July Elk Hunting: Clark and Daly

On the west ridge of Clark Peak (13,580 ft) in the Elk Range. Click to enlarge.

To cap off the month of July Steve and I headed over to the Elks and climbed a few peaks up the Capitol Creek drainage – Clark Peak and Mt. Daly. It’d been 9 years since either of us had been in there to climb Capitol Peak, so we were both excited to revisit an old friend as well as make some new ones. Thanks to the day’s near-perfect weather and some opportune glissades we were able to link up both summits in just under 13 hours from the car.

Sunrise along the Capitol Creek Ditch Trail. The cows we remembered well were still right where we last saw them 9 years ago.

The approach up Capitol Creek was gorgeous and insanely lush thanks to the massive snow totals this area saw over the winter. We made quick work up to the Daly/K2 saddle and then contoured down and around to the base of the ridge coming off the unranked point west of Clark Peak.

After kicking some steps in the snow and finding a weakness to gain the ridge, we had dry scrambling from there on.

Clark’s west ridge route and summit. Click to enlarge.

Despite looking heinous from afar we found the entire ridge up Clark to be surprisingly solid. Large, stable boulders made up most of the route, with some fun scrambling opportunities and of course fantastic views along the way.

Snowmass Mountain and Pierre Lakes Basin to the south. Incredible snow totals in there for this time of year. Click to enlarge.

Steve signing us in on Clark.

We reversed our route back down Clark and then glissaded down into the boulder field east of K2. Back up to the Daly saddle we took a look at the sky and decided to go for Daly.

Mt. Daly (13,300 ft) seen from the boulder field to the south. Click to enlarge.

Daly’s south ridge was slightly tedious at times due to loose rock and it being a bit more of a routefinding endeavor than we anticipated. There are cairns marking the route lower down but we found them difficult to follow. Eventually we just stuck ridge proper and figured that’s probably the easiest way to get up Daly.

Near Daly’s summit with Capitol Peak in back.

After enjoying the afternoon breeze on Daly’s summit for the better part of half an hour, the desire for food and beer won out. Rather than reverse our route back down the south ridge we decided to glissade down an 1,800 ft snow strip off Daly’s western flank. This put us back on the Capitol Creek Trail near 10,800 ft, saving us about 2 miles of hiking and probably an hour of time.

Once back on the trail we cruised on down to the car, not forgetting to look back occasionally at a view that simply never gets old.

Capitol Peak in the afternoon sun. Click to enlarge.

Then it was on down to Grind in Glendood Springs for burgers and beers…

Cheers.

That was a fun day out Steve. Looking forward to more summits here soon…