Wilson Peak Trip Report 07/16/2008

Peak(s):	Wilson Peak - 14,021 feet
Date Posted:	07/16/2008
Date Climbed:	07/10/2008
Author:	HIGH-KING

Wilson Peak in a day
.This is my first Trip Report for my first 14er.I'd wanted to climb a 14er for over a year. So when my sister(Mary) invited me along to visit her best high school friend(Nancy) who lives in Telluride, I chose Wilson Peak because its close to Telluride and has a southern exposed trail.We flew to Denver July 5 and hiked every day. July 10 we drove to Navajo Lake Trail Head and started hiking at 6:20AM. We reached the lake at 8:20AM and contiued up onto the rocky trail. You have to watch every step. Everything looked so familiar:The Basin,El Diente, Gladstone. We went up, the trail veers to the middle of the basin, off the talus, across some flat snow fields. The ROA Saddle and Wilson Peak spine can be seen.Switchbacks lead to The Saddle and then a fun hike to the saddle between Gladstone and Wilson Peak. Everything was going great. When we got to this second saddle we met three youths from Iowa who were turning back at this point. They used words like sketchy and technical to describe what they thought lay ahead. I knew better(thanks to 14ers.com) but Mary and Nancy had been spooked and decided to wait for me there. I hiked and climbed the rocky gravelly trail to the false summit. Two groups of three were coming down. Thier bright yellow ropes showed me the way up just like Bill Middlebrooks route descriptions blue lines. As I waited my turn another hiker showed up at the false summit. It was Nancy! But upon seeing the ropes see decided again to go no higher. From the false summit I climbed down about thirty feey(staying to the right) and then climbed up where I saw the yellow rope people come down. I did it! It was Easy. It was fun. I yelled over to Nancy,"You can do it. So she went for it and in five minutes we were both standing on the summit(12:20PM). We were only 2/3 happy though because we knew that Mary could have made it too. As we hiked back to the saddle,a third of the way, we heard a voice. It was Mary! She was about half way up from the saddle. We were thrilled. We waited for her and all three of us headed summitward. With the route still very fresh in our minds we scrambled to the top no problem 1:15PM. There was no bad weather in sight. We headed back to the car. The bright sun was unrelenting as we walked west toward it. It was making me sick. Nancy and Mary stopped to dip their feet in the stream that feeds Navajo Lake. I kept hiking towards the trees far below. Must have shade. When I finally reached some trees I sat in the shade with my eyes closed and immediately felt better. But I had to open them again and the walk back to the car was the crux of the hike for me. We returned to the car at 7:15.

Wilson Peak in a day

.This is my first Trip Report for my first 14er.I'd wanted to climb a 14er for over a year. So when my sister(Mary) invited me along to visit her best high school friend(Nancy) who lives in Telluride, I chose Wilson Peak because its close to Telluride and has a southern exposed trail.We flew to Denver July 5 and hiked every day. July 10 we drove to Navajo Lake Trail Head and started hiking at 6:20AM. We reached the lake at 8:20AM and contiued up onto the rocky trail. You have to watch every step. Everything looked so familiar:The Basin,El Diente, Gladstone. We went up, the trail veers to the middle of the basin, off the talus, across some flat snow fields. The ROA Saddle and Wilson Peak spine can be seen.Switchbacks lead to The Saddle and then a fun hike to the saddle between Gladstone and Wilson Peak. Everything was going great. When we got to this second saddle we met three youths from Iowa who were turning back at this point. They used words like sketchy and technical to describe what they thought lay ahead. I knew better(thanks to 14ers.com) but Mary and Nancy had been spooked and decided to wait for me there. I hiked and climbed the rocky gravelly trail to the false summit. Two groups of three were coming down. Thier bright yellow ropes showed me the way up just like Bill Middlebrooks route descriptions blue lines. As I waited my turn another hiker showed up at the false summit. It was Nancy! But upon seeing the ropes see decided again to go no higher. From the false summit I climbed down about thirty feey(staying to the right) and then climbed up where I saw the yellow rope people come down. I did it! It was Easy. It was fun. I yelled over to Nancy,"You can do it. So she went for it and in five minutes we were both standing on the summit(12:20PM). We were only 2/3 happy though because we knew that Mary could have made it too. As we hiked back to the saddle,a third of the way, we heard a voice. It was Mary! She was about half way up from the saddle. We were thrilled. We waited for her and all three of us headed summitward. With the route still very fresh in our minds we scrambled to the top no problem 1:15PM. There was no bad weather in sight. We headed back to the car. The bright sun was unrelenting as we walked west toward it. It was making me sick. Nancy and Mary stopped to dip their feet in the stream that feeds Navajo Lake. I kept hiking towards the trees far below. Must have shade. When I finally reached some trees I sat in the shade with my eyes closed and immediately felt better. But I had to open them again and the walk back to the car was the crux of the hike for me. We returned to the car at 7:15.

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