Did the El Diente-Mt. Wilson traverse yesterday from Rock of Ages. Went up El Diente North Slopes and skiied a variation of Mt. Wilson North Slopes. Rock of Ages becomes pretty much continuous snow after 2 miles. I was very grateful for crampons going up the El Diente couloir and across the traverse. Summitted El Diente at 8:30 so the couloir was pretty icy most of the way but the top had some really nice corn. The traverse was not the greatest with snow in some annoying places. Im not sure how it is class 4, I definitely had class 5 moves in there but Im also horrible at route finding so that could be why. Snow didnt help. In all, the traverse took me 3 hours. Skiing Mt. Wilson North Slopes was decent, but the snow was very wet/slushy towards the bottom. Climbing back to Rock of Ages was rough after all that and flotation was definitely required at that point in the afternoon.
   
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