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Aug 08, 2021 — Before you even start reading my trip report for this one, just know this is probably the least efficient route to get to Mount Wilson that exists. It includes the traverse from El Diente to Mount Wilson, but also a sustained, fun Class 4 ascent route to get to El Diente. It's more common that people approach these peaks and the traverse between them from the south via Kilpacker Basin, which seems far less pretty and interesting, and includes a steep descent from Mount Wilson on nasty terrain. That route would likely be a much shorter and less tiresome day. Matt and I enjoyed the Class 4 ascent to El Diente and the adventure it entailed, plus hiking past Navajo Lake was nicer than the much dryer-looking southern approach. Assuming you plan to do the route outlined in the attached map (north buttress of El Diente, traverse from El Diente to Mount Wilson, and then back down Mount Wilson's northern standard route), here goes.
I've read reports that the road coming in from the east is awful, but from the south through Dunton was well-graded, which was nice after my long-ass drive from Las Vegas. We set out along the Navajo Lake Trail, the wildfire smoke adding an interesting morning haze to the mostly meadowy approach landscape. After a couple of hours we made it to Navajo Lake, where trail crews had just finished reconstructing a trail that avoids the alpine grasses along the rim of Navajo Lake, instead redirecting hikers into the talus just north of the lake. The trail continues to ascend on the talus, but it's just easy walking since the rocks have all been placed (through likely the most tedious efforts imaginable) to create a trail to higher ground. Once we emerged onto flat ground, now out of the talus, we looked up toward El Diente.
I made a promise to myself that this Colorado trip won't have any Class 4 because I'm a bit tired of getting scared all the time in the mountains, but Matt convinced me to do the El Diente Traverse (hence today), and now he was about to convince me to attempt this Class 4 north buttress route to get to El Diente. I was feeling good, and agreed. We started south off the trail and boulder-hopped on Class 2 talus up the steepening slope. The rock became more loose and soon we were on Class 3. For the most part, we kept to the ridge crest, picking our way around loose boulders and slowly making our way up the extremely steep north face of El Diente. The route is consistently Class 2-3 until about 2/3 the way up, where the route became even more dangerous and very committing. I'll let photos below guide the route.
Once we made it to El Diente Peak, we took a long breather and agreed that if we got scared along the traverse, we could use one of the few bail points. However, we found the traverse from El Diente to Mount Wilson was trivial in comparison to the north buttress route we took. That's not to say the traverse is trivial; in fact, it's still quite dangerous. Though, we really enjoyed the Class 4 route from El Diente to Mount Wilson, which included lots of Class 2/3, a Class 4 headwall with solid rock, a mostly solid short knife edge, and plenty of micro-route-finding on dangerous terrain. Cairns marked the route when necessary and we got through the traverse much faster than anticipated. Photos below describe the route better.
Once we made it to the base of Mount Wilson, we discovered we still had some more serious scrambling to contend with. We made it to the northeast ridge of Mount Wilson, joining the standard northern route, and started along the crest to gain the summit. Whereas coming from the south would require only Class 3 to reach the summit, our route (and the standard northern route to Mount Wilson) requires Class 4. Matt went first, and after a long day of having our nerves twisted and adrenaline boosted, he backed off the Class 4, exposed final moves to the summit. We should have just committed and gone for the moves, but instead we attempted to find another route around the east face of Mount Wilson. I highly, highly recommend against doing this. It's steep and loose and horrifying and photos below might help deter you. Just take the standard route along the northeast ridge to get to Mount Wilson, and you can find photos of that specific move on other sites.
After reaching the summit of Mount Wilson, we backtracked and started down the long and tedious descent using the northern standard route. This involved Class 2/2+ talus on sometimes loose rock. Cairns led to the northeast and just below the ridge crest. It migh be tempting to descend immediately, but the rocks are loose and dangerous and it's better to just continue traversing northeast (see map). After a lot of boulder/talus-hopping, plus a couple of gullies to contend with, we found ourselves descending on a much more pleasant grassy slope using a social trail back into the valley housing Navajo Lake. Once off the talus (which honestly took less time than we thought it would) and completely off the grassy slope, we followed cairns through the alpine grasses and relocated the trail. We headed back to Navajo Lake along the trail and continued to our cars.
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