing ski I have ever done, and was scary at times as we traversed around the south ridge on slab rocks, then climbed up to hit the next part of the route. We did it in 14 hours car to car, and I’m totally shattered, but wanted to let you know. …Neal and I both agree that the Landry Route is like skiing Ruthies [easy Aspen resort run] compared to this.”

[iskibc]

That Capitol line is just amazing. Major props to those two for getting it done and upping the bar.

[FrankZappa]

FKNA!!!!

[Greydon Clark]

I can't wait for Davenport's book/movie/thing.

[Knockneed Man]

From Skithe14ers.com


Capitol Peak
Capitol Peak
South Face- Davenport Beidelman Route
April 20, 2006

*** We skied from the summit of North Maroon Peak Wednesday, but since I neglected to include that peak on my list on this site, and my web guy is climbing in Utah, I’ll send that update out as soon as I can***


I’m not really sure where to start today. The last 48 hours has been incredibly intense, physically and mentally draining, and deeply rewarding. After an 8- hour day on Wednesday skiing superb powder on the North Face of North Maroon Peak, I came home, unpacked, repacked, put my kids to bed, and drove to the Snowmass Creek Trailhead to sleep. Yesterday (Thursday) Neal Beidelman and I skied a bold new route down the South Face of Capitol Peak. Capitol Peak has only been skied once before, via the Knife edge Ridge, by Lou Dawson in 1988. Ours was a seriously committing line. I could go on and on with superlatives, but suffice to say this was the steepest and scariest line I have ever done on skis. For those of you that read the Pyramid Peak trip report a few days ago (we skied the first descent from the summit in almost 30 years) this line on Capitol was much harder, significantly steeper, far more exposed, and mentally exhausting. Just alpine climbing across the Knife Edge Ridge at 13,600’ (see photo) and up to the summit was intense enough for me. The fact that we put our skis on and attempted this new line now leaves me shaking my head with a bit of pride, but mostly disbelief. If I never ski another line with that level of commitment and anxiety I’ll be a happy man. In fact, I think tomorrow I’ll go find the easiest fourteeners I can and ski that, just to put it all in perspective.

For the second day in a row I was up at 3:00 a.m. Neal Beidelman and I hit the trail at 3:40 a.m. and made quick progress up through the West Snowmass Creek Valley, arriving at the beginning of the days difficulties, the Knife Edge Ridge, at 10 a.m. Climbing across the Knife Edge Ridge is like walking on a balance beam. At times I had both feet on one side of the ridge, and my axe on the other. At other times I straddled and bear-hugged the snowy arête. A fall on either side of this ridge is the last one you’ll ever take. We took an hour to get across this section, and hit the final summit ridge at 11:30 a.m. In the summer the normal route heads out left, across the face and up to the summit. In the winter this traverse looked sun baked and hairy, so we chose to rock climb up to the top, staying exactly on the ridge marking the boundary between the dark and vertical North Face, and the sunny, snow-covered South Face, Over another hour of steep climbing on rock with crampons and axes got us to the summit. This was the hardest alpine climb I have done in the States. I have climbed Capitol Peak four times in the summer, and in winter it is just an entirely different experience.

We reached the summit at 1:30, physically and mentally drained. Neal and I shot the requisite summit photos, signed the register, and prepared to ski. I was excited to get the skis on my feet. I feel much more comfortable and stable in gnarly terrain with skis on. I had spent a lot of time studying and researching the line we were going to ski on the South Face. Pete Sowar from Crested Butte had been eyeing it for years, and had tried to get it done before, without success. I scouted the route from an airplane, looked at it from the ground, and studied photos. With that said, when you are on the face itself, it is a maze of cliffs and traverses, and Neal and I had some difficulty route finding. Anyway, we dropped in off the summit ridge and were immediately faced with several hundred feet of 60-degree turns. When you make a turn at this angle, you actually drop a few feet before your skis touch the snow again. We made it through the upper section of the face no problem, and began our first traverse right, though nasty slab rocks. This was scary and committing. Rounding our first ridge, we were face with another traverse to another ridge. This was the point of no return. Do we push forward into the unknown, on a part of the mountain where no one has ever set foot, even in summer? Or do we put our crampons on and climb back out to the Knife Edge Ridge? You know the answer! We looked at each other and quietly said, “Go”. Around the corner we went, and then realized that we now had to climb up about forty feet and across to reach the final snowfield that leads you out into Pierre Lakes Basin. With skis finally back on our feet, we skied the exposed, hanging snowfield out into the valley (see photo). The snow here was difficult, with spots of verglassed ice below the snow surface. The sigh of relief I breathed upon exiting the route was probably heard in Tibet. From our first turn off the top, to the last turn out the bottom, we had been exposed to massive cliffs below, basically one big no-fall-zone. I am relieved and happy to put Capitol behind me. For those people who want to ski all of the fourteeners in the future, Capitol Peak will be by far the biggest hurdle.

