| Peaks: | Mt. Sneffels - 14,150 feet El Diente Peak - 14,159 feet Mt. Wilson - 14,246 feet Wilson Peak - 14,017 feet |
Stats
Dates:6/9 to 6/17
8 14ers: Sneffels, El Diente, Mt. Wilson, Wilson Peak, Conundrum, Castle, Pyramid, Snowmass
Total Mileage: 63 Miles
Total Elevation Gain: 46K feet
GreatTraverses: Diente to Wilson 4th of 4.
Partners: 3
# of peaks solo: 1
# of fish caught: 10
# of lake jumps: 1
Preface
Having only 9 left to finish the 14ers, I had planned to casually finish throughout this summer. My work is ramping up to be busy throughout the summer season and I have started to see my chances of getting much time off are getting slimmer and slimmer. Then… Come to find out, I have my first baby on the way due this fall as well. Knowing that having a baby and play time are somewhat correlated and the possibility for my work to be less flexible for a while, I got somewhat of a fire under my butt to get the remaining peaks done. I came up with a plan. I would take a week off and finish all the peaks left on my list. I began looking at weather, partners, and work and decided that 6/9 to 6/17 will be the best window for opportunity in the near future. I began my planning about a week prior. It was hard to focus at work as I wanted to take my time to prepare. Luckily, I have done enough research in the past to be comfortable with any of the peaks on any of my routes. In my planning, I realized that I have been saving Huron Peak for last because it is fairly short and easy and I would like to take a group of friends and family up with me for my finisher, who have been supporting me throughout my journey. I’m glad I have reserved this easier peak than finishing on something hard with one or no partners. Planning with such short notice, I knew it wasn’t going to be possible to get the group I wanted so I decided to finish all peaks but 1 on this trip. The one week window looked good on the weather forecast through Thursday and I knew there was little margin for error. If I encountered bad weather or adverse conditions on any given day, I would not have time for another shot at that peak. The last piece to the puzzle was giving my wife the peace of mind that I was going to be OK as she usually worries while I am out and don’t always have cell service. I called a friend who owns a SPOT tracker and borrowed that. I kept it on tracking whenever I was on the trail and kept it on tracking so she could see my progress or lack thereof.
Part 1: The San Juans
Day 1: Mt. Sneffels (14,150’)
Route: East Dallas Creek Blue Lakes Trailhead to the Southwest Ridge
Mileage: ~14 Miles
Elevation Gain: ~5000’
Partners: J and G
Start:6 AM Finish 2:30 PM
After getting off work about noon on Friday 6/8 and the roughly 7 hour drive to Telluride, CO, I met up with my friend who we will call “J” here. He recently moved up there a few months ago and we had talked about doing the Diente Wilson traverse for the past couple of years. It was finally coming into fruition as we discussed our plan while I ate a burger and sipped a brew in downtown Telluride. We had both noticed that the forecast for Saturday was supposed to be much windier than Sunday so we decided to go with Sneffels first and then the traverse on Sunday. After my April 2010 attempt through Yankee Boy Basin where we really only got to the summer trailhead before calling it a quits due extreme avy condtions See Report Here, I was thinking great… Saturday will be a quick 7 mile 3000’ round trip warm-up for the traverse tomorrow and a comfortable way to kick off the trip. Coming from Telluride though, The East Dallas Creek approach is about half the drive of continuing down into Ouray and back up into Yankee boy. Not thinking too much of the additional mileage, we decided to give blue lakes a shot. In hindsight, If I had known the snow was going to be so bullet proof, I would have probably taken the more direct route via Blaine basin into snake couloir or the north buttress.
