On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Good morning everyone,
We continue today with Wag’s submission. Have a great weekend, everyone!
Welcome to Part 2
After our fun day on Wilson Peak, we were looking forward to more high altitude fun. After a recovery night at a hotel in the town of Ridgway (and an excellent meal at the Colorado Boy Pub and Brewery), we drove to our next trailhead at Kilpacker Basin.
In the late afternoon od the 30th we hiked in about 3 miles up Kilpacker Basin and set up camp in a beautiful meadow. It was late in the summer, but here were still a few wildflowers to be found
When climbing 14er’s it is imperative to start early in order to be off the mountain by early afternoon so you can avoid getting caught by a thunderstorm while on an exposed ridge. we left camp at 5, and hiked high into the Basin to 12,600 ft and the trail split. We started up just as the alpenglow was highlighting our first peak, El Diente, 1500 ft above. Our route wended its way up the talus slopes, then traversed the cliffs above on ledges, aiming for the ridge where the sunlight hit the ridge on the right side of the summit block. From there we circled to the other side of the ridge, approaching the summit from the north.
It sounds complicated, but not as complicated as the upcoming traverse to Mt Wilson
From the summit of El Diente we had a great view of our upcoming traverse to Mt Wilson.
The next summit was only a mile away…
Once we left the ridge we had to traverse beneath a formation named the Organ Pipes, a series of fluted cliffs above us and out of the picture. From here we got a good view of our next objective, the high ridge ahead
A photo of another couple that we met along the way as they worked their way along the crest of the ridge to Mt Wilson, which dominates the skyline behind.
The traverse from El Diente to Mt Wilson was only a mile, but with the difficult route finding and exposure it took us 3 hours. This is a shot back on the ridge. If you zoom in on the crest of the ridge you can see a pair of dots, one white, the other green. The dots are the helmets of another pair of climbers following behind us.
The view from the summit, looking north towards Wilson Peak, our climb 2 days previous. On the skyline you can also see, from left to right, Mt Sneffels, Wetterhorn Peak, and Uncompahgre Peak, three other 14er’s in the San Juans.
After our descent from Mt Wilson, we came back to our campsite in the Basin, packed up, and hiked out. Here is a final view back at El Diente.
p.a.
Wow. My ankles hurt just looking at some of the ground you travelled.
JPL
Whoa! You must have some good hiking boots. Thank you for sending in the pictures.
Mary G
I cannot even imagine myself climbing that jumble of loose rocks at that attitude. The meadow with the wildflowers is more my speed.
Luciamia
Those wildflowers, looked like belladona.
Amir Khalid
Does 14er mean the mountain is 14,000-something feet high?
satby
Wow. A view of mountains most of us will never get from this perspective, thanks!
Steeplejack (phone)
@Amir Khalid:
Yes
ETA: https://www.14ers.com/about.php
Raven
On my first honeymoon we got on the saddle headed to the peak of Mt Quandry when one of those afternoon thunderstorms rolled in. We skeedaddled!
frosty
Wow, that’s some impressive hiking, and stunning views. To do it at that altitude is even more impressive.
Mustang Bobby
Thank you for reminding me of some of my favorite summers spent taking kids on hikes through Rocky Mountain National Park, including taking a hardy troop up Longs Peak in 1981.
Baud
I just assumed everyone here was as out of shape as me.
sherparick
@Amir Khalid: Yep. Here is a map of the San Juan Mountains of Colorado if you are interested where these beautiful pictures were taken. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Juan_Mountains#/media/File:SanJuanMountainsMap.png
Steeplejack
@Baud:
I got tired looking at the pictures.
jimmiraybob
Excellent way to start a morning.
I was sitting on top of Mt. Missouri a few years ago when suddenly my hair literally stood on end. It was overcast but not raining or storming and no thunder or lightning yet. I believe that I was sitting on top of a USGS marker. I never moved so fast to get to lower ground.