Neal and I were both proud and humbled by our experience today. After bagging the 2nd descent of the Landry Route on Pyramid with Ted Mahon last week, we were overjoyed and celebratory. After Capitol we were speechless. Finally, one person who would have loved every minute of this route was Doug Coombs. Neal and I dedicate our descent of Capitol Peak to him!

BTW, I also want to congratulate Pete Sowar, Sean Crossen, and their friends on making the third descent of the Landry Route on Pyramid Peak yesterday. These guys are super motivated and have been skiing great lines all over the State.





Can I get a FKNA???

Thats badass...

"This was the hardest alpine climb I have done in the States. I have climbed Capitol Peak four times in the summer, and in winter it is just an entirely different experience."
- By the way, this really puts the true difficulty of this in perspective for me, as Dav has, among many other things, free soloed the Northwest Buttress of Capital which goes at a 15 pitch 5.9.

[Hutch]

FKNA!!!!

[goldenboy]

OK, let's see if I can do any justice to what went down yesterday. I shot about 40 min of video and helmetcam yesterday, maybe someday I will figure out how to edit it down a bit and post it.

3am came early, and was quickly followed by a pavement filled 'bile ride up to the lake. By 4:45 we were cruising up a shortcut couloir towards the basin under Pyramid when we saw the lights of the N Maroon party. For a minute we were afraid we were going to race to the top of pyramid with another party, but luckily they had other plans. After climbing another couloir out of the upper basin to the NE ridge of pyramid, the real fun began. At times, we were on a sharp snow ridge where a slip to the right meant 1,000 feet straight down the north face and a fall to the left meant 3 or 4,000 feet down the east side. The first rock band has to be taken on the right, which puts you soooo close to the near vertical n face. The second one was even gnarlier. I tried to lead us out to the left on snow, but it was really freaky and a bit soft. When we got to the bottom, I realized that the snow slope I was on was above a 400ft cliff. No wonder I kept thinking of that SNL commercial: "Oops, I crapped my pants". Eventually we climbed right up the band. It wasn't large, but the holds and the rock sucked, as usual in the Maroon formation. I even drytooled a couple of moves, all the while feeling the N face below. My hands are sweating as I write this. Minutes later we were on the top, late at 11am, but a really cold night saved our ass from our lateness.

Time to ski! Jeremy and I were happy to have skis on and instantly felt more comfortable. John, Sean, and and Pete were more freaked out of the ski than the climb. I guess it's all depends on your comfort level between the two sports. There was powder, corn, and mank on the descent, all 4,000 plus feet of it. There was plenty of exposure, especially on the first part of the descent, but I barely even noticed once I was skiing. The exit to the east face proper was basically a tight couloir- no big deal. Other years this exit has looked like a major billygoat line. I guess you need to hire a plane like Dav to check it out first or climb the whole route (sick!) or do a scouting mission beforehand, or know that somebody else just skied it, like we did.

Congrats to Sean, now sitting at 53 to become the 2nd person to ski them all. Hard to believe that 10 days ago only Lou and Landry had skied off the summit, and now that's up to 10.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

OMFG

Those Capitol pics are unreal! I was gripped just reading the description!!

And FKNA nice work goldenboy...

Damn...those are some committing lines. Sick stuff.

[Marv Albert]

Yesss!!!

(Capitol is the most hairball thing I've ever seen)

[lemon boy]

um between Dav's write up and goldenboy's I'm sitting here in my little cube feeling kind of shaky.

Nice
Work

[goldenboy]

As for the Capital line, words cannot describe how insanely messed up that line is. Being in the tram on the Auguille du Midi, looking at lines on the N face, I thought those tracks were the nastiest things ever. This line on Capital is right there, if not a notch or two more difficult (but actually pretty short). I tried that line last year, skiing it from the end of the s facing exit ramp. That's as high as we got trying to climb it first, as it was rock. Tried again last week, trying to beat Dav to it. It took us 9 hours to slog up the bear creek drainage to Pierre lakes basin just to get a look at it. We determined that it just wasn't in shape this year and I think that Dav would describe it a spotty at best. I can't believe that the route went. He did have the luxury of 1)a plane to scope it out beforehand and 2)beta from a group that was there just a week ago. That luxury allowed them to climb the "easy" (ha- ha) summer route and drop the line blind. Keep in mind that they had to stop, take their skis off, and climb up halfway down the line where it switches from the east to the south face. Super huge props to the 2nd and 3rd descents of Cap, and on a crazy line at that. Pete deserved to be on that trip with them, since he spied the damn line and had tried it so often. At least he got mentioned in Dav's write-up.

