Elevation Gain: 7,389m
Distance: 80km
Total Time: 12 days
Date: June 30th to July 12th, 2025
Elasmo Peak was the final objective for our 10th day around the Kapella head waters. It was also the tallest summit in the isolated knot of peaks to the north west of Sharks Teeth Peaks. Due to weather we had just an afternoon to explore this area so we set our eyes on “Spiracle Peak” and of course the tallest in the group. From afar it didn’t look like there’d be any technical difficulties thanks to a long and tame ridge system that circle around to the west side from the north.
Andrea and I had just ascended Spiracle and dropped down to the ridge to Elasmo. We post holed our way through isothermic snow near the col, but eventually it firmed up enough to walk on. We bypassed one major bump by cutting across the snowy face and then continued along the many undulations of the ridge.
Halfway through we had views towards the other two summits that had been on our itinerary. It was a shame to have walk past them and not up them, but we simply didn’t have the time. The only other notable part of this ridge walk was the conjuring of wolverine tracks part way to the summit. Thankfully, we never ran into the owner and after 1.5 hours of trudging we had reached the final rocky section of ridge to the summit. A single massive boulder marked the high point, but it was not all too hard to surmount and we relished in the last of our summit views for the day.
I say last because to the west a large system was moving in and our brief window of sunshine was about to escape with it. We contoured back around the ridge towards Spiracle Peak, but bypassed the summit on the glaciated south side and reached the base of Peak 7400 just as the rain began to encroach on our valley. 15 minutes later we were packed up with our stashed gear and getting rained on.
From the summit we descended 3rd class terrain down the north side and then took snow slopes to the pass below. After passing endless camp sites near Sharks Teeth Peaks we had high hopes to find something amenable in the pass. Our first disappointment came when we ran into fresh grizzly tracks on the snow. It occurred to me then that this was the only tenable wildlife corridor we’d encountered on the trip so far. Adding to our woes, the nearby tenting options looked abysmal. The wind had picked up and everything suitable was on exposed snow.
Finally, we sought refuge inside a massive wind scoop that appeared to be out of the wind. We’d be stuck camping on snow but at least it was a bit sheltered. I quickly got to work digging out a tent site while Andrea started boiling water for us. As soon as we had a flat enough spot we set up the tent. Taking a step back, our site was bleak. The tent had taken on a deflated looking stance and we were both getting soaked looking at it. We had a hurried dinner and then snuck into the tent.
The weather over the next few days was not ideal. Two separate systems would be rolling in, with a small window to get out two days from now. That would mean we’d have to push through the rain storm on the following day in order to have a chance of getting picked up on the sunday. Barring that we’d be picked up on Monday or Tuesday and go over our planned vacation time. We mulled it over and decided to see in the morning what the best course of action was. Either way, the next course of action was to climb up Hindsight Peak.