Pilot Knob

[apkue98]

I may be totally off my rocker, but for the life of me I cannot seem to find a very good description of the route up Pilot Knob. Am I understanding correctly that you hoof it up from Ice Lake to gain the ridge to the north of Pilot Knob, then drop down on the west side to find a loose class 3 gully to gain the summit ridge from? Then, of course, the infamous class 4 obstacle just before the summit.

Can anyone point me in the direction of a more detailed TR and/or route description? Or have I stumbled onto the golden rule of 13er routes: figure it out for yourself?

[theuglybear]

Beta's spot on, go for it, dude!

[Monster5]

Your description is about as good as it gets for most 13ers and is spot on. Good luck. Expect plenty of scree this time of year.

[Hoot]

Here's part of my TR from a 24 July 2008 climb of Pilot Knob. As I recall the rope wasn't essential but a nice comfort.

My alarm went off at 4:00 am after a comfortable night's sleep. Since our planned hike was not a long one I put on a pot of coffee, ate breakfast, and took care of business before Larry and I left camp under cloudy skies at 5:20 am. The moon occasionally shining through the clouds augmented our headlamps, but not enough for us to find the relatively dry path through the marsh we had used the previous evening. After hopping over the creek draining Fuller Lake, we reached the main trail to Ice Lake at the base of the huge headwall guarding the upper basin. Within 45 minutes of leaving camp I joined several photographers around Ice Lake taking pictures in the early morning alpine glow. At Ice Lake I got my first view of Pilot Knob plus much of my next day's climb on Fuller, Vermillion, and Golden Horn. From Ice Lake, Larry and I headed more or less directly toward Pilot Knob crossing lots of creeks, small snow fields, and flower-covered grassy hillsides. By this time all of the clouds had vanished and it was looking like a blue bird day! At about 13,200', we climbed a steep slope aiming for a prominent white spire on the colorful Pilot Knob-Point 13,833 saddle. After scrambling above some loose talus we hiked up on muddy red dirt which provided reasonably secure footing. We reached the ridge just after 8am a little right (northeast) of the white spire. From the saddle, we had a panoramic view of the Wilson group to the west and an intimidating view of Pilot Knob's purple north face towering above us. At this point we carefully reviewed the route description in Dave Cooper's Colorado Scrambles.

From near the low point of the saddle we climbed up the ridge and around the west side of the white spire toward Pilot Knob. Where the rock changes from yellow to purple we found a faint trail traversing the steep purple talus slope below Pilot Knob's north face. Our first view of Pilot Knob's west face did not look promising. There was no visible ascent route and a moderately steep snowfield lay between us and the next section of the face. We debated climbing down and around the snow, but with all the loose talus on both sides we decided to traverse midway through the snow. The best route, as we learned on our return, was through the small gap between the top of the snow and the base of the rock face. Before crossing the snow we put on our helmets and pulled out the ice axes. Once across the reasonably soft snow, we turned a corner and the prospects for ascending to the summit ridge looked much more promising. However, we still needed to get back up to the base of the face. After checking out several options, we ended up climbing a short but nasty gully of very loose black shale-like rock. Just a few yards south of the top of this gully, I found a cairn marking the then obvious Class 3 ascent gully.

While there was a lot of loose rock in the ascent gully, it was easy and unexposed climbing. About 20 yards up, the gully opened up and I saw a small cairn near the top of a dirt ramp on the left (north) side of the gully. We climbed the ramp which led to a chimney. We then climbed the very solid chimney to a low point on Pilot Knob's summit ridge. From the top of the chimney, the route Pilot Knob's summit was obvious and super exposed! Larry suggested we rope up at this point and I put forth no arguments. While the rope slowed us down, the weather was still beautiful so we weren't in any hurry. My light 30m/8mm Rando rope and 3 cams were perfect for the job. On Larry's belay, I climbed about 30m north on the left (west) side of the ridge to just below the first intervening summit. There I anchored myself with a #2 and a #3 cam and belayed Larry up to my position. He then continued up and over the boulder and down to a position right before the overhanging tower south of Pilot Knob's true summit. The rock along this section was fairly solid and the Class 3 moves were not difficult. However an unprotected fall along this section would almost certainly be fatal. We used the rope to protect the short traverse around the left side of the overhanging tower. With looser rock and one or two exposed Class 4 moves, getting around this tower probably was the crux of the climb. Once around the tower, it was a short and easy scramble to Pilot Knob's surprisingly broad summit. We reached the summit at 10:30 am. The summit provided spectacular 360-degree views and a great sense of accomplishment for both of us.

