Wilson Peak

After Sunday’s early storm activity we woke up a bit earlier on Monday and began our hike to the upper Navajo Basin in the dark.

As we hiked up towards the Rock of Ages saddle we kept looking back at El Diente and Mount Wilson and admiring the routes we’d taken yesterday.

Just below the saddle we passed an old mine complete with an ore cart. I briefly contemplated an ore cart descent for the way back down.

From the saddle we had to traverse southeast across the face of a slope and reach another high saddle.

From here we had a great view of Gladstone Peak to the south and the Bilk Basin to the east. Looking northeast we could also see most of the remaining route to Wilson Peak.

We left the saddle and scrambled across some class 3 cliffs toward a makeshift trail.

Once on the “trail” we carefully picked our way across the loose boulders and kept an eye out for the occasional cairns that marked the correct route and all the variants other people had taken.

Soon we reached a false summit and had a good view of the last bit of climbing. After descending about 50 feet, we’d need to climb back up 150 to reach the summit.

Moving one at a time we took care to safely descend that 50 feet over the loose rocks.

Once down we had more loose rocks to ascend before the stability increased.

Then we found ourselves alone on the summit with the haunting wreckage of a plane crash less than 2 years old.

We moved off a ways to snack and relax before contemplating the descent.

We retraced our steps with the exception of finding a shortcut to the false summit that kept us on more stable rocks and decreased the amount of elevation we had to lose and regain.

From the false summit we had an easy descent just following the same route we came up. We did run into one other climber, a teacher from Maine closing in on finishing the 54 14ers.

Back in the basin we took a long break by the stream before continuing our descent to Navajo Lake.

We decided to pack up camp and head out. We timed our exit perfectly as a heavy downpour began only a minute after we’d reached the car.

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Mount Wilson

Helen and I broke up the drive to the farthest 14ers from Denver by laying over in Crested Butte on Friday night. After a beautiful drive past Telluride, we set off on the Navajo Lake trail about 10am. A few clouds were already gathering as we started the 5 mile approach.

The wild flowers were out in full bloom and Helen commented that we were hiking through a floral arrangement.

After two hours we reached Navajo Lake just as it started sprinkling.

After crossing the West Dolores River as it exits the lake we found a secluded camp site and settled in for the afternoon.

Early the next morning we left our campsite and followed the rocky trail further up Navajo Basin. Looking back, we could see the first sun rays hitting Dolores Peak across the valley.

Once up in the upper basin we had a good view of our route up El Diente, the first of 3 14ers we planned to hike this weekend. The north slope route ascends a steep gully with a mix of snow and rock depending on season. We’d have a couple hundred feet to climb before hitting the remaining snow.

Once at the start of the snow we both put on our crampons and ice axes and started kicking steps up the gully.

As the slope angle steepened Helen decided she’d feel more comfortable on the dry rocks to the left of the snow. I stuck with the snow, even climbing through a few icy sections that I’d maybe rate at AI1. The route Helen took ascended slab rocks covered with loose stones. Despite her best effort she occasionally knocked some rocks down the gully. We were glad we weren’t here with a larger group where the chance of knocking rocks on one another would be even higher.

Eventually the snow ran out and both of us had to ascend about two hundred feet of loose rock to the ridge crest. Once there we could look right and see our first objective: El Diente.

We dropped over the other side of the ridge and followed some rock cairns past the vertical rocks known as the “organ pipes” then crossed back to the north side of the ridge.

Following some gullies we soon reached the summit.

Our day was hardly over, so we only stood still for about 15 minutes then we doubled back the way we’d come.

Instead of regaining the ridge crest to the snow gully we ascended, we kept traversing east across the slope and made our way toward Mount Wilson.

Most of the route was class 3 scrambling, but by keeping to a higher level around some gendarmes we found a couple short class 4 moves. Just past the large gendarme we were re-ascending to the ridge crest when Helen’s knee contacted a sharp rock and gained two deep cuts.

Having just completed a Wilderness First Aid course a week ago, I was probably too eager to begin irrigating the wound and applying a bandage. Luckily the cuts were clean and stopped bleeding fairly quickly.

Moving on, we scrambled up to the catwalk – an exposed sidewalk on the ridge crest.

As we came to the end of the catwalk we saw another group of five climbers heading our way. We all meet at a large gap on the ridge and shared information on what we’d passed. As we tackled the next ridge feature I looked back and caught them all spread out on the catwalk.

As we neared the summit of Mount Wilson we knew we had the hardest part of the route waiting for us. There’s a block guarding the summit that requires a couple class 4 moves to surmount.

However, after all the scrambling we’d done today and the solid nature of the rock, Helen cruised right past this section. Once we reached the summit she looked confused and wanted to know where the hard part had been.

We’d been worried about the dark clouds building up since about the catwalk, so we didn’t linger on the summit. We quickly began our descent down a loose path back into Navajo Basin.

We’d descended at least a thousand feet off the summit when the hail started. The loose rocks weren’t any more fun to descend once wet.

In intermittent hail, rain and sun we descended back to Navajo Lake.

Late in the afternoon the sky finally cleared for a couple hours and we enjoyed a dinner with a view.

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