"South Wilson"

Route: South slope from Kilpacker
Posted On: 5/28/2025, By: jfm3
Info: I climbed "South Wilson" on May 25, starting at the Kilpacker trailhead. I approached the mountain via Coal Creek, then climbed the south slope to the south summit ridge. The snow on the south slope starts at 12,000', though I stuck to dry ground until ~12,600. The southeast face has full coverage all the way down to the Cross Creek drainage. The snow was in good condition as I was descending at 12:30 PM. The approach through the forest next to Coal Creek is absolutely hideous. The snow is a thin crust atop unconsolidated sugar. Snowshoes are likely not useful because the snow is not level and is often adjacent to bare, dry ground. There are also buried logs everywhere. It took me over 4 hours to travel just 3.5 miles from the Kilpacker road to the treeline. On the descent I stayed west of Coal Creek and was able to find a line through mostly open areas that didn't have any snow. The Cross Mountain approach looked to be in similar conditions. This is an absolute grinder of a summit. Be prepared for a lonely day of suffering. 

Route: South Wilson- Kilpacker Approach/West Ridge
Posted On: 5/28/2024, By: jfm3
Info: I attempted South Wilson from Kilpacker. Snow starts just above the last stand of trees in Kilpacker Basin and is continuous up to the ridge. Snow was in great condition for crampon and ice axe use. I climbed to the ridge at 13,600' without any problems but turned around at the catwalk. The rock isn't snow-covered and it's so loose that there is substantial risk of falling off. This mountain needs to be climbed from the south, approaching from either Kilpacker or the Cross Mountain trailhead. There are some old avalanche paths on both sides of Kilpacker Basin with frozen debris at the bottom. CAIC says there haven't been any reported avalanches in the San Juans for a few weeks so the consolidation is well underway. Some intermittent waterfalls are frozen on the cliffs and I did hear occasional rockfall. 

Route: East Face
Posted On: 7/24/2023, By: slawrence2011
Info: Started at 4 from Cross mountain Th. Off trail traverse wasn't nearly as bad as Lou Dawson made it sound with the slate mounds, mostly flat, just got turned around at one of the creek crossings in the Am. No snow til well above 12k ft, so fortunately headwall had plenty of easy grass. Climbed a direct couloir that topped out about 30 ft N of summit. Very out for skiing due to huge holes and runnels. So I traversed the N ridge until almost the saddle with Mt Wilson to gain the easier snowfield. One class 4 downclimb bordered on class 5, I had to pull on loose looking holds after testing, solid enough I guess. Seems like all other routes come from the S ridge, curious if anyone has done the full traverse, it was very laborious to the saddle, and Mt Wilson looked just as hard. Skied to 12,4 Edit, I saw Eli Boardman's tr said he traversed the full ridge, and after traversing from El Diente. Major props! 

Route: From Cross Mountain Trailhead
Posted On: 5/19/2023, By: daway8
Info: Perfect weather day on South Wilson despite a very questionable looking forecast. Still a lot of snow even down at the trailhead. Overnighted at Lizard Head Pass since Cross Mountain had too much snow. Overall snow was pretty well consolidated at all elevations, but started at 2am to optimize conditions. Booted up to 12k then switched to crampons with ideal conditions for them but hit a few patches of bare rock which lived up to its reputation of being utterly crappy loose garbage though fortunately was able to connect snow fields almost the whole way up - some were pretty crazy steep (compared to my limited snow climb experience). Summit at about 9:30am (much later than expected). Decided snow conditions were stable enough to risk some pretty wild glissades, though carefully picked the locations since there was evidence of small wet slides here and there, and by the end of the day some not so small ones. Rollar coaster trail through the woods on the way back was annoying and challenging to navigate under current conditions but with snowshoes didn't sink much. 

Route: Groundhog to Slate Creek
Posted On: 5/1/2022, By: goingup
Info: We skied South Wilson's south easterly face from the Cross Mountain trailhead off of 145. The entire week leading up we went back and forth on skiing in from Cross or Kilpacker (did not know how Kilpacker road would be and didn't feel like adding mileage with skis on our backs). There is very little information on the approach to this elite 14er sub summit from the Cross Mountain trailhead. Takemetoyoursummit has one of the only trip reports and we were very confused on his approach because it sounded like he took the Cross Mountain trail high and crossed Slate Creek high. We decided to try something else and ended up drawing our own route on cal topo and seeing if it went. We started up the Cross Mountain Trail at 3:45 a.m. and cut off fairly quickly onto the Groundhog Stock trail. It is still 98% snow on the Groundhog trail which contours around 10,200 (but there are ups and downs, read: a 600 foot climb on the way out). However, there are intermittent dry spots which keep things exciting and will appropriately ruin your very expensive ski gear thus triggering a tantrum here and there. The Groundhog trail, which is not a trail right now and requires good navigation on a moonless night drops you down to slate creek and if you do your due diligence you will find a bridge to cross. After the bridge crossing we headed in a north westerly direction and climbed the steep, then mellow, then steep slope up to the base of South Wilson's southeast face. We had to put skis on our backs because parts were melted out. There was continuous snow after 11,000. We were both excited because there was very little deadfall and very little bush whacking. The upper portion of this approach made for a nice ski out! The southeast face was in primo condish but it is likely the upper portion to gain the ridge will be melted out in 2 weeks time. However, the east face (if you are a more hardcore skier than I) is in absolutely primo condish and will likely hold snow a bit longer. The climb up to South Wilson pushed 45 degrees in spots but the snow was really secure (gained like 2,400 vertical feet in under a mile). We did not witness any wet slide activity and agreed our line wasn't going anywhere. It appeared there was more windslab on the east face, as the final summit pitch was a big ole' slab (and a similar aspect). There were signs of wet slabs in the cirque between Mount Wilson and Gladstone, but who is hanging out there? There were also signs of wet slabs in the El Diente/Wilson basin and we were happy we didn't go that way because the knob gully up from that side looked miserable in comparison to what we did. Side note: I do not understand how people do this mountain in summer. This is an excellent spring snow climb and ski and you won't see another person. As well, the views are SO unique. We did time the ski just right and harvested thy corn. The depproach was a mixed bag and ski gear was pushed to its extreme. This isn't easy but we think it is the best way to climb this mountain. Oh, bonus, we bore witness to Jupiter and Venus going through a conjunction which looked like a UFO at 5 in the morning. And we had a completely windless day, HOW? I am not sure if anyone has approached from the Groundhog stock trail? I am sure someone has? Where are you? Okay, I have only 3 14er sub summits left, South Elbert, Massive Green and North Massive, I am coming for ya! 

Route: Kilpacker Basin
Posted On: 6/15/2020, By: dhagan
Info: There are a few easily crossable snow fields below the El Diente turnoff at 12,600 feet. Above this, nearly continuous snow which makes for nice snow climbing rather than loose scree and talus. The snow was continuous to approximately 100 feet below the ridge where "Knob Gully" joins. The last bit of rock climb to the ridge after the snow ended was typical awful loose rock. The climb along the ridge to the South Wilson summit is uneventful and snow free.