Thanks.
arrieve
Something I will never do, and somehow I am content in that knowledge. But I’m so glad to see what it looks like! I especially love the view from the summit. Thank you for sharing.
sab
@Baud: I assure you that I am. I don’t even hike the old climb 250 ft up to the top of my dog’s favorite hill.
Victor Matheson
@jimmiraybob: yeah, a couple of times I have been up there, you could literally hear static buzzing off of the rocks and once off of the ice axe I was carrying. Scary!
Congrats on the traverse! I went Wilson to El Diente when I climbed it long ago. I remember packing in with gear over the pass to the other Wilson, climbing that one and then camping in the basin below Wilson and El Diente before doing the traverse. It snowed on us in July and I ate the best Kraft Mac and Cheese I have ever had while huddled in the tent.
A Ghost To Most
This is our favorite place, and likely our next home (Ridgway).
For the record, it is much easier to drive up in a capable 4×4, and then just wander around. It is also much safer later in the day, when the thunderstorms build, since you brought a Faraday cage to hide in.
Props for walking up. The air is thin up there.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Holy moly. My thighs are screaming just looking at that climb. Also that first pic is startlingly lovely.
Cowry
Thanks for the views. Always thought doing a 14er or two would be a challenge. Now I see why but I had no real idea of the scope. I’ll keep to the moderate trails and explore.
jimmiraybob
@A Ghost To Most:
I did a road trip with friends earlier this summer (before tourist season) and we stayed a night in a Yert at the state park. Then stayed a few nights in Silverton – stayed at the Bent Elbow. I got the Bordello Room. Hope to get back in the area and do some hiking/backpacking this year.
Elizabelle
Incredible photos. The closest I will ever get to a 14er. (Unless helicoptered in.)
Hike on, wag.
TaMara (HFG)
Great photos! I will admit – while I was married there was talk of climbing Longs Peak. But then good sense took over and I got divorced. ? Seriously, props to for this. I love my mountain hikes, but they are all a little shorter.
cope
@Raven: A December attempt of Quandary was my first attempt at a fourteener. I wrote about that aborted climb in a reply to a post some time ago. The rest of my party made the summit that day but I had to wait until the next summer to make it to the summit. I was mightily suffering from the altitude having just come a few days earlier from Illinois.
I love the San Juans. My family is all in Grand Junction and my wife and daughter and I even managed to live in Durango for a time.
sgrAstar
I’ve done that traverse- it’s beautiful. Thanks for sharing your photos. For all you 14er curious juicers- there are 54 (?) 14ers in Colorado. A lot are very easy walks, all are gorgeous. Worth the effort!
?
StringOnAStick
@cope: Quandry’s South ridge makes it usually walkable year round but the east face has avalanche danger in the winter; it’s a great spring ski though and I’ve done it many times. Unfortunately global warming means we haven’t had consistent corn snow for at least 10 years now for all the CO big peaks so the spring skiing season isn’t as good or as long now. I’m still getting my strength back after replacing both knees so not this spring but I’ll be back up there after next winter.
I’m also from Grand Junction, we may know each other or mutual friends.
Victor Matheson
@Cowry: Don’t be fooled by this peak. Wilson and el Diente are both easily among the top 10 hardest 14ers, and the ridge between the two is one of the great accomplishments.
There are numerous climbs that are no more than moderate hikes on easy paths (albeit in really thin air). Try Bierstadt or Sherman for the experience with no technical experience required (with the caveat that you need to leave early to beat the storms no matter the difficulty of the peak.)
Elizabelle
@sgrAstar: Which are the easy walks? (If you’re serious there.) I could handle something like that.
What Wag and partner did? Uh, no.
Elizabelle
@Victor Matheson: Bierstadt and Sherman. Will read up. Thank you! I heart Colorado.
A Ghost To Most
@jimmiraybob: We go there every chance we get. We were there for the first week of October, cruising the high roads until snow forced us down. Then we scouted houses in Ridgway & Ouray.
cope
@StringOnAStick: Cool about GJ. Both my brothers and both my sisters live there and have for 45+ years. My wife and I lived there until the 80s when we moved to Greeley for school (for me, changing careers). Sadly, our move to Florida ended up being our final move and, after 30 years here, we are still here. I always have been a mountain/desert kind of person and am loathe to explain my continued residence in the Mildew State.
