El Diente Peak Trip Report 08/10/2014

Report Type	Full
Peak(s)	El Diente Peak - 14,175 feet Mt. Wilson - 14,256 feet Wilson Peak - 14,021 feet
Date Posted	08/10/2014
Date Climbed	08/09/2014
Author	climbnowworklater
Additional Members	Stereo311

Tour de Wilson (car shuttle)
This is a TR that is short in length but designed to give others a different idea to approach this group. Roach describes the best way to hit all 3 peaks in a day as leaving from ROA TH and returning there. I didn't like the fact that the traverse (probably the most dangerous part) is pretty far from the TH. I wanted to be on the traverse first thing in the morning. So I thought of a different way to do it and I am sure others have as well. Here is our experience: My idea was to shuttle cars between the ROA TH and the Killpacker TH(KP). The thought being, if we start at KP we would be on the traverse early...and it worked great. Stereo311, Brad(forgot his 14er name), and myself met up in Ridway on Saturday 8-7-14. We drove to the ROA TH and dropped my truck. We then drove around to the KP TH and camped. The next morning we left at 3am and were on El Diente by 7:30am. It took us a bit longer than we expected but it was still early. We did the traverse without problems and only a few route finding issues. We were on the summit of Mt. Wilson just after 10am. We didn't expect to take so long to descend MW. We also had another member join us and he accidently dislodged a rock that came damn near to hitting a hiker off route in the gully below. Hiking cautiously, we made our way to ROA saddle. As a few in our party filled water at the creek in the basin, clouds were building. We all made our way to the top of Wilson Peak. The time was appx 1:30pm. We then walked our way down ROA trail to the truck and I was done at 3:30pm and the rest of the group was done at 4:30pm. A long, tiring day but the most expeditious way to complete all 3 in my opinion. Most importantly, we did it safely. For one, if at any time we didn't like the weather, we could always cancel after El D or MW and just hike back to KP TH and a car. If we did the traverse and were heading towards WP and didn't like the weather, we could pull out at ROA and head to the other car. And since we were on the traverse at 8am, confidence was very high. I attempted an upload of the GPX but this was my first so hopefully it's correct. Photos will be uploaded in a few days as they arrive from everyone. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Total miles: 16.22 Times: 12.5 hours RT and 13.5 hours RT. Elevation Gain: 7500 +/- My GPS Tracks on Google Maps (made from a .GPX file upload): Login required to view this map... Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Tour de Wilson (car shuttle)

This is a TR that is short in length but designed to give others a different idea to approach this group.

Roach describes the best way to hit all 3 peaks in a day as leaving from ROA TH and returning there. I didn't like the fact that the traverse (probably the most dangerous part) is pretty far from the TH. I wanted to be on the traverse first thing in the morning. So I thought of a different way to do it and I am sure others have as well. Here is our experience:

My idea was to shuttle cars between the ROA TH and the Killpacker TH(KP). The thought being, if we start at KP we would be on the traverse early...and it worked great. Stereo311, Brad(forgot his 14er name), and myself met up in Ridway on Saturday 8-7-14. We drove to the ROA TH and dropped my truck. We then drove around to the KP TH and camped. The next morning we left at 3am and were on El Diente by 7:30am. It took us a bit longer than we expected but it was still early. We did the traverse without problems and only a few route finding issues. We were on the summit of Mt. Wilson just after 10am. We didn't expect to take so long to descend MW. We also had another member join us and he accidently dislodged a rock that came damn near to hitting a hiker off route in the gully below. Hiking cautiously, we made our way to ROA saddle. As a few in our party filled water at the creek in the basin, clouds were building. We all made our way to the top of Wilson Peak. The time was appx 1:30pm. We then walked our way down ROA trail to the truck and I was done at 3:30pm and the rest of the group was done at 4:30pm.

A long, tiring day but the most expeditious way to complete all 3 in my opinion. Most importantly, we did it safely. For one, if at any time we didn't like the weather, we could always cancel after El D or MW and just hike back to KP TH and a car. If we did the traverse and were heading towards WP and didn't like the weather, we could pull out at ROA and head to the other car. And since we were on the traverse at 8am, confidence was very high. I attempted an upload of the GPX but this was my first so hopefully it's correct. Photos will be uploaded in a few days as they arrive from everyone.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Total miles: 16.22
Times: 12.5 hours RT and 13.5 hours RT.
Elevation Gain: 7500 +/-

My GPS Tracks on Google Maps (made from a .GPX file upload):

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

climbnowworklater	misunderstanding 8/10/2014 5:18pm I am referring to safety as far as weather elements. The rock in the whole basin is shitty so to presume safety with regards to rock is not what I was referring to. Sorry I didn't make that more clear. As far as the rock dislodging, almost every TR has the experience and I only mention it to continue the vigilance. The purpose of the TR was to highlight a safe way to approach the triple peak (regarding weather)while hitting the hardest part early. Hope that helps.
zdero1	You only need to apologize to awilbur... 8/10/2014 5:54pm If you bring a grill to a summit. Great work! This TR will really help me plan my trip.
climbnowworklater	That's funny 8/10/2014 6:05pm Especially because there was a toaster on the summit of El D for some reason. I hope it helps and I figured others could use the idea. Enjoy!
Patinator	Bravo 8/11/2014 3:36pm I had the exact route planned out for Saturday for the exact same reasons, but one guy dropped out so we didn't have a shuttle system. Since the ROA approach is not very interesting, having to only do it once is another good reason for this shuttle route.

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