It turned out that the "wicked" snow cover we saw from below on the previous day covered only the north side of the mountain. For the most part (with the exception of our down climb from K2) we could safely avoid the treacherous stuff by staying close to the ridge or staying lower on the south side of the ridge.

Once we had regained the ridge the climbing became more difficult. We found ourselves forced to make several class 4 moves in order to make progress towards the summit. When we reached the high point we had set our sights on from far below it was only a false summit!

The actual summit was not far away, but we forced to downclimb a short piece. The ridge to the real summit was mostly flat. It took less than five minutes to pick our way through the blocky granite.

The summit of Capitol is quite a sublime spot on this planet. Especially when it was for me the culmination of a three year effort to ascend all 54 of Colorado's 14,000 foot massives. Clouds in the distance were obviously dumping precipitation, likely snow, on the Maroon Bells to the south and on peaks to the north as well. We had lucked out with our little weather window that allowed us to make the long climb from K2 to Capitol's summit under open skies and no wind. What a rare day in October.

The experience of standing on this stony summit is one I will not ever forget. There is great satisfaction when one has truly worked hard to attain a goal.

But now we had to get off the mountain--a formidable enough task in itself. We were apprehensive. Following cairns down from the summit we dropped to the south. This route proved much easier than cimbing along the ridge along the final summit climb.

Dropping below the ridgeline we found a much easier route down the peak. Indeed this way was no harder than class 3 all the way down to the flat ridgeline to K2. If you are looking for the "easy" way up Capitol stay low to the south of the ridge following cairns until the very last moment before you make the final assault on the peak proper.

As we approached K2 once again, traversing the knife ridge for the second time, it began to snow...at first lightly, then in earnest.

Again confronted with the ascent of K2 we thought perhaps there might be a way to avoid going up and over the summit. Upon close examination we found that though we would indeed have to go "up and over" an easier way up afforded itself along a ridge along the left side of the peak proper. After descending the 150 feet of steep loose class 3 terrain we found ourselves thankfully on easy ground for the rest of our journey.

Sam the Wolfdog had been eagerly awaiting our arrival. The snow relented and we began the diligent task of making our way across the broken expanse of talus.

When we finally reached our camp site it was near on to dark. Breaking camp quickly we were in the dark as we began the final leg of our long journey. This is a very long way when you have been going hard all the day long... Finally we reached my truck at 9 P.M... not to reach our final destination of Colorado Springs until 2 A.M...then I went to work the next morning at 0730... <ouch>