El Diente Peak Trip Report 07/22/2019

Report Type	Full
Peak(s)	El Diente Peak - 14,175 feet
Date Posted	07/22/2019
Date Climbed	07/09/2019
Author	jeffmpls

Kilpacker approach & Southwest slopes
I’d made plans for El Diente several months before, and picked a date that I thought would be snow free or mostly snow free, not wanting to bring crampons and ice ax. But as the date approach it became apparent that we would need crampons and a ax, so before leaving Minneapolis I brought the necessary equipment, and prepared myself for some work to get El Diente. Coming from low elevation I allowed myself a week to acclimate, and I found a climbing partner, Greg Chambers from Durango, who is a very experienced climber, and more than up the challenge of El Diente. We met the night before in Telluride, strategized our climbed, and decided on a early start at 4:30 AM. We got on the trail at 4:32 AM and quickly made our way up Kilpacker; Kilpacker is class 1, and just a 800’ elevation gain over six miles. As we got into the basin, we began to enter some snow at about 10,500’ and by 11,200’ we were traversing large fields that necessitated crampons. From this point on we were in and out of our crampons 7-8 times for the remainder of the ascent and decent, which was approximately 7+ hours. The amount of snow was breathtaking, it looked more like May 9th, verses July 9th, and quickly the effort needed to get through the snow was apparent. None of the snow fields were too hairy, or steep, but it was slow going and it took us until 11:15 AM to finally summit. It was a idilic cloudless bluebird day, but we didn’t linger too long as we knew we had a long hike out. On the down climb we tried to pick some rock area to avoid putting our crampons on, but in the end it was just easier to keep them on for the next snowfield. We finally put the crampons back in our pack for good after the last traverse and made our way to the car. We reached the car at 5:30 PM for a 12 hour and 45 minute day, and it had been quite some time since I’d been that throughly exhausted. The added effort caused by the snow was immeasurable! Had I not needed El Diente, I definitely would not have pushed myself that hard at 56 years old. In the end I was thrilled to get the peak, but I was also reminded just how much added work climbing in crampons could be.

Kilpacker approach & Southwest slopes

I’d made plans for El Diente several months before, and picked a date that I thought would be snow free or mostly snow free, not wanting to bring crampons and ice ax. But as the date approach it became apparent that we would need crampons and a ax, so before leaving Minneapolis I brought the necessary equipment, and prepared myself for some work to get El Diente.

Coming from low elevation I allowed myself a week to acclimate, and I found a climbing partner, Greg Chambers from Durango, who is a very experienced climber, and more than up the challenge of El Diente. We met the night before in Telluride, strategized our climbed, and decided on a early start at 4:30 AM.

We got on the trail at 4:32 AM and quickly made our way up Kilpacker; Kilpacker is class 1, and just a 800’ elevation gain over six miles. As we got into the basin, we began to enter some snow at about 10,500’ and by 11,200’ we were traversing large fields that necessitated crampons. From this point on we were in and out of our crampons 7-8 times for the remainder of the ascent and decent, which was approximately 7+ hours. The amount of snow was breathtaking, it looked more like May 9th, verses July 9th, and quickly the effort needed to get through the snow was apparent.

None of the snow fields were too hairy, or steep, but it was slow going and it took us until 11:15 AM to finally summit. It was a idilic cloudless bluebird day, but we didn’t linger too long as we knew we had a long hike out. On the down climb we tried to pick some rock area to avoid putting our crampons on, but in the end it was just easier to keep them on for the next snowfield. We finally put the crampons back in our pack for good after the last traverse and made our way to the car.

We reached the car at 5:30 PM for a 12 hour and 45 minute day, and it had been quite some time since I’d been that throughly exhausted. The added effort caused by the snow was immeasurable! Had I not needed El Diente, I definitely would not have pushed myself that hard at 56 years old. In the end I was thrilled to get the peak, but I was also reminded just how much added work climbing in crampons could be.

Comments or Questions

Peak200

Nice effort
7/22/2019 9:11pm

Thanks for the report and beta.
Hmmm I am going to skip it this year
And do it next year.
I need to do the centennial vermillion anyway
Where you can avoid most of the snow.

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