El Diente Peak

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 8/22/2021, By: Pika_wanderer
Info: All remaining patches of ice and snow are completely avoidable on this route, as of today. Heard and witnessed significant rockfall on this route today- not sure if this is normal or due to recent heavy precipitation. Regardless, extra care must be taken on any route of this mountain... 

Route: Mt. Wilson + El Diente Traverse
Posted On: 8/22/2021, By: MountainBuhn
Info: Dubious weather most of the morning. Low hanging dark clouds and some rain from 7am on. We still went for it. Largest concern was north facing section. 2 inches of snow has turned into ice, so tread carefully on the final 100 to El Diente and between the narrows and final crux on the traverse heading to Wilson. Traverse Mostly dry still. Got hammered with sleet on the way down from Wilson. Downclimb from Mt Wilson to Kilpacker might be the worst downclimb I've ever done outside of challenger. Loose, mini fridge and bigger boulders. Challenging day, but rewarding. 

Route: Kilpacker Approach
Posted On: 8/20/2021, By: ericd01
Info: A spectacular way to see the Uncompahgre-San Juan range even with clouds. 5-mile 2WD forest road up to Kilpacker TH. Summit ascent is 6.3-miles and took 4.5-hrs. 1/2 of trail is meandering in potentially wet green vegetation, the other 1/2 is well cairned talus fields. Gulley below organ pipe rocks was loose rock & collapsed cairns until on the solid tooth. Combined with a traverse, the additional 2-hr, 1-mile section over to Mt Wilson has similar ridge exposure loose around small gendarmes and a solid narrow knife edge. No snow, leather gloves & comfy shoes worked well. A 7-mile descent, 4 hours back to parking lot. 

Route: Mt. Wilson + El Diente Traverse
Posted On: 7/28/2021, By: toxqan
Info: Hiked into Kilpacker basin on the afternoon of 7/26 and set up camp after the creek crossing. The hike in was rather muddy and wet. Even after the rain stopped lingering rain on plants in the meadows soaked my pants. Started up the south slopes of El Diente at 3:45am. The majority of the route was straightforward and dry, but there some of gullys near the top were a bit wet and loose. Topped out on El Diente around 7am and began the traverse shortly after. The traverse itself is dry. The first third of it takes you under some really loose looking towers so be careful. About halfway across I did hear some rock fall in the vicinity of El Diente's south slopes which heightened my awareness. The rest of the traverse was as described, with the last third as spicy as expected. I would note that there are cairns on the class 4 crux that can be followed to avoid dicey areas. Topped out on Mt. Wilson around 10am and started descending the southwest slopes after resting. The portion of the descent above 13k was rather nasty, wet and loose. I found it hard to avoid dislodging rocks. Portions of the trail were eroded as well. Picking my way through the talus and scree down to the turnoff for El Diente was tedious. On the plus side I was able to glissade a few lower angle snow patches lower down. These could probably be avoided if desired. The rest of the hike back to camp was uneventful with some light rain. Made it back to camp about three hours after summiting Mt. Wilson and back to the trailhead 1.5 hours after packing up camp. All in all, a successful and enjoyable outing that certainly would have benefited from dryer conditions. 

Route: North Buttress
Posted On: 7/12/2021, By: donovanrice
Info: Did North Buttress up El Diente, then the traverse to Mt Wilson, then down North Slopes of Mt Wilson. Camped at Navajo Lake the night before and after. You could also camp in the upper Navajo Basin, but it would be exposed. Really refreshing water in the basin!

North Buttress was really enjoyable, with solid rock virtually the entire route. We took the alternate route proposed by KeithK at the top, and it was really intuitive and solid.

Only snow we encountered was during the traverse right before the final gully to Mt Wilson. Looks like you could maneuver around it, though the 3 of us crossed it just fine without traction (1 had ice axe, 1 had whippet, and 1 had no self arrest device). Descending North Slope of Mt Wilson was tedious with loose rocks, but no mandatory snow crossings.

The next day, we hiked up the Rock of Ages saddle in attempt to summit Wilson Peak, but we turned around out of sheer exhaustion from the day before. Better safe than sorry, and the peak will always be there in the future! 

