This Sunday morning, June 6, prolific Colorado ski alpinist Jordan White, along with partners Colter Hinchliffe and Anton Sponar, added a new ski line to 14er Capitol Peak’s north face. On a cliff buttressed mountain once deemed unskiable, the new line makes a total of five ski routes on Capitol! All the peak’s glisse routes involve rappels or small sections of foot travel, which in view of current standards of ski alpinism are well within the realm of what constitutes a ski line. Quite exciting, kudos to White’s group.
New ski line on Capitol Peak north face. Red is ski (which also included the south and east faces from the top), green is climb up and yellow is the rappel. The rap ended up being 58 meters (190 ft) or so, done with 60 meter ropes. Click to enlarge.
As with other and more commonly used ways of skiing Capitol, the new line avoids crossing the famous Knife Ridge, which while known to be in skiable condition on occasion has fallen into disfavor because of its unreliability. Contributing to the success of Jordan and party’s endeavor was Colorado’s exceptional snowcover this spring. The crew is calling their route “The Plank” in reference to walking the proverbial narrow board leading to the unknown.
See Jordan’s complete trip report here.
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
