Alpenglow on the northeast ridge of Capitol Peak. Photo by Charlie Nuttelman

Capitol Peak was the place to be on MLK weekend, with three parties making it up the challenging peak, including two rare and exceptionally fast midwinter single-day ascents—possibly the earliest one-day winter climbs ever done on Capitol. On Saturday the team was Stefan Griebel and brothers Charlie and Max Nuttelman, who had scouted the route to Moon Lake on December 30 and laid plans to attempt the peak on the next good weekend, hoping to do it as close to the winter solstice as possible. You know, for bonus challenge.

Capitol's upper slopes. Photo by Charlie Nuttelman

The three started at 12:15 a.m., anticipating a 15- to 18-hour day. With little new snow in the previous two weeks, good weather, and the benefit of their old tracks part of the way, the team raced up to Moon Lake, climbed over K2, and arrived at the Knife Edge way ahead of schedule—it was only just starting to get light! Safely across the ridge, they started up the delicate snow-covered slabs, moving very carefully without roping up. They were on top at 8:45, just 8.5 hours from the car. Descending the upper ridge with one rappel, they carefully reversed the Knife Edge and picked up their skis, returning to the car by 1:30. Charlie Nuttelman has posted an excellent TR, photos, and a video account of this great day at his blog.

Starting the tricky upper slabs. Photo by John Prater

One day later, John “Homie” Prater and Bill Wright, also from the Boulder area, drafted in the tracks of their friends and three other climbers (see below) to make another impressive one-day journey up the peak. The two started at 4:15 a.m., with Wright skiing on light NNN gear and Prater walking and snowshoeing. Despite Wright’s difficulties with his skinny skis, they made it to the ridge and overcame three short cruxes on the upper peak, reaching the summit after 7 hours 40 minutes. With a mad dash down—including some running (!) by the snowshoe-carrying Prater once they reached packed trails—the two returned to the car just 12:07 after leaving. Click here to read Wright’s account of this extraordinary ascent and find a large gallery of photos.

Making a somewhat more subdued but equally satisfying two-day journey up the peak were Steve  Gladbach, Mark Nieport, and Kiefer Thomas. The trio camped at around 11,200 feet, then set a snowshoe track up to 12,200 to prepare for the next day. With a predawn start, they were on top by late morning, having belayed a few pitches on the upper peak. Gladbach has posted a beautifully illustrated report at 14ers.com.

Congratulations to all three parties for these great efforts!

The gorgeous south face of South Maroon. Courtesy of 14skiers.com

Frank Konsella, the fourth person to ski all the 14ers from their summits, recently posted a great series on his blog speculating on a new 14er skiing challenge. He writes: “There are still some firsts left on the 14ers—first snowboarder (maybe Eric Kling or Jarrett Luttrell), first woman (Brittany Walker, Pam Rice, and Christy Sauer are all closing in), and first to do them all in one season. But for somebody who isn’t in a hurry to be first at something, maybe getting the best possible descents would be the crowning achievement.”

In six posts, Konsella lists his nominations for the best descent line on each of the 54 peaks, including beauties like South Maroon’s southwest face, “a wilderness classic.” Inspired by his posts, we asked Konsella to pick a few superlatives—the best of the best:

Best Overall Line: The Landry Line on Pyramid. “Nothing else can match its steepness or especially the amount of vert on which this line stays steep. I’ve skied in a lot of places: Alaska, British Columbia, Chamonix, South America. Plop the Landry line in any of those places and it would still stand proud as a steep, committing, and aesthetic line.”

Find the line: The northwest face of Capitol Peak. Photo by Frank Konsella / 14erskiers.com

Best Unskied Line That Will Make Even the Jackson Boys Say “Whoa!: North Face of Capitol. Ummm, sure. But on his blog, Konsella offers a more likely possibility: “Everything skied so far has required either a rappel, roped skiing, or switching back and forth between climbing and skiing during the descent. For my own aesthetics, a route without ropes or mid-descent climbing would be the ultimate Capitol route. I believe that this route exists as a variation of the Davenport/Beidleman line, just to the skier’s right of their route. [However], in several trips to Pierre Lakes Basin, this route has rarely looked good—I believe it gets scoured by wind and avalanches more than other routes. It will take timing for someone to get this line.”

The intriguing couloir on La Plata's south face. Photo by Brittany Walker / 14erskiers.com

Best Unique Route on a Peak that Gets Skied All the Time: La Plata’s South Couloir. “La Plata is a great peak with a number of fine climbing and skiing routes. The north face is aesthetic and regularly sees ski descents, but a couloir on the south side looks promising, so that gets my vote.”

Best 14er Line from a Historical Perspective: North Face of North Maroon. “It’s true that this peak has been skied by routes other than the north face, such as the standard summer route and the west-to-north face variation. But Stammberger’s groundbreaking 1971 descent is one of the major events in American ski mountaineering history. As such, this route reigns supreme.”

The wild looking west face of Mt. Lindsey. Photo by Frank Konsella / 14erskiers.com

Best Line No One Has Heard Of: West Face of Lindsey. “This is one of the peaks that inspired me to write the “54 Best Descents” series. I’m not sure if anyone has skied the line that I think is the top-notch line on this peak. Invariably, the north face couloirs get skied, which are fine routes, but the west side has a wild looking route.”

Frank Konsella’s Best Descents series starts with the Front Range, where you’ll find links to the five other profusely illustrated posts.

Mark Rikkers making the first known snowboard descent of Mt. Sneffels, via the Snake Couloir, in 1998. Photo by Barrows Worm

Lou Dawson was first to ski all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks, and Chris Davenport famously skied them all in 12 months, in 2006–’07. But what about snowboarding the state’s highest peaks? Who did them first, and how many remain to be ridden?

The Colorado 14er First Snowboard Descents Project is a website created by Avon resident Zach Taylor to chronicle the history of snowboard mountaineering in the state. Taylor has built photo-packed web pages for most of the 14ers, with information on first known descents of each route that’s been ridden, plus links to trip reports. He’s seeking information on more descents, especially from the early days of snowboarding in the state.

According to Taylor, all but one of the 14ers has been ridden. Fearsome Capitol Peak is the lone holdout, but, as Taylor writes, “We would expect that to change in the next year.” Erik Kling from the Golden area and Jarrett Luttrell from Gunnison are the two most likely to be first to ride all the 14ers; their tick lists are both in the “high 40s.”