Some of Chris Webster's pics from our trip last week to Pierre lakes: http://www.atd.ucar.edu/~cjw/Skiing/c1/index.html

Time to go for a nice easy spin on the road bike- I am still tweaked from Pyramid. Tomorrow, a nice, easy cruise down the east face of gothic.

[cj001f]

Good work all. Yikes!

edit: and that needs to go in the entrance pics thread

[comish]

Damn. Very impressive all the way around.

Having climbed Capital in the summer, his description of the knife edge ridge brings back lovely memories of sharp rock up the crack knowing that you can't fall in either direction. I can't fathom the added complexities of snow, ice, etc. Crazyness.

Well done dudes.

[Rontele]

I left a racing stripe in my underwear just reading that!

[LIP]

OK, let's see if I can do any justice to what went down yesterday. I shot about 40 min of video and helmetcam yesterday, maybe someday I will figure out how to edit it down a bit and post it.

3am came early, and was quickly followed by a pavement filled 'bile ride up to the lake. By 4:45 we were cruising up a shortcut couloir towards the basin under Pyramid when we saw the lights of the N Maroon party. For a minute we were afraid we were going to race to the top of pyramid with another party, but luckily they had other plans. After climbing another couloir out of the upper basin to the NE ridge of pyramid, the real fun began. At times, we were on a sharp snow ridge where a slip to the right meant 1,000 feet straight down the north face and a fall to the left meant 3 or 4,000 feet down the east side. The first rock band has to be taken on the right, which puts you soooo close to the near vertical n face. The second one was even gnarlier. I tried to lead us out to the left on snow, but it was really freaky and a bit soft. When we got to the bottom, I realized that the snow slope I was on was above a 400ft cliff. No wonder I kept thinking of that SNL commercial: "Oops, I crapped my pants". Eventually we climbed right up the band. It wasn't large, but the holds and the rock sucked, as usual in the Maroon formation. I even drytooled a couple of moves, all the while feeling the N face below. My hands are sweating as I write this. Minutes later we were on the top, late at 11am, but a really cold night saved our ass from our lateness.

Time to ski! Jeremy and I were happy to have skis on and instantly felt more comfortable. John, Sean, and and Pete were more freaked out of the ski than the climb. I guess it's all depends on your comfort level between the two sports. There was powder, corn, and mank on the descent, all 4,000 plus feet of it. There was plenty of exposure, especially on the first part of the descent, but I barely even noticed once I was skiing. The exit to the east face proper was basically a tight couloir- no big deal. Other years this exit has looked like a major billygoat line. I guess you need to hire a plane like Dav to check it out first or climb the whole route (sick!) or do a scouting mission beforehand, or know that somebody else just skied it, like we did.

Congrats to Sean, now sitting at 53 to become the 2nd person to ski them all. Hard to believe that 10 days ago only Lou and Landry had skied off the summit, and now that's up to 10.

Hey GB, please give Skippy, Pete & Jasper a CAW!!! for me the next time you talk to 'em.

[KillingCokes]

Nice job getting Pyramid done Golden Boy. We gotta ski somethin soon.

[real9999]

Damn! those lines are among the gnarest of gnar.

[SilentStorm]

W O W !

I'll just echo Lou Dobson's praise to you all:
"Congratulations from me to Sean’s group, as Pyramid is far from easy, and congrats to Neal and Dav as well!"

It is absolutely awesome that you are all out there skiing those lines. I hope that one day "pushing my limits" means skiing those kind of lines.

goldenboy, have fun out on the E face of Gothic. The average joe who saw those lines would not exactly call it a "nice, easy cruise". But everything is relative--Pyramid is obviously in another category entirely. Looks like my timing is a bit off as I really wanted to hit the E face of Gothic last week when I was visiting CB. My friend and his crew wanted to rip the Spoon, as it's just so prominent from town (bragging rights or something). Still, it's just big and mellow, nothing special. Standing on top, looking at those lines to my left, I was drooling...

Question: does it count as "skiing" Capitol if you skiBASE off that massive cliff just below the top section instead of traversing around?

[goldenboy]

SS- There's a bit of sarcasm in my "gothic cruise" comment, but yeah, it will feel easy after Pyramid. As for BASE jumping anything, I think we would need a whole new category. 1st person to ski base all the fourteeners, anyone??? Then the crux mountain would be Bross, finding anything big enough to base off of it.....

[Z]

dav is a baaaad man.

[shera]

so cool

colorado rules

[HyRUPz]

Hats off to Dav and Beidelmang ... simply awesome.

That Aspen crew, core. Thanks for the link goldenman ... awesome pix.

[truth]

Cool to see lines going down, cool that they are in memory of DC, cool that everyone made it home safe.