El Diente - 14,159 ft
'El Diente y la Nieve Nueva'
Date: 9-10-2006
Climbers: George Barnes, MarkDB, Nate Stutzke
Route: South Slopes II, Class 3
RT distance: 12.0 miles
RT time: 10 hours 50 minutes
Elevation gain: 4,100 feet
USGS Quadrangles: Mount Wilson
Trip Report:
Después de irse de oro poco después los 6AM alcanzamos el trailhead de Kilpacker alrededor de P.M. 1:30. La impulsión abajo no había estado animando también, siempre que las nubes las rompieran revelaran nieve nueva significativa en todos los altos picos.
Just kidding... After leaving Golden shortly after 6AM we reached the Kilpacker trailhead around 1:30 PM. The drive down hadn't been too encouraging, whenever the clouds broke they revealed significant new snow on all the high peaks. The forecast was for rain, snow, and thunderstorms all weekend and it seemed like the NWS may have gotten it right.
Our plan was to backpack into Kilpacker Basin to get a head start on the El Diente to Wilson traverse. By the time we got our hiking boots on and trekking poles out it was starting to rain. After several hours of waiting the skies showed no signs of letting up, so we headed to Telluride for some non-freeze dried food. Sleeping in the truck and day hiking the peaks was sounding better than backpacking anyway, though no one was excited about the requisite 3:30AM start.
When we got back to the TH at 6:30PM the sun made a brief appearance, but backpacking and setting up camp in the dark were quickly ruled out. We snapped a few sunset shots of a snowy El Diente and then headed for bed with alarms set for 3AM.
We awoke (or in my case stopped pretending to sleep) to patches of clear sky and a near full moon. Matt informed us he wouldn't be joining us as he had spent the night trying not to vomit in his tent. Though it wasn't raining, the trail was still a slip 'n' slide of mud, and the brush along the trail was dripping wet.
I had been at or near sea level for the past three weeks, so I was happy when I could still keep up with Mark as we headed up the roller coaster of a trail. Not sure what to expect, I was schlepping winter gear, my ice axe, and 30m of rope... a noticeable change from my summer day pack!
We finally reached tree line as the eastern skies started to lighten. We stopped at 12,200 feet to filter water and fuel up for the coming 2,000 feet of gain over about half a mile. It was readily apparent that summer was over as we all put on balaclavas, I found my down jacket, and Mark added toe warmers.
We followed the now snow covered trail to ~12,600 where we turned left up the scree slopes. The snow was actually welcome here, as it helped hold the scree together. My disposition may have been influenced by the pre-made snow steps I was following... thanks Nate! Despite not having gaiters, Nate led almost all the way to the ridge.
Closer to the ridge the climbing became more interesting, and we put our poles on our packs so we could have two hands free for climbing. Near the ridge I took the lead, thinking the summit was a short distance away. As you might expect, I got what I deserved, and got to put the first steps in numerous traverses on snowy class 3 ledges with attention getting drops into Navajo Basin. The view of the traverse from this vantage was pretty daunting, especially with the new snow and low clouds. We decided that the traverse looked like an all day epic, so we decided we'd settle for just El D.
It seems like you climb all the way around the summit before you top out on El Diente, but we finally reached the summit block, only to discover the register has gone missing. We stayed long enough to snap a few pictures, then headed down, anxious to cover the difficult sections before the weather broke.
Back in the basin we made our way down the talus trail to tree line. Rain looked imminent, but we manage to make it all the way to the trailhead before the downpour started. We didn't get the traverse we'd planned, but I did get #54/59, Mark got #58, Nate got #21, and Matt got a 14 hour car ride and a night in a tent.
