San Juan Range > Wilson Peak > Climber's LogWilson Peak Climber's Log
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[ Sign the Climber's Log ]
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| Mike N | Route Climbed: Northwest ridge Date Climbed: July 2001  | |
| Great climb. Lots of talus. Great views of to the South. | |
| Posted May 13, 2005 7:15 pm | ||
| Larry V | Route Climbed: West Ridge from Silver Pick Basin Date Climbed: July 1996 | |
| Nice day. Climbed with Aaron and Alan. | |
| Posted Feb 22, 2005 10:14 pm | ||
| ColoradoScott | Route Climbed: West Ridge from Silver Pick Basin Date Climbed: July 5, 1985 | |
| Our low clearance car only made it to about one mile from the true trailhead, but we hiked up the road (being eaten alive by the mosquitos until timberline was reached) and proceeded into the valley above the TH. This particular year had a strong snowpack and we hiked over patches of snow, losing the trail and mistakenly following the one that heads east and then south under Wilson's west face. The last 500 vertical feet to the Rock of Ages saddle were climbed straight up the hard-packed snow, kicking steps and using our ice axes being mandatory (our helmets were a nice option too, since the runout was onto rocks). At the saddle we took a break and were on rocks the rest of the way to the summit. The loose talus on this route was very tiresome. The final class III pitch to the airy summit is a great finish on solid rock tho'. On the descent we bypassed most of the ridge by descending a snow couloir down the Northwest face, just below the south false summit. We glissaded this steep couloir for probably 1,000 feet into the basin, but ice axes and checking our speed w/ a few self-arrests was needed, since the snow on this side was not very soft for the descent (not much sunhit here). If you wish to avoid the loose rock on this mountain, this route would make a nice snowclimb (crampons probably needed) and Dawson's Vol. 2 describes the route better. | |
| Posted Feb 7, 2005 12:25 pm | ||
| Diggler | Route Climbed: NW Ridge Date Climbed: 5 September Date Climbed: Jun 25, 2012 | |
| Attempted this with Mark (Pellucid Wombat). Bizarre weather had deposited a layer of powder over everything a day before, making for shitty conditions (but beautiful views!)- snow with no measurable consistancy (a few inches to 2 ft thick) over terrible rock (at times basically near-vertical scree) does not make for ideal climbing. Made it to 13,600' (perhaps having surpassed the route's crux- steep wall on opposite side of the prominent notch), but still had an appreciable way to go, and it was getting late (going back down that after the snow had started to harden up would have been bad!), so decided to admit defeat & try again another day. A challenging, steep mountain composed of substandard rock, with exceptional views- it'll be exciting (again)! 6.25.’12, w/ Faith, via new Rock of Ages Trail (#429). New trail (props to the Forest Service!) made it possible to take a trail to circumnavigate piece-of-shit Rusty Nichols’ private property! Well-marked trail to Rock of Ages col. Left TH @ 13.15, following long & late previous day (back @ TH/camp @ 23.30 after LONG day ascending, & then descending Lizard Head). Weather cooperated, though, & trail easy to follow. | |
| Posted Oct 8, 2004 4:33 pm | ||
| PellucidWombat | Route Climbed: Northwest Ridge Date Climbed: September 5, 2004 | |
| I attempted this route over Labor Day weekend with Diggler. A big snowstorm passed through the day before and dumped a lot of extremely light snow in the Rockies (a few inches to a few feet deep on top of the rock). This snow made the loose rock on the route very problematic and dangerous. We turned around at the large notch before the ridge's intersection with a minor ridge. This place looks awesome with snow cover. When I come back to re-climb the route, I'll have to make sure that it is a snow climb! | |
| Posted Sep 8, 2004 2:41 pm | ||
| mountainmota | Route Climbed: Southwest Ridge Date Climbed: June 2002 | |
| Fun 14er! | |
| Posted Jun 15, 2004 7:15 pm | ||
| DaveC | Route Climbed: from rock of ages Date Climbed: july, 01 and 02 | |
| missed the first year from silver pick (forgot my damn parka), but made it from navajo the following year. | |
| Posted May 21, 2004 9:47 pm | ||
| goat14er | Route Climbed: West Ridge Date Climbed: July 2003 | |
| Tanya and I did this one together from Silver Pick Basin. A pretty straight-forward climb until you get to that false summit right before the top, then it gets fun! Great weather - very warm, but haze from the fires in the area obstructed some of the views. | |
| Posted May 12, 2004 6:22 pm | ||
| bc44caesar | Route Climbed: Southwest Ridge Date Climbed: 13 Sep 2003 | |
