El Diente Peak

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 8/25/2018, By: duncanmil
Info: Of course the conditions are good, though I did see a little ice on the rocks. The biggest issue for me was route finding. There are two "gray gullies", each with cairns in them. The route description is correct when it says this is a confusing area. If you take the second gray gully, which is further left, it will lead you to the same upper route, but there are some class 3+ or 4- moves. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 8/19/2018, By: lcjackson
Info: Talus wasn't too slick or icy, despite the rain the past few days. Route was good to the summit. Did hear a big rockfall while approaching the upper basin around 5am, other smaller rockfalls later in the morning.pretty smoky up top. 

Route: Mt. Wilson + El Diente Traverse
Posted On: 8/20/2018, By: Thevirtualsherpa
Info: Did the traverse on the south slopes. Trail easy to follow up El Diente and traverse was straight forward. I will say that the left (north) side of the traverse has a couple of sections of extremely loose gravel and rock. Not sure if the high rain has made it worse, but I was sending rocks flying left and right even with extra caution given. Summited Mt Wilson around sunset and had no problem descending the south trail even in complete darkness (lots of cairns along the way). 

Route: North Buttress
Posted On: 7/24/2018, By: graberz
Info: Hiked into Navajo Lakes, which was unreal pretty to set camp. We climbed the North Buttress up to El Diente Peak. Route finding was difficult at times, as cairns were few and far in-between, but in general we just went up or to the right of most obstacles. The crux of the route was bit confusing, so we all kind of just made our own adventure up to the ridge. It lived up to its reputation for difficulty and gave us more than enough scrambling and exposure, but it was a blast. The traverse was straight forward and we thought decently marked to Wilson. Coming down from Wilson was a rock throwing mess, we were glad to have helmets. Wilson Peak was Wilson Peak. Overall, this was a heck of a fun route. One of my favorite trips. will hopefully type up a trip report. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 7/1/2018, By: BenThom11
Info: I would highly recommend to not do this route. It is awful without the snow coverage. Dangerous, time consuming, frustrating.

That being said, I climbed El Diente and then did the traverse to Wilson. Doable with 0 snow gear, but not very fun. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 7/2/2018, By: JQDivide
Info: Route is 99% dry.
The north side has one gully with snow right before the summit. Should melt out soon.
PHOTO 1: There is a notch right before the gully, just go up to your left, Class 3 rock climbing and you can continue up to the ridge or you'll see the trail on the right.
Left side of photo is the way up, right side a view of the snow and summit.
PHOTO 2: North side route is snow free, but still has melting snow. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 6/27/2018, By: supranihilest
Info: Confirming other reports that the south slopes are in summer condition. There is some snow once you cross over to the north side of the ridge but it is completely avoidable. Note that the entirety of the route from the second you step onto the rocks past tree line til the moment you're back below treeline is very loose. Surely some of the scree on all of the scrambly bits and ledges will be cleaned up by climbers as the season progresses but be aware - the amount of loose rock is insane. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 6/24/2018, By: WildWanderer
Info: South slopes are in full summer conditions. The small part of the north side for the final push has snow, but it's easily avoidable. Traverse is snow free. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 6/24/2018, By: metaljoints
Info: The route is clear of snow except for the final ridge line to the peak (about the last 100 meters). The snowfields shown in photo #22 cover part of the standard route making for two dicey moves moves with a lot of exposure but they're on relatively flat slopes. The gully to the summit is also covered in snow, so you'll probably want to do the class 3 rocks just east of the gully. Make sure to dry your boots between moves over snow/mud and climbs over boulders! 

Route: CLOSURE
Posted On: 6/11/2018, By: Patrickk
Info: See attached image which is about the San Juan National Forest closure which looks like it includes Mt. Wilson and El Diente. 

Route: North Buttress
Posted On: 6/10/2018, By: nathansmithpiano
Info: Got up to 14,100 but snow and ice prevented a summit. Tried for ~4 hours to get around it but no luck. In the route photo #14 the entire crux chimney area was covered and impassible. The standard route looked even worse and Wilson no better. Some sketchy moments trying to avoid the snow and ice where a fall would likely lead to death. Probably best to wait until later in June. 

Route: Mt. Wilson + El Diente Traverse
Posted On: 6/2/2018, By: MatthewWatson
Info: Kilpacker approach was dry and pretty. El Diente south slopes was manageable, but snow covered the steep areas on the north side of the ridge just before the summit, so we stuck to the top of the ridge to get to the summit. On the traverse, there are a couple of snow-blanketed scree fields below or after the gendarmes that need to be crossed, and in the early afternoon the snow was extremely soft and slippery. On the way down Mt. Wilson's southwest slopes, snow covered the middle to bottom of the gulleys, and there were patches on the slopes below, until the valley. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 5/27/2018, By: Thevirtualsherpa
Info: Full disclosure, didn't hike El Diente but got great views of it. Colouir is packed with snow, in prime shape to hike. South side is dry as a bone from what I could tell from hike in and drive out. The tricky part (and reason I didn't hike) is the cross over. It's packed with snow and fresh snow, I only had microspikes and didn't trust them to stick on such a steep slope with major drop off, highly recommend crampons or taking ridge to avoid that section entirely. If you are looking to traverse, it looks fairly dry but descent from
Mt Wilson will have lots of snow. Based on conditions on Wilson Peak, expect extremely variable conditions. I don't expect “summer route” to be “in” for another 3-4 weeks, those north facing slopes are still hanging onto snow for dear life. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 5/25/2018, By: dude4mountains
Info: The North Couloir is in good condition. The upper portion gets early sunhit. Most of the upper south facing route is snow free. Here is the final stretch to the summit traversing surprisingly fresh powder covering the unknown rotten junk underneath. I'm pretty sure it was doable but it was going to be tedious plowing. My internal clock on the sun soaked upper portion of the north couloir was ticking away leading me to turn back. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 5/25/2018, By: trailboss88
Info: Route is in prime condition except for last bit of ridge by the final notch. I avoided loose slippery snow by scrambling on the ridge. Nothing over class 3. Couloir was getting sun by 10am on way down. Needed crampons on way up but not down. Should be good steps now since I was the second climber of the day. I camped at Navajo Lake. Trail is 99% dry, only a couple of drifts and muddy areas.