Dolores County High Point Trip Report

Date: August 14, 2003
Author: Layne Bracy

Tired from the previous day's hike, I still wanted to try to get a bite of Wilson. I had driven in late, arriving at the Silver Pick trailhead at midnight. The road was rough but passable for my Toyota Corolla. My alarm rang at 5 AM. I ignored it. I heard one party leave, then a second. At 6 AM I dragged my body out of the tent and started hiking at 6:26 AM.

The initial few miles are up a nice road. I passed a group of three who were heading to Wilson Peak. They said another guy or two were going to Mount Wilson. I really wanted to do the Mount, as I was trying to do the more difficult peaks while the summer holds up. I arrived at the Rock of Ages Saddle (13,000 feet) at 8:12 AM. My body pleaded for me to do the Peak. Request denied! I descended into the basin. As I got low, the trail seemed that it would lead endlessly to the west. Near the bottom (12,300 feet), I cut off-trail across to the grassy shoulder I needed to hit. Soon enough I found cairns again and headed up a decent climber's trail.

As Gerry Roach mentions, below the ridge the route starts traversing right, across the north slope. Finally I cut up and scrambled on some exposed ridge. Too soon! I was on a nice pointy peak, but the summit was down to a saddle and up a couple hundred more feet. I continued a high traverse, eventually reaching the correct notch. From there it got interesting. I started up the ridge which runs southwest to the summit, then got spooked off it by exposure. I climbed down a little, then mustered courage and went up again to the ridge. It was still dicey, and I peered through a gap in the ridge to its west side (the El Diente side). Unbelievably, I saw a fellow 30 feet to my right and 10 feet down! He was climbing up some rock with solid ledges and holds but very exposed and very vertical.

He didn't notice me, and I was afraid of making him fall if I said anything. Still, I worried he might look over and get shocked anyway. So, at a point when he looked stable, I said, "Hey, how's it going?" Fortunately, he did not fall from the surprise. He then asked if this was the summit. I told him it looked to be about 30 feet above him and he was very happy. I was still concerned about my ascent, and continued to traverse up and over to the left on some very solid but exposed rock. Nice long holds to grab. Summitted at 10:21 AM!

Mark, the other guy, made it about 2 minutes later. He had also come from Silver Pick, then missed the trail on the grassy shoulder. He had then ascended loose muddy stuff which was probably only 100 yards to the right of the trail, on what he thought was Dawson's winter route. Very arduous terrain. He finally reached the ridge at a notch, but after a short while realized he was on the traverse heading to El Diente. His notch was the first prominent one to the right of Mount Wilson, sort of a double notch with some chock stones in the middle. Realizing his error, he then did a hairy traverse that led him to the position I found him in. Interesting that with our leaving camp over an hour apart and then doing different ascents, we summitted within a couple minutes of each other.

We nervously enjoyed the summit for 15 minutes, neither wanting to descend our ascent routes. We concurred that it was better to descend mine, which we did slowly working together. We went back down the ridge a little ways, then found a direct route off. By using this route up one could minimize some of the exposed stuff I did, though not all. (One would just traverse left more before ascending.)

We hiked back into the basin and up to the Rock of Ages saddle again, which we hit at 12:45 PM. The sky was clear, and Wilson Peak was probably only a 1.5 - 2 hour detour. However, I was tired and I had a long drive home. I figured that this 2 hours would seem very precious tonight. If I hadn't had to work the next day I surely would have done the Peak, but in perhaps the most surprising decision of the week I decided to leave it for another day when I would enjoy it more. The 14ers have certainly dominated my life this summer, but I drew the line this time. I'll be back!

I hit the trailhead again at 2:10 PM, had some MRE pasta with veggies, and drove back to Brighton.