'Pin Point' (come out of the woodwork and help me)

[goingup]

I am admitting that I am being nothing more than a psychopathic list checker on this one, but the 14ers sub-summit list has long reigned supreme in my little OCD brain. I was 72 for 72 and then a new one, 'Pin Point' sprang up when someone decided it was time for all of our mountains to be re-measured. So now I sit 72 for 73 and it haunts my every waking moment and fills my nightmares with imagery of having to step foot on a 14er in summer again. Unfortunately for me, 'Pin Point' sits right in the middle of the El Diente-Wilson traverse. Fortunately for me, I live in the San Juans and I am ready to go try to summit it. I am going to skip out on climbing El Diente and Mount Wilson again and doing the full traverse because I do feel there is so much more objective hazard on summer 14ers with crowds these days. I want to jog in, try to summit 'Pin Point' and jog out. Ask me about how I just re-climbed Challenger (twice) to go summit, 'The Prow' so I no longer have to stare at it unchecked at the very tippy-top of the Sangre's 13ers list. So getting to my question, who has climbed 'Pin Point'? I am having trouble finding any information on the absolute 'easiest' and safest way to do so? I am not trying to do unroped highly exposed class 5. I lost a good friend to a climbing fall on Mount Sneffles on June 10th and I have been struggling with scrambling (especially solo) since. My goal is to mitigate risk as much as possible by taking the 'easiest' line up. Does anyone have any information or photos with this kind of information? Help a girl go 73 for 73. Thanks!

[two lunches]

madmatt and i just climbed pin point in july!

assuming you go from killpacker, when you gain the ridge, head toward wilson. traverse west under pin point along the route and when you re-gain the ridge, stay on the ridge and go east, back toward el diente. it’s a class 2 walk that ends up at a slab with a nice hand crack on the south side of the ridge that terminates in a big boulder jumble. a little remniscent of sunlight.

final summit scramble pic: https://imgur.com/a/nBLreCy

scramble between the blocks (when in doubt stay south) and make some protected class 4 moves to pop up on the 1-person summit

[goingup]

madmatt and i just climbed pin point in july!

assuming you go from killpacker, when you gain the ridge, head toward wilson. traverse west under pin point along the route and when you re-gain the ridge, stay on the ridge and go east, back toward el diente. it’s a class 2 walk that ends up at a slab with a nice hand crack on the south side of the ridge that terminates in a big boulder jumble. a little remniscent of sunlight.

scramble between the blocks (when in doubt stay south) and make some protected class 4 moves to pop up on the 1-person summit block.

Thank you so much, and yes, I will just take the standard route up from Killpacker as I can jog in most of the approach, gain the ridge, and ignore the two 14ers. So you would rate it solid, secure, unexposed class 4? Do you have any photos? Never mind, I see you edited it in, thank you sooooo much!

[two lunches]

its definitely got some exposed moves but very solid rock quality. idk i'm sure matt will see this and can chime
in.

[goingup]

its definitely got some exposed moves but very solid rock quality. idk i'm sure matt will see this and can chime
in.

That is okay, solid exposed is way better than loose and crumbling exposed. I will look out for Matt's response.

[The_Ramp]

TR god "daway8" posted a TR for Pin Point a few years ago that might be helpful: https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... trip=22319

[Cereal]

madmatt and i just climbed pin point in july!

assuming you go from killpacker, when you gain the ridge, head toward wilson. traverse west under pin point along the route and when you re-gain the ridge, stay on the ridge and go east, back toward el diente. it’s a class 2 walk that ends up at a slab with a nice hand crack on the south side of the ridge that terminates in a big boulder jumble. a little remniscent of sunlight.

final summit scramble pic: https://imgur.com/a/nBLreCy

scramble between the blocks (when in doubt stay south) and make some protected class 4 moves to pop up on the 1-person summit

I can confirm this ^^^ and daway8's report. Going west to east (El Diente to Mount Wilson), it is a few quick and easy class 5 moves on the "ascent" of Pin Point, and some brief class 3 on the "descent" of Pin Point. So, ascending AND descending from the east side of Pin Point will be the path of least resistance.

[Boggy B]

One move felt closer to 4th class on descent. I think if you go up/down that way (east side) it will feel like 3rd. Solid and great exposure. You might be underwhelmed if you psych yourself up much, it's pretty short. lol

[madmattd]

Yep, go to the spot on the traverse where you regain the ridge before West Wilson, and cut back West (Two Lunches accidentally said go East, but you're heading West, approaching the summit from the East. Heading East to summit will get you into C5 terrain.). That's what daway's report mentioned a few posts up suggested for the easiest way to summit, and it worked fine for us. Generally solid rock for the scramble section on giant blocks, I was able to keep it to a move or two of C4 (and several C3) with less exposure than the traverse around the Organ Pipes subjects you to. It initially looked a little questionable, but once at the base of each short pitch the solution was pretty apparent. I actually found it overall pretty fun. Resist the urge to cut up a gully shortly before regaining the ridge, though it appears it will get you there, it's a steep, loose, crappy gully and it's easier to just do the slightly longer out-and-back from the ridge just a little while later.

[goingup]

One move felt closer to 4th class on descent. I think if you go up/down that way (east side) it will feel like 3rd. Solid and great exposure. You might be underwhelmed if you psych yourself up much, it's pretty short. lol

In my current mental state, I am looking to be underwhelmed.

[goingup]

TR god "daway8" posted a TR for Pin Point a few years ago that might be helpful: https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... trip=22319

I read this trip report and have no interest in doing the class 5 ascent on the El Diente side. I was hoping for someone's first hand account going up and down from the Wilson side which seems to be a bit more tame.

[goingup]

Yep, go to the spot on the traverse where you regain the ridge before West Wilson, and cut back West (Two Lunches accidentally said go East, but you're heading West, approaching the summit from the East. Heading East to summit will get you into C5 terrain.). That's what daway's report mentioned a few posts up suggested for the easiest way to summit, and it worked fine for us. Generally solid rock for the scramble section on giant blocks, I was able to keep it to a move or two of C4 (and several C3) with less exposure than the traverse around the Organ Pipes subjects you to. It initially looked a little questionable, but once at the base of each short pitch the solution was pretty apparent. I actually found it overall pretty fun. Resist the urge to cut up a gully shortly before regaining the ridge, though it appears it will get you there, it's a steep, loose, crappy gully and it's easier to just do the slightly longer out-and-back from the ridge just a little while later.

I did understand what Two Lunches was saying. For the easiest ascent I should follow the standard route for the traverse and go under pinpoint towards Mount Wilson, the standard route brings you back up to the ridge (just do that and resist the urge to short cut a gully), then instead of going on towards Wilson, turn back towards El Diente and follow the ridge to some big blocks that with care go class3/4 mostly solid with some exposure up to the summit of Pin Point. When in doubt stay on the south side of the ridge.