Wilson Group Dilemma

[ThuChad]

I'll be attempting the Wilson Group in August and I'm having trouble deciding how to tackle it. I have two days to complete the group.

My two options are as follows:

(A) 2 days
Day 1: Wilson Peak from ROA TH. 9.25 miles and 3800 ft. of vert
Day 2: El Diente from Kilpacker, Traverse to Wilson, descend the backside of Wilson back to Kilpacker. ~ 14 miles and 5000 ft of vert. ???

(B) 1 day
Day 1: ROA TH to Wilson Peak, Wilson Peak to Mount Wilson, Traverse to El Diente, Descend to Kilpacker. ~13 miles and 6500 ft of vert. ???


The reason I ask is doing them all in one push would save 10 miles and 2300 ft of vert by my rough calculations. I will have access to two cars so I can drop one at Kilpacker on the way to ROA. I've come up with 3 different ways to bail if I have to before the traverse on the single day push. Once I begin the traverse I'm pretty much committed. I'll be in Marathon shape. Thoughts?

[gonzalj]

Option A. El diente/mt. wilson from navajo basin looks scary as hell based on the slope angles and all the horrible rotten loose rock I've seen.

[ThuChad]

Gotcha. Relative safety of the route should definitely be a factor.

[Jim Davies]

Last year we did El Diente from Kilpacker, moved our camp, then Mt Wilson from Navajo. I thought doing the traverse opened us up to too many safety issues, so taking an extra day seemed prudent. I didn't like either option of descending Wilson to Kilpacker, or climbing El Diente from Navajo - both options seemed excessively dangerous to me, at least when they're dry. We'll make another trip in the future to do Wilson Peak from ROA (we could have done it on the same trip last year but decided we'd had enough fun already ).

[MonGoose]

My understanding is that everyone does the traverse El Diente --> Mount Wilson, but I can't remember why. Can someone fill me in?

[scottfarish]

I'm in the same dilemma... looking to do all three in early August, but would rather make it a longer trip (2 one day, 1 the next) if it means using safer routes. I'd be interested to hear opinions from people here on what the ideal combination and route order would be to climb the three.

[KeithK]

(A) 2 days
Day 1: Wilson Peak from ROA TH. 9.25 miles and 3800 ft. of vert
Day 2: El Diente from Kilpacker, Traverse to Wilson, descend the backside of Wilson back to Kilpacker. ~ 14 miles and 5000 ft of vert. ???

This would be my choice if I were to ever go back... although I hold out hope that a gust of wind will knock down El Diente and remove it from "the list".

I'm in the same dilemma... looking to do all three in early August, but would rather make it a longer trip (2 one day, 1 the next) if it means using safer routes. I'd be interested to hear opinions from people here on what the ideal combination and route order would be to climb the three.

I think equal consideration is weather. If there are heavy rains in the area, especially mid-summer, it can take a while to stabilize. Reference summer of 2010 and Homie's experience from last year.

[ChrisinAZ]

My thoughts:

We did Wilson Pk from ROA on day 1, then the traverse and back out ROA on day 2 (we didn't have a shuttle). Going back over the pass at the end of the day was less sh**ty than descending the far side of it, IMO. It's doable but tiring. I would also strongly recommend going from El Diente TO Mt Wilson for several reasons--El D is not a mountain I'd want to downclimb, the crux of the traverse is easier going toward Mt Wilson, and the crux of Mt Wilson itself is old hat by the time you reach it after the traverse.

With a car shuttle, my personal recommendation would be: start at ROA, do Wilson Pk day 1, hike down and around to Kilpacker. Day 2, do the S Slopes route up El D, traverse to Wilson, descend back into Kilpacker (there are ways to do this, I don't know the details), break camp, hike out to the Kilpacker TH.

I'd say camp in Navajo Basin the first night and go up the North Buttress route to El D (relatively solid, class 4 near the top), but this means you'd either have to come down the Navajo side of Wilson with a longer camp, hike all the way back to Navajo Basin on your way out from Kilpacker, or carry all your camping gear with you on the traverse (which I wouldn't recommend).

[MountainMedic]

Dunno where you're getting your mileage quotes from - maybe it's right, but looks off to me. Doing all three in one day is pretty miserable, but doable. I would highly recommend going Kilpacker-Diente-Traverse-Mt. Wilson-RoA Saddle-Wilson Peak-RoA TH. The descent off of Mt. Wilson is the worst part, but once you're down you get a nice rest before the class 3 on Wilson Peak. I did this last summer and it wound up being an 18 mile, 7500 vert, 15 hour slogfest. Fortunately, Fisching was kind enough to descend back to Kilpacker from South Wilson and pick me up at RoA...

Greg and I thought the traverse wasn't terrible, although Diente to Mt. Wilson is certainly the way to go. On the Mt. Wilson side of the traverse there's a drop into a very short but very loose gully, with decent handholds on the side. Much easier to ascend than descend. Also, the summit block of Mt. Wilson (if coming from the traverse and not going around to the standard) has two cruxes, a 4 and a 5. When Greg and I did it there was a team roped up on the 4, so we opted to do the 5. An easy maneuver, but stupid exposed.

[spiderman]

Skip the El Diente-Wilson traverse. The rock near Wilson is rotten and two people in my party almost got killed by a rockfall. Not worth it in my books.

[gonzalj]

Skip the El Diente-Wilson traverse. The rock near Wilson is rotten and two people in my party almost got killed by a rockfall. Not worth it in my books.

When I was on the summit of wilson peak (the route from ROA is very fun & unless you get off route, not bad at all) I saw a huge rockfall collapse just below the el d/mt. wilson ridge. It was below the ridge, but started on the upper part of the slopes and went all the way down to navajo basin. I'm not sure what set it off, but know that the slopes below that ridge are scary as hell. I've heard stories that even though it's exposed, that the rock on the ridge is relatively solid. I don't have experience on that particular part, so will let others chime in on their experiences, but would stay the hell away from those navajo basin slopes.

[jeremycu]

We did Option A last weekend. It worked fine. El Diente and the traverse were not as bad as their reputation, IMHO. We did EL-MW on day one and did WP on day two. We wanted the less tired legs on the traverse. Coming down MW wasn't that bad. A couple of spots were pretty loose but just took it slow. It's a big day for all 3.