J, his friend “G” and I got started at about 6AM and I quickly realized I had forgotten my second Nalgene. After hearing horror stories of Camelbaks leaking and soaking peoples packs, I always keep mine outside of the pack until the hike starts. After getting out of the car and gearing mine up, I couldn’t get it to stop leaking so I decided to go with 2 Nalgenes. Unfortunately, I left one of two in the car and was doing a 14 mile day with only 32oz of water. It didn’t feel ideal even when I usually need less water than the average alpine hiker. I decided I would be ok since I always carry tablets in my med kit and J had his steri-pen. I actually only ended up drinking less than 48 oz for the day anyhow so it wasn’t so bad. 1.8 miles into the first day with a 3.8MPH moving average speed and all was going great but I was already seeming to develop blisters. I was smart enough to start this long of a trip with moleskin already covering my heels. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong already. I took my boot off to find half dollar bleeding blisters already. What the heck? Then J asked how new my socks were. I immediately knew it was the socks. I had just bought my first new pair of wool socks in about 5 years and hadn’t even washed or worn them yet. The new socks were the culprit causing so much pain. I felt like such a rookie. I threw on a fresh pair of broken in socks and decided to press on. J offered to turn back being that he had already climbed this peak and he wanted me fresh for the Wilson Diente traverse. Turning back sounded great due to the pain that I was in, but I really wanted to stick to the schedule. I said we should keep going and I will say if it gets bad enough that we need to turn around. Immediately the different socks felt much better. After seeing the beautiful lowest Blue lake, we came to the first crossing below it.
Up the steep headwall, we passed through the upper blue lakes as we started to get close to finally being in the sun.
Nearing Blue lakes pass at 12,980, it was apparent that this route was much less traveled than most other 14er routes due to the faint trail.
Eventually we made it to the top of the Blue Lakes Pass at just shy of 13K and had our first views down into Yankee Boy Basin and up the ridge. I never realized how much shorter the pass was on the Yankee boy side was. It was right there practically.
After a short break from the already somewhat intense wind that we knew we were up against, we began our route up the ridge. Picking our way around a couple of small snow fields, we picked our way up. The red line shows roughly our line as I remember it on our way up.
Scrambling onward and upward, I began to notice the looseness of the route. This was always a route that I considered my pup capable of doing after his adventures in the past in Chicago Basin the 5 San Juans in 2 days trip last summer and writing his own TR for Ellingwood Point but I was very glad he was not there after physically being on the route. He is a very capable animal and probably would have been fine, but it was just so loose.
Until this point, the route finding was fairly straight forward. Follow the ridge. We finally came to a point where the route definitely cliffs out to the left and there was snow to the right. We had axes but the right didn’t look like the way either.
When you don’t know for sure you have to start trying things out within the capabilities of your team at which point you will either find an agreeable route or turn back. We decided to go up!
Well… Up was not the right way as it quickly became very loose 5th class that was not safe. A quick downclimb later, we realized that it was right. We had to cross the small snow down into the gulley and traverse over a small rib to the next gulley. With our axes out, we made our 50’ trip up the next gulley with the only other amount of snow for the day (noting that one guy behind us was able to climb around the snow to the left with no axe on questionable terrain). The snow in the gulley was bullet proof and we quickly passed up and continued our way up.
After the gulley the terrain remained at sustained 3rd class to the windy summit. Yay… #50 of 58 for me. As soon as we got there, I made a quick call to the wife. She said she could see the progress all of the way up with the spot inside of my pack and see us sitting on the summit. We didn’t stay long due to the wind and headed back down. In no time at all, we were back at the Blue Lakes saddle and on our way back down at a decent rate.
Coming into the trees, we got an unbelievable view of the Glacier Blue Lower Blue Lake. I couldn’t believe my eyes at how blue this lake looked. It was determined that it was a must that we jumped in. I didn’t get any pics of the lake jump because I got a video but all 3 of us took the plunge and it was as always so so so so refreshing after a long day on the trail.
Continuing down the trail from the lower lake, I got a good shot of the ridge we had done for the day up to Sneffels.
A short time later we were back to the car and with the recommendation from a Montrose local at the Trailhead, we stopped into Colorado Boy Brewery for some pizza and beer before returning to telluride. I would recommend anyone in the area stopping into the joint as I was impressed with both their beer and pie making abilities.
Day 2: El Diente Peak (14,159’) to Mt. Wilson (14,246’) Traverse
Route: Kilpacker Basin Approach to the South slopes route of El Diente, traversing across to Mt. Wilson and down the less traveled South Slopes route back into Kilpacker.
