El Diente Peak Trip Report 08/31/2016

Peak(s):	El Diente Peak - 14,175 feet
Date Posted:	08/31/2016
Modified:	09/01/2016
Date Climbed:	08/15/2016
Author:	Peter Green

Mt. Wilson - SW route
With the object of climbing Mt. Wilson and El Diente in successive days we made the hike up from the Kilpacker trailhead early on Monday morning and left our camping gear at about 11,750' along the trail. The plan was to summit Wilson that afternoon, return to the gear and set up our tents next to the stream a few hundred feet above the prominent waterfall. This worked well, and we were able to summit both peaks without completely exhausting ourselves. The route up Mt. Wilson was almost entirely snow free. Going up, the scree/boulder fields were not a problem. Coming down was a challenge. We moved much more slowly through the boulders as we descended as we couldn't just "hop" from one to the next. The thing I want to emphasize in this trip report is that using the 'cutoff' route on the SW face of Wilson makes the climb so much easier, more fun and almost eliminates the exposure. The 14ers.com website has good photos of how to use the cutoff and avoid the more obvious SW gully - a gully that is unpleasant in itself but sadly takes one to the sharp summit ridge west of the actual summit -- forcing climbers to traverse this loose and heinously exposed 40 feet of rock. The three of us found the cutoff route to be reasonably solid and with very little exposure (maybe six feet of actual climbing put one in a position where a fall would have been bad-- so we used a spotter there). It's worth mentioning that we ran into several people the next day who said they had climbed Mt. Wilson, but in fact had taken the SW gully (not the cutoff) and once at the top of the gully had turned around instead of doing the final exposed 40 feet to the top. Disappointed I'm sure. The cutoff prevents sadness. El Diente was another story altogether. We made the hike from our high camp in just 50 minutes to the El Diente turnoff and then followed cairns and the trail up into high red rock scree slopes about 400 feet below the main east-west ridge coming off of El Diente to the west. A few things to note: The grey gully cited in the 14er route guide is not visible when you first get onto the upper broad red scree slope. The reason is because one enters the red scree slope from climber's right (east) but the gully comes off the top ridge at an angle, sloping from right to left. It is not until one moves maybe a hundred yards left across (and up) the red scree slopes that one can see into the grey gully that leads up to the Organ Pipes. The reason this is important is that when we descended we followed the cairns and that different route takes one down only on red rock (east of the grey gully) and there are some steps at the bottom of the this route where a fall would be nasty. I suspect this route is the cairned route because climbers can't see the grey gully unless they move left. In their eagerness they go right up exposed red rocks to the organ pipes. So, back to the story. We ascended the grey gully on really quite nice rick, 3rd and 4th class right up to boulders below the organ pipes. From here we traversed left (west) on easy ground up a steep gully to the notch on the crest of the ridge. We were told by a guide the day before: "don't climb the ridge, drop over on to the north side and traverse". Taking that to heart we followed a faint path on the north side which led to a huge drop and impending death. Retreating back to the notch my wiser wife suggested we climb up the ridge toward the summit. I reminded her what the sage guide had said. She pointed out we had no choice as the route on the north side was infeasible. Up the ridge we went and my wife was correct and the guide was not -- you go up maybe 50 linear feet on the main ridge and THEN angle right onto the north face, you will find a series of "trails" that take you across the top of several (exposed) gullies and to the final muddy gully. Let's be clear: the exposure on El Diente is much worse than Mt. Wilson-- and it is on this north side traverse where it deserves its "three" rating. The worst bit is the final mud gully. We climbed it using the tips of embedded rocks sticking out of the mud. If we had had a rope I would have set a fixed line from the summit down to where one enters the gully as a fall would have been fatal. We spotted each other from stable stances and no one slipped. If one were to be caught in a rainstorm and forced to descend the mud gully when it was wet and slimy it seems like it would be frightening. Our descent down went fine. It is much quicker getting off of El Diente than Mt. Wilson owing to the boot path through the scree. The basin on the south side is exceptionally beautiful and we fell in love with the San Juans. To display your photos (uploaded below) in the final trip report, type the image number (i.e., 1, 2, 3), highlight it with your cursor, and click on the Image button on the right. Example: Image #1 (not yet uploaded) More image format examples: Float image right: Image #3 (not yet uploaded) Float image right, width of 300 pixels: Image #3 (not yet uploaded) Float image left, width of 175 pixels: Image #3 (not yet uploaded) External image: Float external image right, width of 600 pixels:

Mt. Wilson - SW route

With the object of climbing Mt. Wilson and El Diente in successive days we made the hike up from the Kilpacker trailhead early on Monday morning and left our camping gear at about 11,750' along the trail. The plan was to summit Wilson that afternoon, return to the gear and set up our tents next to the stream a few hundred feet above the prominent waterfall. This worked well, and we were able to summit both peaks without completely exhausting ourselves.

