Before the White Bison, I added to the Fourteener cycle, a piece on the most difficult and dangerous traverse between two Colorado fourteeners. The traverse from Capitol Peak to Snowmass Peak is so difficult and dangerous, only a handful of people have done it, all reporting the same thing; two solid miles of constant flirting with death from loose slabs and death blocks of rock, ready to slide or fall at a touch, guarding lots of fifth class rock climbing demand. Jim McKenzie and I did this traverse. 






If a ridge between two mountains can be called "evil," this is an evil ridge. It is called, by the few who did it, "Hell's Ridge," "The Ridge from Hell," "Satan's Traverse," and "Satan's Ridge from Hell."

The traverse from Capitol Peak to Snowmass Peak in the Elk Range of Colorado is the most difficult and dangerous traverse between two Fourteeners in Colorado, and maybe anywhere. It is 2.5 miles from peak to peak, across slabby, sometimes vertical terrain with huge, loose boulders, slabs and flakes poised to fall at the most gentle touch. It is exceptionally dangerous, and has been done by only a handful of climbers. Each reported the same thing: extremely dangerous.

Jim McKenzie and I did this in July 1978, in two days.

The rock craft on the ridge ranges from 5.7 to 5.9, and the rock is so loose and unstable, it is possible parts of a route described in one trip report will be gone.

Protection is sometime dubious, because a ten ton flake you have pro in may slide, taking you with it. Many large boulders and flakes settle a few inches when tested with a climber's weight. Sometimes they fall, and the drops of many hundreds of feet, sometimes a thousand feet reinforces the treacherous danger and sometimes extreme exposure.

There is rockfall often, from small rocks to slabs and boulders. The sound is unnerving. Jim McKenzie and I traversed this ridge in July 1978, from a camp at Snowmass Lake, with the route going to a pass and across the Pierre Lakes Basin. We intersected the Clark ridge, following it to K2, and across the Knife to Capitol's summit. We made the Capitol summit about 8AM, and went right to work on the traverse. The decent was downclimbing and two rappels.

The loose choss became worse as we progressed. Frequently we stepped on, or pulled a microwave to dishwasher sized boulder that rolled or slid loose and then fell. One that Jim stepped on went, followed by an army of bowling ball sized chunks. Later he stepped on a car hood sized flake overhanging the Pierre Lakes below, and the flake shifted, teetered, then went over the edge and fell about 500 feet, smashing in the talus below.

The "gendarmes" sections scared us because of the many huge boulders and flakes precariously balanced above us as we found a route. We found two pitons, probably left by Glenn Denny and Bill Forrest. We carried a rack of hexes, stoppers, and cracknups. Traverses across below the gendarmes varied from east and west sides. A few times we had to go over a gendarme. This section took a lot of time. Most pro we used were larger nuts- #4 - 8.

Long stretches of the ridge were slabby, and we hurried below the crest on the west side where we could, and along the crest when both sides were dangerous, usually away from the verticality above Pierre Lakes below on the east. We didn't make the Snowmass summit before dusk, and ended up spending the night in a bivouac way down the ridge.

Before sunrise next morning, we continued, climbing the steepening, loose, exposed and dangerous ridge to the Snowmass north summit. We reached the Snowmass summit at noon. We continued down the ridge to the standard Snowmass route, and then down the steep to the snow-field rock glacier, down to Snowmass Lake. We reached our camp about 5pm, and decided not to pack out, but catch up on the sleep we didn't get on the bivouac. Besides, it was eleven miles to pack back out to Jim's car.

BTW, when we watch your youtube videos here, does it count on youtube also? 

Pikes Peak 14115 wrote:

It looks like the links vanished. 
I think views count. I don't know for sure.
I know likes count more than views. 

I see all of the videos.  What links are missing ??
 

Nothing there. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ioo6Qjy2Mc

Actually, I could see them the whole time.  Sometimes Windows 10 does screwy things and doesn't show us stuff that everyone else can see.