Mileage: ~14 Miles
Elevation Gain: ~5000’
Partners: J and G
Start:6 AM Finish 6 PM
The trip continued on day 2 with J accidently setting his alarm for 4 AM instead of 3 AM. The benefit of living in Telluride is that you don’t have to camp anywhere. If you have a friend in Telluride, you at least have a couch to sleep on and if you are lucky like myself that friend has a comfy couch. J awoke me at 4 AM and said we slept a little long but I was happy to have an extra hour of sleep. The 3 of us left for lizard head pass and on to the Kilpacker TH to step off at 6AM. I would usually be worried about a start this late for a route like this but I knew the forecast was absolutely perfect for the day. We decided to start with me at the front because of my blister problem from the day before. This time, I was just wearing the approach shoes instead of the boots as we figured the south slopes would be completely void of snow with the lack this year. Looking at reports of the same time last year, some folks were turned around at around 13K due to poor snow conditions. With a little wheezing in my lungs and toughing out the heels, we made the El Diente sign to turnoff to Kilpacker basin.
A short time later, we get our views and the obligatory pictures of the famous kilpacker waterfall as the Apenglow was on the summit of our first goal of the day.
Making our way left of the waterfall up the steady incline; we were finally in the sun and taking our first rest. I applied some sunscreen and drank some water since I had 64 oz of water for the day instead of 32.
10 mins later the 3 of us were off leaving our shadows below.
Nearing 12,600’ and remembering Roach’s advice to not be tempted to leave the trail below 12,800’ the route was becoming more apparent and we began to angle at the weakness in the cliff bands.
Beginning to move left after the reddish rib, the route steepened but was surprisingly not as loose as we thought it would be. We made our way towards the organ pipes that we could now see. Note: There are actually 2 sets of organ pipes on the ridge. You are aiming toward the smaller left set that is closer to El Diente.
Arriving at the Organ Pipes in the route description, you can look towards Mt. Wilson and see the larger pipes.
Making our way through the notch and continuing up and left, we made the ridge proper and got our first view of Navajo Basin and tomorrow’s goal, Wilson Peak and the Rock of Ages Saddle. The snow in Navajo was much less than we had imagined it would be. From here we continued up the right/north side of the ridge as described in the route descriptions to meet up with the standard route finish on el diente from the Navajo basin side. This was the loosest, wettest and scariest part of the day as we made our way across and made El Diente. #51 of 58 for me.
We rested and I sent an OK message from the SPOT tracker as we took in the views. Here is a look at sneffels from the day before.
And the ridge we were about to do. I was finally about to start my 4th of the 4 Great 14er Traverses. After being so sketched on the final ascent to El Diente, We decided to take a direct ridge descent back to the traverse. This proved to be well worth it and I wished we came up that way. The ridge was 3rd to low 4th class with more exposure than the other way but was much more solid. My advice is do this ridge for the ascent and descent. If you can’t handle the exposure here, don’t bother with the traverse because it is only a taste of what the traverse has to offer. You will also spare climbers on the northern routes from Navajo from any unnecessary rock fall as even for the most careful of folks it is hard to keep rocks from careening down that north face.
We quickly met back up with the point where we would descend back below the organ pipes and began our descent the way we came up.
After the smaller organ pipes, we began to ascend back just below the ridge line still on the south side and near the larger organ pipes that roach recommends rapping down when traversing the other way or climbing below to the south. We really wanted to maintain the ridge and climb the pipes but we didn’t feel comfortable without seeing the other side. We opted for the safer bet of dropping to the right side. There were some exposed 3rd class moves across the side but not bad. After going around, we picked our way back to the ridge proper to see that we should have just gone up the pipes and stayed the ridge. Oh well… No loss but good to know for the future. I would say if you feel comfortable scrambling up to 5.5 unroped, than you should just stay on the ridge up through the pipes. If you don’t, just drop below. I assume either way would take about the same amount of time. We made it back to the ridge after passing the pipes and felt like we were still making good time.
Making good time on the ridge, we began to close the distance between the 2 teams ahead of us. I was wondering when this was going to feel like a “great traverse.”
