| After a lousy day of fly-fishing on the Frying Pan River, my friend Chris from Stockton, CA and I were ready to tackle Snowmass' West Face. The drive in to lead King Basin was quite enjoyable from the little town of Marble. The views of Snowmass and Hagerman peak are stunning from the top of the four-wheel drive approach (see the picture of Snowmass on the right). After cresting the road, however, the elevation gained on the drive is all but lost when descending down into the basin. Upon arriving at a really nice campsite across from the creek bridge, we put in early to get a good start in the morning on the 13.4 mile 5,100 vertical foot ascent. |  |
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Arising at 4:30 am we got our gear together and headed up towards Geneva Lake. The hike up was rather easy up a few switchbacks to get over the headwall below the lake. We trudged on to Little Gem lake where we stopped for a break and contemplated our future (see the photo of the west face on the left). While resting, we spotted a doe wandering around by the lake, not the least bit skiddish either. Upon yelling and throwing objects in attempts to frighten off the deer, we came to the conclusion that it was either really confused or already beyond domestication. After some much needed hydration, we proceeded down the trail to the stream crossing across a few rocks. From here the task ahead is obvious. 2,300 vertical feet await, and all class 3. |
| A few hundred feet of talus lead up to near the crux of the route. It took probably 45 minutes to get to this headwall at 12,600' from Little Gem Lake. The key to the route is to scramble up to the headwall and cross to the left (where the northern watermark is visible) and walk north up some ledges to more suitable looking terrain heading up east. On this initial section we made some class 4 moves, though from our return, this section is much easier if you know where to go to avoid cliff bands. After reaching safer ground, the route follows up slabs and talus. This is enjoyable until around 13,500', when the talus becomes scree (terribly loose at that). This section will test your patience. The final 200 feet to the summit includes a small dirt chute to t he right(south) of the summit block, which is a much easier approach than any other (Chris found this out the hard way - picture on right). The final stretch to the summit is probably the easiest part of the climb, much like the talus slopes after leaving Little Gem Lake. The summit itself is actually quite small, with one jutting boulder in the "center". |
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There are great views of Capitol and the Maroon Bells (left) from the summit. This was quite an adventure, and took an incredible amount of time, as we returned to the trailhead at 5:00 pm (Chris being from sea level had a bad case of altitude sickness-slowing our progress). |