The route up Mt. Wilson was almost entirely snow free. Going up, the scree/boulder fields were not a problem. Coming down was a challenge. We moved much more slowly through the boulders as we descended as we couldn't just "hop" from one to the next. The thing I want to emphasize in this trip report is that using the 'cutoff' route on the SW face of Wilson makes the climb so much easier, more fun and almost eliminates the exposure. The 14ers.com website has good photos of how to use the cutoff and avoid the more obvious SW gully - a gully that is unpleasant in itself but sadly takes one to the sharp summit ridge west of the actual summit -- forcing climbers to traverse this loose and heinously exposed 40 feet of rock. The three of us found the cutoff route to be reasonably solid and with very little exposure (maybe six feet of actual climbing put one in a position where a fall would have been bad-- so we used a spotter there).
It's worth mentioning that we ran into several people the next day who said they had climbed Mt. Wilson, but in fact had taken the SW gully (not the cutoff) and once at the top of the gully had turned around instead of doing the final exposed 40 feet to the top. Disappointed I'm sure. The cutoff prevents sadness.

El Diente was another story altogether. We made the hike from our high camp in just 50 minutes to the El Diente turnoff and then followed cairns and the trail up into high red rock scree slopes about 400 feet below the main east-west ridge coming off of El Diente to the west. A few things to note: The grey gully cited in the 14er route guide is not visible when you first get onto the upper broad red scree slope. The reason is because one enters the red scree slope from climber's right (east) but the gully comes off the top ridge at an angle, sloping from right to left. It is not until one moves maybe a hundred yards left across (and up) the red scree slopes that one can see into the grey gully that leads up to the Organ Pipes. The reason this is important is that when we descended we followed the cairns and that different route takes one down only on red rock (east of the grey gully) and there are some steps at the bottom of the this route where a fall would be nasty. I suspect this route is the cairned route because climbers can't see the grey gully unless they move left. In their eagerness they go right up exposed red rocks to the organ pipes. So, back to the story. We ascended the grey gully on really quite nice rick, 3rd and 4th class right up to boulders below the organ pipes. From here we traversed left (west) on easy ground up a steep gully to the notch on the crest of the ridge. We were told by a guide the day before: "don't climb the ridge, drop over on to the north side and traverse". Taking that to heart we followed a faint path on the north side which led to a huge drop and impending death. Retreating back to the notch my wiser wife suggested we climb up the ridge toward the summit. I reminded her what the sage guide had said. She pointed out we had no choice as the route on the north side was infeasible. Up the ridge we went and my wife was correct and the guide was not -- you go up maybe 50 linear feet on the main ridge and THEN angle right onto the north face, you will find a series of "trails" that take you across the top of several (exposed) gullies and to the final muddy gully. Let's be clear: the exposure on El Diente is much worse than Mt. Wilson-- and it is on this north side traverse where it deserves its "three" rating. The worst bit is the final mud gully. We climbed it using the tips of embedded rocks sticking out of the mud. If we had had a rope I would have set a fixed line from the summit down to where one enters the gully as a fall would have been fatal. We spotted each other from stable stances and no one slipped. If one were to be caught in a rainstorm and forced to descend the mud gully when it was wet and slimy it seems like it would be frightening.

Our descent down went fine. It is much quicker getting off of El Diente than Mt. Wilson owing to the boot path through the scree. The basin on the south side is exceptionally beautiful and we fell in love with the San Juans.

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Comments or Questions

tlee83

Mt. WIlson info
9/1/2016 7:28pm

Thanks for the details, hoping to climb Mt. Wilson this weekend if I can find a partner. You sound surprised that your wife was right!! They usually are, and yes, I'm one of them

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