On my winter Quandary attempt, as I wrote once before, we dropped down off the summit ridge while descending to get out of the wind and while crossing a wind-packed snow field, I slipped and took off on my back, headed for a rocky demise. Fortunately, I had an ice axe and with the stick figure images from Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills flashing through my brain, remembered how to do a self arrest and pulled it off with only bruised ego as an injury.
WaterGirl
@cope: Holy shit. Glad you had the presence of mind to be able to save yourself.
cope
@WaterGirl: I was very cold, very tired and the whole event played out in slow motion in my head. I had never practiced a self-arrest with an ice axe but the relevant sketches from the mountaineer’s bible popped into view. I followed every step: rolled on my stomach, grabbed the head of the ice axe with one hand over the top so it wouldn’t get jerked out, turned it so the narrow pick end was in play and then repeatedly jammed it into and out of the snow until I came to a stop. I don’t think I ever even thought about what could happen to me, I just did what I knew to do to save myself. Lesson: reading about things you think you might never have to do can actually be worth the effort.
WaterGirl
@cope: It’s harrowing just to read your account of it! Sketches popping into view, you having it together enough to do what you were seeing. It seems counterinteuitive to pull the axe out of the ice – repeatedly – in order to save yourself.
Your presence of mind is impressive.
It’s like a car accident I had decades ago; they told me the only reason I was alive was my seatbelt and the huge bruise I had from that. My mom would not even pull our vehicle out of the driveway unless seatbelts were on. All those years later, with my mom long gone, she saved my life. Reading that book saved yours. Life is weird.
cope
@WaterGirl: Life is weird for sure. It was the text accompanying the line drawings that explained that if you jammed the ice axe in all at once, it would get yanked out of your grasp so slowing down had to be done incrementally. I remembered that at the time and it sure worked for me.
I’m glad to hear your mom’s advice had a delayed benefit for you.
WaterGirl
@cope: Simply amazing. I imagine that changed your life, at least for awhile.
Wag
I’ve been in and out all day, and haven’t had a chance to comment and thank everyone for their kinds words. It really was a great climb.
@Luciamia:
It was a penstemon, a relative of the foxglove Penstemons are common in the Colorado mountains, and are a beautiful flower
@Steeplejack (phone):
14ers.com is our go-to source for information about climbing the high peaks in Colorado.
@Mustang Bobby:
Longs is maybe my favorite.
@jimmiraybob:
we climbed Missouri this summer as well. The ridge off the summit for the usual route would be a frightening place to be during a lightning storm. It’s a long mile before you’re able to drop off. Glad everything went well.
@Victor Matheson:
Any meal in a tent eaten while warm and dry during a storm is a meal to be savored.
@sgrAstar:
It depends on how much of a stickler you are for your definition of a “peak.” Using the hardcore definition, you’re right, 54 peaks. Also, by that definition, El Diente doesn’t qualify as a separate peak, because there isn’t enough difference between the summit of ED and the low point between the two peaks to satisfy the sticklers, hence ED is not a “real” 14er. I prefer the more liberal definition, which raises the number of qualifying peaks to 58.
@Elizabelle:
here’s a link on 14ers.com for routes on Sherman. It is a great hike
https://www.14ers.com/routelist.php?peak=Mt.+Sherman
@WaterGirl:
Testing the new build with multiple replies!
Wag
@WaterGirl: I think I broke the site with a comment that is in moderation. I tried to reply to everyone in a single comment. Can you please release me?
Thanks!
WaterGirl
@Wag: Good job replying to multiple people in one comment!
No worries, you were just a little bit over the limit of 7.
P.S. I took the liberty of removing some of the extra spaces that you didn’t need.
Wag
@WaterGirl: Thanks! Love the rebuild
WaterGirl
@Wag: Oh, yay!