Route: North Buttress
Posted On: 7/8/2021, By: Wentzl
Info: Cougar's report from 7/6 is accurate. Just posting here to add photos for anyone who wants them. My first time on this route. Very fun! 

Route: North Buttress
Posted On: 7/7/2021, By: cougar
Info: Summer conditions, no snow or ice 

Route: Mt. Wilson + El Diente Traverse
Posted On: 7/8/2021, By: kdrhodes1
Info: Camped at Navajo Lake on Saturday (7/3), and climbed El Diente from the South Slopes (7/4). This route required some backtracking to get to Kilpacker, but we decided it was a safer route than either the North Slopes or North Buttress (we didn't bring ice axes). We did talk to a couple of guys the following day who had attempted from the North and turned back around 13,900 due to unstable rock, so we were happy we took the long route. Lots of loose rock on the South slopes as well, but it's manageable to avoid the worst of the scree if you choose your path wisely. We then did the traverse, which was a lot of fun, but took quite a bit of time (maybe 3+ hours). There are lots of variations to make the route easier or more difficult, and we used the pics from the .com frequently for route finding, although it's basically a “choose your own adventure”. We did put on spikes for one short snow crossing near the end of the traverse, although you could probably find an alternate route to avoid it. We also went left on the summit block, which isn't bad at all. From Mt Wilson, we then descended via the North Slopes. This route was fine, felt pretty stable, a cake walk compared to the traverse (albeit a long suffer-fest of a cake walk). There were a few snow patches, but not much left for glissading. Overall, a very long day starting at Navajo Lake and then going Kilpacker to the South Slopes and then over- but we all agreed that we were very happy with our route choices, given conditions and recent reports!

After camping at the lake again, we then climbed Wilson Peak on Monday, 7/5. This was a breeze after our previous day. The only snow to cross is just above the lake before you really start climbing. This route has some really fun scrambling! Probably one of my favorite 14ers in terms of fun scramble sections. A few areas look intimidating, but the rock is solid when you need it to be. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 7/3/2021, By: quinnwolf
Info: Summer conditions. Some minor snowfields that can be avoided with some route finding.
The final gully immediately below the summit is filled in with snow and should not be touched without proper snow gear (at least an ice axe), but there is a short fun scramble (class 3, not too exposed, mostly solid rock) to the left that takes you above the snowfield. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 6/26/2021, By: mijo912
Info: Camped at Kilpacker TH on 06/23 and it had rained throughout the night. Started at 0315 on 06/24 and the skies parted like the Red Sea as we hiked in the magnificent orange moonlight. Summited El Diente via South Slopes and did the traverse over to Mt. Wilson. Descended Mt. Wilson's SW slopes back to Kilpacker basin and back to TH. Summer condition for nearly the entire route. Very minimal snow to navigate with a majority in the final gully up to the summit ridge of Mt. Wilson (easily avoidable). More snow to deal with on the SW of slopes of Mt. Wilson when descending. Carried ice axe and crampons but did not use either. Trekking poles were sufficient as the snow was soft enough mid morning. Did some glissading when descending SW slopes of Mt. Wilson. The weather held out until I was 2/3 complete with the traverse, then the storms started to form (1045). Spent 3 minutes on the summit and then had to boogie. Didn't get any actual precipitation until I was descending (1120). Fantastic day and glad to have these ones in the book! Stay safe out there. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 6/14/2021, By: NatDog
Info: There were only a few minor snow crossings before the turnoff for the Mt. Wilson trail. We wore crampons to ascend the snow slopes from ~12,700' to the red rock rib at 13,500'. There was some snow from here to the base of the gully leading up to the saddle, but none of it was problematic. The traverse of the north side of the ridge just below the summit was covered in steeply-sloping snow, which partner and I did not feel comfortable traversing even with crampons and ice axes. We instead went straight for the ridge line, which was a surprisingly fun and mostly-solid scramble the rest of the way to the summit. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 6/7/2021, By: Tweedie
Info: I backpacked into Navajo Lake and camped Saturday for an early start Sunday on El Diente. I took a chance and left my snowshoes in the car based on other Conditions reports I had read. I did not miss them at all on the whole climb.
I left the lake at 530am and entered the couloir at 645. The snow was perfect for the climb. There was signs of a couple of wet slides pervious days. At the top of the couloir I took off my crampons and never put them back on for the rest of the climb.
The South side of the ridge under the organ pipes had a number of snow crossings but the snow was soft enough and they were not that steep, I could cross with kicking steps with my boots. The snow in the chute before crossing to the north was really soft and I had to work around the south side of the chute.
At the crossing to the north side of the ridge the path looked snow covered and the snow was steeply sloped, definitely would want the crampons back, but then they would off/on multiple times. I decided to climb along the top of the ridge on some exposed class 4 sections. I have not seen any report on this route. I'll attach a map comparing the standard route to my ridge route. The ridge was exposed on both sides and there was a small section I had to down climb 10' to the south to get around. There was one move up/down a 7-8' flat face that was a bit dicey down climbing. I should have taken a photo, but I did not. The landing was flat and safe. At one point I started down too soon and had to regain the ridge (as seen in my map)
I summited at 9am, had a snack and turned around. I returned to the top of the couloir and slid down to the bottom. The snow in The Valley was still solid enough I didn't posthole. The exposed rock along the bottom was very loose and even very large rocks rolled when I stepped on them. I got back to camp around 11am after taking my time down The Valley and taking lots of pictures.
The conditions were great for the climb and the information I received from this website help me know what I was going to run into along the way. 