| Backpacked into Navajo Basin Friday night from the south, arriving at 5:30am; slept a few hours before starting out. Reached the saddle between Wilson and Gladstone quickly, but got way off route and climbed the third class ridge almost all the way. The route was covered in snow which made the last sections pretty treacherous - 2nd CO 14er | |
| Posted Feb 16, 2004 12:50 pm | ||
| xskier77 | Route Climbed: West Ridge Date Climbed: July 16, 2003 | |
| Excellant route from our Navajo Basin campsite. Weather was perfect on the summit but after getting back down the rock of ages it turned pretty foul pretty quickly. Luckily for us we were heading back to our camp and found shelter in a little old mining shack. The others heading to Silver Pick must've gotten soaked. And one couple started heading up shortly before the weather turned. Hopefully they made it off safely. | |
| Posted Feb 1, 2004 10:12 pm | ||
| RyanS | Route Climbed: Southwest Ridge Date Climbed: October 28, 2003 | |
| We stole one from Wilson Peak yesterday. Very light clouds, almost zero wind, and 60 degree temperatures. A perfect day to play hooky! There was some snow and ice to deal with between the 13,900' subpeak and Wilson's summit, but nothing too sketchy. | |
| Posted Oct 29, 2003 10:42 am | ||
| Scott | Route Climbed: SW ridge Date Climbed: July 4 2001 | |
| Nice view | |
| Posted Aug 21, 2003 12:37 pm | ||
| cmccall | Route Climbed: Silver pick trailhead Date Climbed: August 2, 2003 | |
| enjoyable hike some challenging class 3 near the summit. | ||
| Posted Aug 10, 2003 4:41 pm | ||
| Matt Mahoney | Route Climbed: Silver Pick Date Climbed: July 20, 2003 | |
| Climbed in PM after traversing Mt. Wilson to El Diente for 12 hours total. There is a surprising false summit. The true summit is not seen until you are one step from what appears to be the top. Then the hard class 3 downclimb and back up reveals itself. | |
| Posted Jul 27, 2003 10:54 pm | ||
| nickd | Route Climbed: northwest face to north ridge Date Climbed: 6-7-03 | |
| fri. 7 june - colder weather kept the snow solid thru the morning. on snow all the way up silverpick to northwest basin/face. "normal" nw face route goes right to sw ridge then to summit. i decided to go up left side of nw face, hit north ridge at about 13,400'. north ridge to summit mostly 3rd class broken rock, with a couple of cleaner 4th class short rock aretes. for orientation -when looking at wilson peak from telluride area, the n ridge is the right side of the pyramidal north east face. | |
| Posted Jun 8, 2003 12:05 pm | ||
| dsnell | Route Climbed: Southwest Ridge--Bilk Basin Variation Date Climbed: July 1993 | |
| I climbed Wilson Peak with my brother, John Snell, of Durango (at the time) and friend, Kurt Schneider, also of Durango. We spent the night in the old miner's cabin in Bilk Basin, which was full of about three feet of snow because somebody had left the old door open the year before. It actually worked out well, because we had a relatively soft snow shelf to sleep on, which is basically the same thing we would have slept on outside. It slept three guys and a dog fairly comfortably. This was the year Southern Colorado received record snow fall, so we glissaded down about 600' below the cabin--great fun! | |
| Posted Dec 18, 2002 9:39 pm | ||
| rmjwinters | Route Climbed: Silver Pick Date Climbed: August 26 2000 | |
| Originally were going to try the triple slam. Settled on Wilson Peak due to bad weather. It hailed about 2 inches up high which made conditions slippery. | |
| Posted Oct 6, 2002 1:38 pm | ||
| climbcolorado | Route Climbed: West Ridge from Silver Pick Basin Date Climbed: 7/14/02 | |
| Nice hike with just a little bit of class 3 to make it interesting! | |
| Posted Jul 14, 2002 6:46 pm | ||
| mountrobson | Route Climbed: Silver Pick Date Climbed: 02-14-02 | |
| Spent a couple of casual days skiing and slogging up to the Rock of Ages Col. It could be done in one very long day, but we were just enjoying the outing! Dug the snow out of the miner's shack on the Navajo Basin side for a (relatively) comfy place to stay. Climbed Wilson the next day in horrible weather (got bona fide frostbite on one toe!). Summit day was so raw and intense -- best day of mountaineering ever!!! This was our (Rain Sussman and I) second winter ascent of a 14'er. | |
| Posted Mar 2, 2002 5:52 am | ||
| Peter Eliassen | Route Climbed: Silver Pick Date Climbed: 10/18/01 | |
| Not bad...I did it on the way back from Mount Wilson...climbing back up to the 13,000 foot ridge from Navajo Basin makes this final thousand feet pretty quick. Only took about an hour from the 13,000 foot saddle. The South slopes (most of the route) were completely clear of snow...but the final crux move was quite interesting with a few inches of snow on those small hand and footholds...beautiful views! Do the mountain in september, as the leaves are simply amazing up there! | |
| Posted Sep 22, 2001 3:55 pm | ||
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