Then it came. The fin just right of center we began to ascend the other side coming from Diente. At first you look up and say “No way is this 4th class.” We just contoured a little to the right and the 3rd class route began to pave its way up. Making it back onto the ridge the exposure came. It was the great rush with 1000’ + exposure on each side as we picked our way over where we caught the other groups. After the “Crux” ridge, you descend back to a gulley that you have to make it up to join the standard route from Mt. Wilson at the top for the finish.
This took a while as we waited for the groups ahead of us to ascend the dirty but dry gulley and finally the grand finish. If you have just done the traverse, the finish is about an equal difficulty and exposure. If you didn’t traverse, get ready for the ride because it is the crux of your day.
Only an hour and 45 minutes after leaving Diente, we made the entire traverse. It was a regular party with 7 folks all arriving to the summit within 10 minutes of each other. #52 of 58 for me.
A quick look at the dirty little nasty lizard head 5.8R as a future goal and then we were on our way to find a descent back into Kilpacker.
We ended up returning back to the south west facing gulley where the traverse meets the standard Mt. Wilson route and more or less descending the gulley back to kilpacker. In the center of the photo, you can see one patch of snow behind G that we had to pass. From coming down on our left, we found a safe enough scramble around the snow and then descended over quite possibly the loosest talus in the state. Below this at around 13,500’, we encountered a few snow fields that were kind of a must to cross. It was nice to have an axe but they were still solid enough that we weren’t post holing very much except for one incident where G (this was only his 3rd and 4th peaks of his 14er career) stepped in a bergschrund and the rocks cut his knee fairly badly. We butterfly stitched it up and threw on the ace bandage I have been carrying in my med kit for years and never used. He seemed to be alright so we continued our descent.
At this point I began to feel a shortness of breath that I have never felt in my life. Even though we were descending. I found myself breathing harder than our ascent and was only able to get about half the air I usually get with each breath. We rested for a few minutes and continued on. My situation worsened as we continued to descend. I was ok on just descending but any portion steeper than horizontal on all the little climbs coming out just about literally killed me. I had to take them super slow and had to concentrate on my breathing and force each breath. J offered to carry my pack but I declined and said not til I can’t walk on my own. I have never felt anything like this before. My wheezing from the morning turned into what I guess was asthma. It felt like I was breathing through a straw with a lot of pressure on my chest. It was all just weird because I have never had asthma in my life. I have run marathons, half marathons, climbed several peaks and even survived a tour in the Marines with a near perfect Physical fitness test with a 3 mile run in 18 minutes, 19 dead hang pull-ups, and 100 full sit-ups in less than 2 minutes. It was just a weird anomaly I guess. Perhaps it was a combination of not enough exercise lately since I have been working 60 hour weeks and quitting smoking cigars and pipes a few weeks ago. I literally just made these 3 san Juans in 2 days off the couch as they say.
We made our way below the waterfall and back into the trees and I was still feeling the same.
After arriving back to the car, I was relieved but I figured my trip was over after this incident and I may be visiting the Telluride Urgent Care facility if my condition didn’t get better. We stopped in for some Dirty Mexican at La Casita in telluride. It is in no way affiliated with the La casita chain but was great genuine Mexican food. My condition didn’t get better. Originally, my plan was to meet Fepic from this site and his partner at 3AM the next day to do Wilson Peak with them before they continued on over to Mt. Wilson. After resting on J’s couch for several hours and recovering, I realized it was already 11PM. I knew Fepic wouldn’t have service for me to tell them I wouldn’t make it for the 3AM start. I couldn’t even get up to take a shower. I was glad that Fepic already had a partner and they weren’t counting on me to make the ascent to not be solo or something. I hate ditching on people after we agree on plans and I try to never do that but this was one of those situations where I wasn’t going to make it and had no way to tell them. I had a rough night’s sleep on the couch as I coughed and wheezed and tossed and turned and figured I was going home the next morning.
Day 3: Wilson Peak (14,017’)
Route: New Silver Pick Trailhead for the Rock Of ages trail up the standard west ridge route.
