George Barnes & his wife Abby, and I headed down to the booming town of Marble Saturday afternoon planning to climb a route on the western aspect of Snowmass Mtn.

The short story: Great ridge ascent on surprisingly solid rock, amazing views, tedious descent of a nasty rotten dirty gully, shifty slate rock the size of a small dining room table, tough 4x4 road for George's determined Jeep Liberty. Kelso ridge is a cakewalk compared to the S-Ridge.

The full story:

Just getting to Snowmass Mtn is the first crux of any climb of the peak. We opted for a west side approach, wanting to keep the pack in short compared to the Snowmass Lake approach. There are two ways to get to the 4wd TH below Geneva Lake. You can take a long and steep, narrow but smooth 4x4 track up to 10,700, then drop 1,000 ft to the TH, or you can drive to the "town" of Crystal on a shorter but fairly rough 2wd road, then drive a pretty rough 4x4 track for 1.8 miles to the 4wd TH. If you opt for the Crystal approach, high clearance 4x4 is recommended for those last 1.8 miles. There are a number of rocky steps that would challenge a stock vehicle on the upclimb.

We opted without realizing it for the smooth 4x4 road. We went left at the first fork outside of marble for "Lead King Basin" and then at the second fork, we went left again as it was much smoother and well traveled. This road turned out to be the one we were after, and after winding our way up a grassy hillside to about 10,700, we switchbacked down 1000ft into the basin again and arrived at the busy 4wd pullout. (There is more parking about 300 yards downhill in a marked lot).

The pack in was an enjoyable 2.8 miles and ~1200 ft of hiking on good trail. The trail switchbacks up the hillside from 4wd parking, passes over a rockband where water rushes down in a series of small waterfalls, through a thicket of forest, and then arrives at Geneva Lake. We ended up grabbing a sweet flat spot under tall trees a bit above the lake that was roomy for our two tents, but could easily fit 3-4 tents if you tried.

Sunday morning George and I set out at 5am, while his wife stayed behind to spend a relaxing morning in camp. We arrived at Gem lake in 30 minutes or so, and waited a few minutes for a bit more light. We had decided on taking the S-Ridge, a 3rd class ridge that seemed preferable to to the loose talus and scree of the face. From our campsite, the S-Ridge looked like a foolhardy undertaking (actually the whole west side of Snowmass makes you scratch your head at first glance) It would be nice if the S-ridge dropped smoothly to the basin, but the start of the ridge is actually a dramatic headwall that prevents easy access to the ridge crest. A couple of Tr's we had read indicated an access gully on the far south end of the ridge. From Gem Lake we could see this gully, and it didn't look that bad after all (more on that later).

So for the approach, we dropped down from Gem Lake to a small stream, crossed over, then climbed solid talus blocks up to a broad angled shelf below the face. From there we did an ascending traverse to the mouth of the right most gully on the southern end of the face. The climb up was not that bad, but the middle was pretty steep, narrow, loose and unpleasant. I opted to bail about 3/4 of the way up to climbers right, scrambling over steep, but solid class 3 terrain to gain the ridge crest.

Once on the crest, the real fun begins. The S-Ridge is a great ridge. For the most part it is very solid, although a few large blocks will creak under your feet. The closer to the crest the better the rock. Stay to climbers left to bypass obstacles and you will avoid the hearty exposure on the right side of the ridge. The climbing was fun. Holds were often bomber, and the scrambling quiet sustained. There is exposure all around, but with good route finding you can keep it 3rd class. Even so, there are several spots that involve exposure and call for moves across slabby areas, and rubble covered ledges. Kelso Ridge on Torreys is a cakewalk compared to the S-Ridge. The S-Ridge is all about fairly sustained airy 3rd class scrambling- sometimes loose, but for the most part solid.

The lower part of the ridge is more walkable, the scrambling increases as you ascend. The ridge would be a classic if not for some loose rock, and one large tower that throws a wrench in the works. If you have the climbing ability, the 4th/5th class tower if climbed directly would save you a lot of pain. We opted for the standard approach to this crux, which is to drop down to climbers left into a loose gully, then ascend back around the tower and regain the crest. After fighting through loose scree we regained the crest and began the final march to the summit.

Capitol Peak Panorama
 

We reached the top 3.5 hrs after leaving Gem Lake. Spectacular views will greet you there. Capitol looked daunting, but not as bad as the Snowmass/Capitol ridge. The ridge to Hagerman looked ok to the saddle, then started to look nasty. No wonder few people attempt that traverse. We spent a few minutes on top under building clouds, chatted with a group of 5 that had come up the west face instead of the ridge, and then began our descent.

There is no easy way off the west side of Snowmass. Rather then try and descend the loose and tricky west face, we opted to run the ridge back down. The downclimb went by quickly, although traversing around the crux proved nastier then on the way up. Once back on the ridge crest, we patiently worked our way through sustained class 3 downclimbing in many sections. I managed to cause a flat slate rock the size of a small dining room table to flip over and slide ten feet, while both George and I kicked a number of rocks on our descent. Snowmass is an Elk, make no mistake. We started a few mini rockslides here and there, and "Rock!" was heard quite often. It would turn out that the real crux of the descent was the gully we had used to gain the ridge crest.

If I never see that gully again it would be too soon. We used the rocks on climbers left to avoid the top 1/4, then dove in to the choss. The middle section was miserable on the way down, small rivers of rock and dirt cascading down the gully with every step. After a long day of climbing it was a most unwelcome way to finish the route. Eventually we reached the bottom and descended across the more stable talus below. For the descent we went directly from the gully to a group of small piney shrubs, then picked out way down a headwall by way of a low angle vegetated gully. Finally we were back on solid ground, and made our way back to camp.

I really liked the S-Ridge. That rotten access gully, the loose rock, and the fact that you pretty much have to reverse your route or climb down an even looser, but shorter route on the west face, keep this route from being a classic in my mind. I'd recommend it though if your looking for an alternative to the long backpack into Snowmass Lake, and don't mind the challenge of a long ridge scramble. It was a fun, but rather brutal day out.

After backpacking out, we opted for the shorter 4wd road to Crystal. This road turned out to be pretty rough, but George navigated his Jeep Liberty through the obstacles with just a couple scrapes on the skid plates. For a stock 4wd vehicle without high clearance, we both agreed the road is pretty challenging. We reached Crystal after a hard 1.8 miles, stopped to look at the famous Mine building that has been the subject of so many photos, then began the long slog back to civilization. The road down to Marble from Crystal was rough (probably a little rough for a passenger car), but mostly just slow going on a narrow track.

All in all a great weekend of climbing. I don't think I'll be repeating Snowmass anytime soon, but it was a great climb.