| Report Type | Full |
| Peak(s) |
El Diente Peak - 14,175 feet "Pin Point" - 14,042 feet "West Wilson" - 14,101 feet Mt. Wilson - 14,256 feet |
| Date Posted | 09/10/2023 |
| Modified | 09/12/2023 |
| Date Climbed | 09/09/2023 |
| Author | daway8 |
| Playing the Organ Pipes on Pins and Needles |
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This was my most delightfully fun full-on engaging day in the mountains ever! Redid the ElD-W Traverse but stuck pretty much fully ridge proper so as to get Pin Point and West Wilson, which I missed the first time. This made it so much more epic than the standard ElD-W Traverse route (which I did back in Sept 2018) - so much so that it even felt like a step up from the Bells Ridge Direct Traverse, except that pretty much all the fun on this traverse is very avoidable, while on the Bells Traverse the scrambling is more mandatory (but with some optional fun if you keep that one ridge direct like I largely did). Route: Ridge Direct variation* of El Diente - Wilson Traverse, including topping out on various Organ Pipes including the newly dubbed Needle Point, plus Pin Point and West Wilson. Went up El Diente South Slopes; down Mt. Wilson Southwest Slopes. *Spent probably 95% of the Traverse on the very tip top, only skipping a few minor bumps until the Knife Edge of Castration&Death convinced me to skip a small section near the end (see more on that near the end...) Trailhead: Kilpacker Stats: 13.25mi, ~4,800ft* *You’ll note that my GAIA based stats for this variation come out identical to the standard Traverse stats from Kilpacker. It makes sense that the distance wouldn’t really change since you’re hitting peaks along the same ridge. As for elevation, the standard route drops below the ridge and climbs back up. This seems to roughly nullify the added elevation of the extra humps if not dropping off the ridge. Total time: 13h 49min (with abundant scrambling, pictures and breaks). Difficulty: The standard Traverse is graded class 4 on 14ers.com. The major variant from that for staying ridge proper is Pin Point. Opinions vary widely but most people tend to rate the El Diente side of Pin Point as class 5*. The Wilson side is clearly easier and depends in part on how much time/effort you put into weaving up among the rocks. Some have claimed it can be done at class 3; others say at least difficult class 3. I'd recommend you come prepared for class 4. *Since Pin Point was only recently elevated to the status of a 14er sub-summit by LIDAR surveys and the standard traverse description routes along its lower bounds (see photo 10 in the traverse description) there's not been a great deal of traffic on this peak. As such, it may take a little time for enough folks to try it out for a more broad consensus on difficulty to form. I've you've done this fun little peak from either side please put your thoughts on ranking in the comments...) Included in this report will be:
This report will be heavier on photos and lighter on text than some of mine - a picture is worth a thousand words! 
Background I had heard lots about doing Pin Point from the El Diente side and knew that some very experienced people had tried it and bailed. As such, I really didn't know going in if I was going to be able to handle it or not. But I had just done a super fun climb of NE Crestone the weekend before where I went out of my way to engage in some highly exposed class 5 terrain to help get myself physically and mentally prepared as I neared completion of the 14er sub-summits list of 74. As soon as I took the first steps from El Diente towards the Traverse I felt my adrenaline start pumping - not because I was actually encountering or even seeing anything overly sketch - but just because I knew the reputation that the Ridge Direct variation of this otherwise easiest of the 4 Great Traverses has (this variant, by the way, truly makes this one of the Great Traverses). The Approach Not much to add here - just took the El Diente South Slopes route up to the summit then started the traverse. Having GPX can be handy for when to make the left turn to go up El Diente. Otherwise pretty straightforward. 
Playing the Organ Pipes The Organ Pipes (called out as such in the route description) were a great warmup for Pin Point. The standard Traverse route drops below these. Even if I had stayed up on the ridge I could have weaved in and out among them but then it wouldn't have felt like near as much of a truly Ridge Direct Traverse, and it would've skipped a lot of fun besides! 