Mileage: ~9 Miles
Elevation Gain: ~3900’
Partners: Solo
Start:8:45 AM Finish 3:45 PM
After my long night of wheezing and coughing, J awoke me sometime before 5:30 AM and said to come outside. The neighbor’s house was on fire. I jumped off the couch, extended my heels to crack the blisters and ran outside with bleeding heels to see the largest house fire I had ever seen. There were already 2 fire trucks and several firefighters shooting water at the blazing house and it the flames weren’t even being phased. This was almost just right across the street. I started to wonder if I needed to move my vehicle or pack my bags because the fire might spread. There were several neighbors outside watching and it sounded like no one was in the house or harmed by the fire. The firefighters eventually had to focus efforts on the house next door to prevent that one from going down as well.
After seeing that the fire was under control, I decided to take a shower before putting my tail between my legs and returning home several days earlier than planned due to my blisters and now asthmatic condition. I felt much better after my shower and figured I would give Wilson peak a shot. Worst case, I would see how I felt and if it was bad off the start, I could bail and still go home. I drove to the trailhead. It felt weird to start at 8:45 AM on a 14er? Was I stupid? I knew I was going to be solo and slower than normal. I also knew the weather forecast was once again absolutely stellar. I stepped off from the new Rock of Ages Trailhead at around 10,400’ and started my way up through the trees. Surprisingly, I felt great all of the way to past 11,000’. I got my first views of the summit and the saddle and felt like the day was going to go. Another worry about a later start is the danger of softening snow and postholing and wetslab avalanches. I did see Fepic’s vehicle at the Trailhead along with 2 other vehicles so I at least I wouldn’t be alone on the mountain.
One step at a time, I made my way up the old mining roads to the saddle. There was an unavoidable snowfield for about 700 of the last 1000’ up to the saddle between 12 and 13K. Luckily there were already good steps cut as I used my axe and approach shoes knowing the boots would kill the day. I made the saddle quickly and saw the Diente (Right) to Mt. Wilson (Left) traverse from yesterday.
I was now confident I could do this as I looked toward the next notch. It was farther than I thought it would be but it went fast to that next notch.
From the next notch, I was standing on the ridge to Gladstone. With an earlier start, I probably would have gone for Gladstone but I was lucky to even get 1 mountain this day. I could now see much of the remaining route to the summit. The red line was roughly my route. There isn’t a lot of cairns but after dropping off the notch/saddle and trending up the ridge, there was a short 3rd class section across solid rock and the faint trail appeared. My advice is just go across the 3rd class and you will run into the trail as you start to ascend the ridge.
I followed the trail as it stayed just below the ridge proper on the way up.
Finally you come to the false summit where even though I knew it was the false summit, I wasn’t prepared for how much was left to go after this point. I guess unprepared wasn’t the right term. I was happy for the amount of 3rd class scrambling but it was just more than I was hoping to see. When things looked too hard, I would stay left. When the rock got too brittle, I moved back right. The red line was my approximate route to the summit.
On the summit I was greeted by 2 lovely ladies from the telluride area. They were also enjoying the beautiful weather. We talked eachother into taking pictures for one another. I got my nice self-portrait on top of #53 of 58 with my last traverse in the background from the day before.
We all 3 descended the 3rd class portion together before we parted ways. I wanted to move a little faster with plans to drive to the aspen area and climb some Elks for the next few days. I made hasty time on the way down and got one last pic of this old mining structure rubble before returning to the car.
At less than 7 hours after leaving the car, I was done with the third day. I couldn’t believe it. I was pretty tired but felt up for continuing the trip. I started heading to Aspen. I got to drive over McClure Pass CO133 to Carbondale. This was my first time being blessed with driving this beautiful road. At about 9:30PM I finally arrived at the Castle Creek Road start to find my partner for the next few days waiting. After meeting each other, we were quickly asleep in preparation for a 4AM wakeup and a 4:30 start up Castle and Conundrum the following day.
In order to not have several separate Trip reports for this adventure but not a massively long one either that will cause folks to lose interest, I have decided to break this up into 2 parts between the San Juans here and the Elks which is Part 2. Once Part 2 is ready, I will post the link here so you can see how I fared through the second half of my journey through the 14er Massacre.
Part 2 Here - 14ers.com version
Until then, thanks for reading and…
See you at the top!
