Wilson Peak

After my first climb of the season was aborted due to high winds along the west ridge to Tabeguache Peak, for my next attempt I thought I would try Wilson Peak near Telluride. Wilson Peak is one of the most iconic and recognized peaks in Colorado, despite the fact that no one seems to know where it is or its name. Used in many ads and commercials, it is probably most known as the peak on the Coors cans (as viewed from near Telluride).

This time, the day of my climb was a gorgeous day, which I was glad of since I was fully exhausted and not moving very fast by the end of the day. The approach from the Rock of Ages trailhead follows an old mining road southeast to well above timberline. It crossed several snow fields where I got to break in my new micro-spikes. After the road ended, I still had a couple more snow fields to cross and one very large snow field to traverse before reaching the saddle. It took me only 3:20 to hike the four miles to the saddle at 13,000'. I was feeling good!

From the Rock of Ages saddle I crossed over to another saddle, which allowed me to see the rest of the route. Well, I could see the summit, but as for a trail, that seemed to be missing. In places there was nothing that resembled a trail, and in others a multitude of choices that were probably nothing more than the result of melting snow and water flow. I tried to stay high up and close to the ridge, but had to be extra careful because a couple of other climbers from Spokane were taking a route below me.

About halfway along I reached the ridge where a faint trail crosses over and climbs up to a false summit. At that point, I would "just" need to descend a bit and then climb back up to the true summit. Instead I began questioning my sanity, as there didn't appear to be a trail, much less anything that looked like a passable route. I made my way down and over to the base where I could now see that the remaining climb wasn't nearly as exposed or dangerous as it looked from a distance. The "trail" goes up the dark line from the center snow patch to the 1:00 position in the picture.

It took just over two hours to go the last mile! From the summit I got a great view of Mt. Wilson (14,246') and El Diente Peak (14,159') just to the southwest—they are my goal in a couple weeks. I plan on climbing them on the 4th of July weekend from Kilpacker basin on the south side. And yes, Wilson Peak and Mt. Wilson were both named after the same person—A.D. Wilson, the chief topographer of the USGS back in 1879.

I have another reason to return to this area though—the Russell Stover factory store in Montrose was closed when I went through.

Pictures

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