The Organ Pipes are a series of towers along the ridge. I suppose it's understandable that they're not part of the standard Traverse but they really should be IMHO. The spiciest one of them I gave the unofficial nickname of Needle Point because it's a sharper summit than even Pin Point (which is actually rather elongated at the top, when you go to the current, proper loj coordinates). 
Needle Point was spicy due both to being very steep and because there were some rather large rocks that were loose at just the wrong places. Had everything been solid it probably could have gone at class 4 or maybe less. As is, I didn't want to risk weighting the loose hunks of rock so I did some overly ambitious and awkward class 5 moves to get up on solid rock to the summit. 
That Needle Point was the only other thing I saw along the ridge that could conceivably have any chance at qualifying as the previously disputed location of Pin Point (there's an old set of loj coordinates floating around for a hump between Needle Point and Pin Point that is less tall than either of those features and not really even worthy of any mention). But Needle Point is too tiny of a tower to really count as any sort of actual peak - it is really sweet to scramble up on though. 
Pin Point Once you get past the last of the Organ Pipes it becomes immediately obvious where/what the true Pin Point really is. Nothing else along the entire ridge commands attention like Pin Point. Especially coming from the El Diente side it's immediately obvious that you're about to encounter something far more serious than anything on any standard 14ern route. This time the adrenaline started flowing for real as I looked up at this imposing climb. I had to dial down my reaction to get myself into a zone where I was properly focused. 
After studying it carefully from below I concluded that it looked basically like a staircase - albeit with REALLY big steps and totally wicked exposure! "Well I can climb steps," I told myself. Plus that one dude on YouTube did it so I know it can be done, lol. More seriously though, I knew that I have been very gradually escalating my class 5 experience and knew from experience that I can judge pretty well when I'm getting in over my head (because I start to get really nervous when climbing unroped on anything at the limits of my abilities). 
So I decided to give it a go, being careful to follow the old climbing adage of "don't climb up what you can't climb down" and also make it a point to stay extremely tuned in to my own reactions and readiness. 
As it turned out, though I was hyper alert, I never got that uneasy feeling of being at or near the limits of my abilities. True, I paused several times to let out some big breaths but that was just due to the realization of how exposed and dramatic of a staircase it was, not because of any inherent difficulty of the moves I was making. Everything was super solid and I was very confident of every move I was making. I also knew that I could potentially reverse them all if needed (though it would have been even more spicy as a down climb). 
I'm not experienced at all with ranking climbs so I may be way off, but based on other climbs I've done I'm guessing Pin Point from the El Diente side probably would be ranked at low to mid class 5* , though I'd be interested in hearing the opinions of more experienced climbers on this. But for sure there's no way that was class 4 or less (what little beta I've seen all agrees it's class 5 from this side). *that's a broad range but every time I seek clarity on how climbs are graded I encounter contradiction, confusion, and inconsistency so I'm giving up on trying to assign specific numbers and will just say instead this was a step up from anything on any standard 14er route in my opinion. 
Note that if you want to avoid the class 5 on the El Diente side, just look at photo #10 in the standard traverse description for the class 3 bypass to get to the other side (shamelessly stolen and posted below for easy reference). 
Now as for the down climb on the Wilson side (or the up climb if you said no thanks to the El Diente class 5 route up), I've heard some say it goes at class 3. A very experienced climber I know disagrees with that assessment. I also disagree. As I said, I'm no expert at ranking climbs but I would say at the very least, with great effort you might possibly weave some sort of difficult class 3 up the Wilson side but I think it's more reasonable to classify what you encounter there as class 4. 
For sure, the Wilson side of Pin Point is undeniably easier than the El Diente side but neither side is a trifling walk up. So come prepared for some actual climbing if you want to check this 14er sub-summit off your list of the 74. 