After enjoying the summit for a while we retraced our steps back to the top of the chimney protecting ourselves with the rope along the way. Downclimbing the chimney was a bit more challenging, but it was very fun climbing. We scrambled down the rest of the loose gully one at a time to avoid hitting each other with loose rocks. From the bottom of the gully, we traversed along the base of the rock face to the top of the snow slope. With one or two careful moves we were able to get behind the snow for an easy path back to the north face talus slope traverse. After taking a break at the saddle, we quickly made our way down the east-side gully one at a time. At the base of this gully I seriously considered leaving Larry and heading for Golden Horn via the Golden Horn-Pilot Knob saddle. Unfortunately, clouds were building up quickly and first echoes of thunder were rumbling into the basin. With questionable weather and a great day's climbing already in the bag, I decided to head back to camp with Larry. Once back in the upper basin, we saw quite a few day hikers enjoying the beautiful turquoise blue Ice Lake. I got a little beta from three guys on their way down from climbing Fuller, Vermillion, and Golden Horn. On our way down into the lower basin we left the trail to get a closer look at the waterfalls below Fuller Lake. We finally got back to camp at 3:44 pm under light showers.

[kansas]

As the others have stated, that's about all there is to it.

Ascend steep, extra crappy scree slope.
Wrap around the back side until you see a climbable gully. (its more obvious than you'd think)
Follow ridge to summit.

I know it doesn't seem detailed enough, but once you get there, you'll realize its all you really need. It just isn't that complicated of a route.

[Matt]

As the others have stated, that's about all there is to it.

Ascend steep, extra crappy scree slope.
Wrap around the back side until you see a climbable gully. (its more obvious than you'd think)
Follow ridge to summit.

I know it doesn't seem detailed enough, but once you get there, you'll realize its all you really need. It just isn't that complicated of a route.

Here are pics of Mr. Kansas walking the walk as described above

Extra Crappy Scree Slope. You'll enjoy this more than you can imagine.

1.jpg (171.24 KiB) Viewed 2272 times

Turn left to follow this path around back

3.jpg (172.79 KiB) Viewed 2272 times

Summit just above Kansas' head.

4.jpg (137.68 KiB) Viewed 2272 times

[apkue98]

Thank you all so much for the responses! You guys are awesome!

[bdloftin77]

If one were to connect Pilot Knob and Golden Horn, which would be less painful scree-wise: Golden Horn first perhaps via the GH/Vermilion saddle, or PK first wrapping around the north and then the west?

[Mtnman200]

If one were to connect Pilot Knob and Golden Horn, which would be less painful scree-wise: Golden Horn first perhaps via the GH/Vermilion saddle, or PK first wrapping around the north and then the west?

I have done them separately but would do Pilot Knob first and then Golden Horn. My reasoning is I’d want to do the hard peak first, plus I think that would make it easier to find the correct route up to Pilot Knob’s ridge.

[cottonmountaineering]

If one were to connect Pilot Knob and Golden Horn, which would be less painful scree-wise: Golden Horn first perhaps via the GH/Vermilion saddle, or PK first wrapping around the north and then the west?

ive connected them, it probably would be faster/easier to just take the normal routes up/down both

[Boggy B]

If one were to connect Pilot Knob and Golden Horn, which would be less painful scree-wise: Golden Horn first perhaps via the GH/Vermilion saddle, or PK first wrapping around the north and then the west?

ive connected them, it probably would be faster/easier to just take the normal routes up/down both

Exactly right.
In winter, the traverse beneath the Pilot Knob ridge on the west side is a cruiser 50-degree snow slope. In summer, it's a nightmare you don't want to have. My buddy was so frazzled by the time we got to the Pilot Knob-Golden Horn saddle that he decided not to continue up the remaining easy slopes to summit Golden Horn.

[HikerGuy]

I traversed the west side, it sucked, but doable. The Climbing Cooneys (climb13ers.com) suggest traversing the east side.