Route: North Buttress
Posted On: 5/30/2021, By: lkk8815
Info: From Navajo lake, went up El Diente's north buttress, traversed to Mt Wilson, then down Mt Wilson's north slopes.

Trail to Navajo lake is mostly dry. There are a handful of snow patches covering the trail up high, but nothing that warrants any kind of floatation. Lake is half melted, plenty of streams flowing nearby to get water.

Upper basin is still holding a good amount of snow. Opted to leave snowshoes at the lake however and didn't regret it at any point later on.

El Diente's north buttress is dry enough to climb mostly on rock but there are plenty of pockets of snow and ice to make things interesting.

The traverse also has a good amount of snow and ice covering the route which often caused my partner and I to opt for climbing on dry rock rather than play the crampons-on-crampons-off game every time we crossed a steep snow section. This made the actual climbing probably a good deal harder than class 4. Definitely need an ice axe, and some kind of traction if climbing on the snow.

The descent off Mt Wilson's north slopes into the basin comparatively was a breeze. After the short snowy class 3ish section, we were able to pleasantly plunge step/glissade all the way back down into the basin. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 10/4/2020, By: Marshall
Info: The West Ridge is quite spicy, but there is no snow. I'll probably do a trip report soon. I started at Navajo Lake TH, West Ridge up ED, traverse to Mt Wilson, Wilson's North Slopes down, then did Wilson Peak. I tried to follow Wentzl's report (thanks a lot!) on the ridge and found the time splits to be accurate. Link below. Do not take this ridge lightly. I'd recommend studying up on it as much as you can before going and giving yourself plenty of time. The traverse has a little snow, but I never threw spikes on. Wilson's North Slope has a good amount of snow.
Times: 5:15 start, 7:15 trail flattens, 7:30 cross stream, 9:00 false summit, 11:45 ED, 12:30 start traverse, 2:15 Mt Wilson, 2:25 depart, 4:15 Navajo Lake trail, 4:45 ROA saddle, 5:40 Wilson Pk, 5:55 start back, watched sunset on Gladstone ridge and ate, 11:35 car.

https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=19069

Photos 1-3 are West Ridge, 4 is North Slope 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 10/9/2020, By: mikec
Info: The south slopes are free of snow but the north side doesn't get the sun due to the sun now being more south in the ski. I tried the north buttress the day before but ran into snow/ice. I did summit Diente 10/01 but there is ice not snow on the north side near the summit. Plus I didn't want to go down the class 4 so I skirted around the second to last climb on the north side and broke some ice away to get around. I just wanted to write my report because people are talking about snow but it was ice. Don't mess around bring some gear. I used my ice axe and put on my crampons. I guess u could risk it because it was a flat section on the north side but ur call! It was from the snow fall on Sept 1 and it was thick probably still there.(pic north buttress)