El Diente Peak

I had an exciting long weekend planned for the unofficial end of summer. For the Labor Day holiday weekend I took an extra day off from work so that I could try and climb two peaks, and still allow time to backpack to/from my campsite and the long drive across the state. Yep, this was a repeat of my 4th of July trip, but this time with an extra day and a much better weather forecast.

The plan was to drive to the Kilpacker Basin trailhead (7 hours) and hike into my campsite on Saturday, climb El Diente Peak (14,159') on Sunday, Mt. Wilson (14,246') on Monday, and hike back out on Tuesday and drive home. As always seems to happen, traffic was worse than anticipated—this time a minivan broke down in the middle of the Glenwood Canyon construction zone with only one lane of traffic. I sat for half an hour along with hundereds of other drivers waiting for a tow truck to get there and get loaded up before traffic started moving again. Despite that delay, I made it to the trailhead with just enough time to hike to my campsite in the Kilpacker Basin and set up my tent before it got dark.

My alarm sounded at 5:00 a.m. and I joined the line of headlamps on the trail, making it to timberline about dawn. It was a gorgeous day as evidenced by about a dozen climbers taking the same route. A small amount of snow remained on the north side from where I turned around last time. As I summited, it was a bit crowded with at least another dozen climbers that had climbed up from the Navajo Lake side. Amazingly, I met on the summit the same couple that I hiked with on July 4th. They had also turned around in that hail storm and were back, like me, to complete the attempt.

Many of the groups on the summit planned to try the traverse from El Diente Peak to Mt. Wilson, but I didn't feel that route was safe to do alone, as it contains a few Class 4 sections. One group of young college students left the summit as I arrived and had already gone off-route twice when I caught up to them on my own descent. They said I was welcome to join them on the traverse, but they didn't inspire a lot of confidence, so I stuck with my plan to climb Mt. Wilson from the basin tomorrow. I continued to watch them struggle with their route finding along the traverse as I descended, and almost missed my own turn down the gully as a result.

Back at my campsite I was visited by some unknown animal. My first thought was that it was either a ferret or a mink, but I don't think either are native in this area or at this elevation. It was larger than a squirrel (black and smaller than city squirrels), blondish tan with a pinched inquisitive face. It was looking at me from behind a tree when it ran toward me to another tree, then disappeared. I never saw it again. Colorado's Small Mammals suggests that it may have been an ermine (short-tailed weasel) or a pine marten. Animals that I saw that I could actually identify include a fox, a 6-point buck, and either a ptarmigan or a grouse.

I did get a chance to stop in the Russell Stover factory store in Montrose on my way home. Unfortunately they were closing the store permanently just a few weeks later.

The difficulty classifications are defined as:

Class 1 —

Easy hiking - usually on a good trail.

Class 2 —

More difficult hiking that may be off-trail. The hiker may also have to put their hands down occasionally to maintain balance. The route may have exposure, loose rock, steep scree, etc.

Class 3 —

Scrambling or un-roped climbing. The climber must use their hands most of the time to hold the terrain or find the route. This difficulty may be caused by a combination of steepness and extreme terrain.

Class 4 —

Climbing. Handholds and footholds are required for upward or downward progress. Rope is sometimes used on Class 4 routes because falls can be fatal. The terrain is often steep and dangerous.

Class 5 —

Technical climbing. The climbing involves the use of rope and belaying. No standard 14er routes are rated class 5, but a few alternate routes include sections of technical class 5.

Pictures

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