Vertical Aesthetics: Backpacking in the Elks

I did a decent amount of backpacking this summer (at least for me). In the last month, I went on 2 trips, both were fantastic. So much of the time I am hellbent on climbing something, and as a result I often have a hard time getting excited to go "just backpacking." This summer I found a lot of freedom and relaxation in backpacking and I had a blast getting out there. It felt really good to shed the weight of the rack, rope, and harness; to go light and fast through the mountains; to stay in my sleeping bag a little longer; and to enjoy more "quality time" with my wife and friends.

The first trip was to the Elk Mountains with my 2 high school buddies James and Phil. I had loosely planned an extremely ambitious 30 mile loop, hoping to bag the 14ers Capitol Peak and Snowmass Mountain. The first day was an adventure through some open range cattle country. We also had some minor route-finding issues (our planned loop was not very popular nor well traveled). After humbly asking some real-life cowboys for directions we made some great progress and eventually found a spectacular campsite near treeline, atop a bluff overlooking the East Snowmass Creek valley.

The next morning we were on the trail reasonably early with a Capitol Peak summit bid. We cashed our packs just below 13,000ft to get ready for the knife-edge ridge leading to Capitol's incredible summit. The legendary knife-edge ridge did not disappoint. The exposure was breathtaking and the 4th class climbing was enjoyable, on solid rock. After our summit bid, we descended to our next campsite at Capitol Lake for a relaxing afternoon of fishing and swimming. At the lake James ran into his U of O college buddy, Jackson and his friend Forrest (they planned on summiting Capitol the next day). We decided to share our campsite with them and had a great evening sharing food and whiskey with old friends and new friends.

Capitol had proven to be a pretty tiring and technical peak, so James, Phil, and I decided to nix Snowmass and head out a bit early. We had a gorgeous hike through the White River National Forest that put us back to the car by early afternoon. We finished off our trip with a swing through a place where the "beer flows like wine and where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano." We also stopped in Leadville for a beer before finally car camping at Echo Lake in preparation to summit the more mellow 14er Mt. Evans the next morning.