Mt. Wilson

I returned to Kilpacker Basin on July 4th weekend once more to try to climb Mt. Wilson again. I had been thwarted on two previous attempts, once by bad weather and once by smoke from the California wildfires that was so thick you couldn't see the other side of the valley.

I left town late on Friday, letting much of the holiday traffic clear out, and stopped in a rest area about halfway there as there was no need to push all the way to the trailhead. I got to the trailhead at a reasonable time to hike, avoiding the heat of the day, and any potential afternoon thunder-showers. Since I had hiked the trail three times now, I went on past the main camping area and got a nice one that was further up.

I had a relaxing afternoon and after making dinner, I took it up the hillside behind my campsite to enjoy the view while I ate. Probably the best dinner view ever! I went to bed early and set my alarm for a 5:00 am start.

I actually was on the trail on schedule. I only saw one headlamp way ahead of me, but I started getting passed by faster hikers behind me in short order. Only one group that passed me continued directly to Mt. Wilson, everyone else had turned off for El Diente Peak with plans to try the traverse. I helped one couple identify the trail to El Diente who I then learned used to live just a few blocks away from me.

There was still a good amount of snow in the valley up to Mt. Wilson. The group in front of me used it to go around a section of rocky trail, while I stayed on the trail through the rocks until snow completely blocked that route. As I got to the end of the valley, the route description directed taking the left gully to reach the crux of the climb. But that was full of snow, while the group ahead of me was struggling up the right gully that was dry. I decided to stay on route and on the snow. That turned into a prolonged struggle with increasingly steep and icy snow. I eventually crossed over to the base of the crux and made my way up to the summit, shortly behind the other group.

I descended the upper part of the route with the other group, this time taking the dry gully that was supposed to be avoided. Once back down to the snow, we glisaded down much of the snowfields , saving a little hiking.

If I had been up the next morning, I would have seen Andrew Hamilton hike past my campsite at 5:43 am on his quest to summit the 100 highest peaks in Colorado (The Centennials) in 20 days. He was starting day 9, already having completed 33 summits. Back in 2015 he successfully climbed all the 14ers in under 10 days. I'm looking at taking 37 years!

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