Incidentally, since Sunlight Spire got demoted from being a 14er sub-summit and is now an unofficial Centennial instead, it's kinda cool in a way that the addition of Pin Point to the list of 74 puts some spicy class 5 back on the list. Granted Sunlight Spire has no optional class 4 variation by going around the other side and, even with some slight uncertainty in my ranking of Pin Point as being perhaps low to mid class 5* from the El Diente side, there's no way I could see it being anywhere near the Spire's 5.10 ranking. Nevertheless, my success today has me wondering if maybe Sunlight Spire isn't quite so terribly far out of my reach after all... Don't worry, I'm not going to rush out and go after that one any time soon (unless maybe a more experienced climber leads and puts in plenty of pro for me to dangle off of as much as needed) but I'm starting to give that elusive peak more serious consideration than I have in the past. *EDIT: deciding how to grade a climb as 5.whatever still eludes me and the inconsistency from location to location and person to person still confuses me, so I've deleted my previous attempt to assign a specific number to this route and replaced it with a more generic "low to mid class 5" so as to on the one hand caution people that this is a step up from what you encounter on standard 14er routes, but on the other hand avoid spreading inaccurate comparisons by trying to rank it more precisely than I confidently know how to. Perhaps over time enough other people will put numbers to this that some manner of consensus will eventually form). In the meantime, there are other class 4 and 5 routes calling my name, such as Crestone North Buttress, Kit Carson North Ridge and so forth. But we're not quite done with this traverse just yet... West Wilson So West Wilson is painfully ho-hum after the likes of the Organ Pipes and Pin Point. But it is listed as one of the 74 peaks making up the 14ers and their sub-summits. So this time I made sure to get on top of it - wherever exactly it was - there are a series of 3 bumps on the hump with the summit coordinates which are a bit different between 14ers, loj, etc. So I just made sure to tag them all. 
The Final Push to Mt. Wilson So after you get to West Wilson, the rest of the route just follows the standard traverse route description. However, every now and then the standard route moves you just off to the side of some little class 5 wall or rib or such. You can milk the traverse for a little more fun by ignoring those re-routes and just sticking ridge proper the remainder of the way - with perhaps one small exception to consider... 
So I was going to be able to boast that I had stuck almost completely ridge proper the entire way, even hitting virtually all the Organ Pipes at the start, but then this ugly Knife Edge cut me short. I did go up most of the ridge to the left of the notch until reaching the circled and Xed out portion which makes up what I've dubbed the Knife Edge of Castration&Death. 
It wasn't the exposure of this Knife Edge that bothered me - especially not after all the towers and spires and exposed class 5 climbing I had been doing. What bothered me was:
So very reluctantly, I backed away from this last epic looking feature on the traverse and put success, survival and the preservation of all my body parts as a higher priority than my pride in staying fully ridge proper. From below, looking up at the Knife Edge of Castration&Death it becomes pretty obvious why the "&Death" part was added on... 
Summit Shots Just wanted to throw in a few shots from Mt. Wilson for completion, along with a couple pics of tiny little people following me... 
The Return The return journey just involves going down Mt. Wilson Southwest Slopes - a bit annoying loose but not too big of a deal. PRO TIP: Once you're adequately clear of the cliffs below the summit and ridge (see below) put in some earbuds if you have them - this talus filled basin was a horrible drag the first time I did it a few years back but downright pleasant with worship music feeding through my earbuds (this was a partial fill-in for the fact that I wouldn't be able to make the 8hr drive back to Fort Collins in time to get to church the next morning). 
My Times 5:44am start from Kilpacker TH 8:18am hit semi-flat region in the basin at 12,260ft with the first rays of sunlight hitting me. 8:48am surprised to come alongside some snowfields at 12,760ft - but didn't need any significant diversion to avoid. 10:40am El Diente summit 11:07am start Traverse 11:29am coming into Organ Pipes 12:37pm reached old loj coordinates for Pin Point = after highest Organ Pipes and well before actual Pin Point - those old coordinates were just a boring hump. 1:14pm Pin Point summit 1:58pm West Wilson summit(s) 3:38pm Mt. Wilson summit (after some optional class 5 features and then bailing and backtracking at the Knife Edge of Castration&Death) 4:14pm begin descent 5:04pm clear of most dangerous cliffs where biggest rockfall potential exists 6:33pm at treeline (cranked up more intense music and began jogging) 7:33pm at trailhead Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow): 
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