South Wilson (14,105')

This mountain is generally ignored by the vast majority of 14er climbers due its status as an unnamed and unranked summit (although El Diente next door is also unranked but almost always included), and maybe that's a good thing. The only people who go to the trouble of tagging this one are those truly masochistic completionists who insist on hitting all the 14ers, ranked or not, named or not. As such, there is precious little information available on the best way to tackle South Wilson, and the few reports that do exist are widely varied. This writeup is my small contribution to the beta pile in the hopes that future completionists who attempt this godforsaken rock can get a better idea of the mistake they're about to make.

South Wilson is undoubtedly the chossiest of an extremely loose and unstable cluster of 14ers. Luckily for most climbers, the routes to and from El Diente, "West Wilson, " and Mount Wilson are all relatively stable due to the amount of traffic they get; people climbing them and completing the traverse tend to remove loose debris as they test their holds and beat in the paths. Even the newer unranked 14er "Pin Point" was fairly pleasant and stable as it's part of a major formation of large pillars with solid foundations. These things are not true of South Wilson, whose summit block is a series of rotten rock teeth with every available surface covered with unconsolidated dirt and kitty litter. If you attempt this mountain in dry conditions, you must clean and test every single foothold and handhold before weighting it, and despite your best efforts you will cause several minor and major rockslides. I would definitely not recommend bringing a partner on this one simply because of the rockfall hazard you'll pose to each other.

There are a few ways to tackle South Wilson (I'll discuss the alternative approaches later), but in the interest of aesthetics I wanted to complete the traverse from Mt. Wilson. I'd done the El Diente traverse the week prior but decided against continuing on to South Wilson at the time, so this time the plan was to hike back in from Kilpacker, gain the saddle between Mt. Wilson and South Wilson, and complete the traverse as if I was continuing on from Mt. Wilson. There are five major high points on the ridge from the saddle to the summit, and for this report I've numbered them from North to South (saddle to summit). The cruxes of the route are the descent off tower #1, and the ascent up tower #4.

If you're coming from Mt. Wilson, the easiest route to the saddle is not descending the ridge direct as there are several small cliffs that would be tough to downclimb. Instead, follow Mt. Wilson's SW Slopes route down a gulley until you reach the base of the cliff bands, then traverse south over the ocean of sideways scree and regain the saddle. Since I was approaching from lower in the basin, I split off a bit early from the SW Slopes route and ascended a more direct line. From the saddle, your first challenge is getting up tower #1.

If you want to avoid the difficulties posed by tower #1, there's a steep scree gulley that ascends straight up to the ridge in between towers 1 and 2. I didn't use it, but it looked like it would go depending on your tolerance for loose garbage

To tackle the first tower, traverse right (west) from the saddle and locate a 3rd class chimney that goes most of the way to the top. The sides of this chimney were nice and solid, and provided quick access to the top.

Once you top out, you're confronted with what I would consider the crux of the route; downclimbing 30 feet to the saddle with the second tower. I wandered around for a bit trying to find the best way down and eventually settled on a narrow section of gray rock slightly to the right (west) of the ridge crest. It was vertical, but had good holds and cracks. Lots of loose rock in the gaps and fissures which took time to remove before stepping down each time. My line was about 20 feet of low 5th class.

From here it's a steep but straightforward scramble up the second tower. Walk around the left side the rock spire poking out of the saddle (visible in the first pic of this report) and follow the loose dirt gulley to the top.

The other side of tower #2 is a fairly steep hike down dirty scree ledges. Take your time and try not to fall on your ass. At this point you'll want to stay more to the left (east) of the ridge crest, but don't descend any lower than you have to.

The third tower can be bypassed on the left (east) side. The top of the tower is just a fan of rock shards, so you need to skirt underneath them but if you go too low you'll get onto stuff that's way too steep. Once you're above the next notch it's another descent on loose dirt to the saddle.

Finally the second crux comes into view: the headwall of tower #4. It's taller than it looks in these pictures, and any viable line on the right (west) side looked like it cliffed out near the top. There's a weakness on the lower left (east) side of the wall that can be accessed by downclimbing the gulley a bit on exposed, loose dirt.

From the saddle between towers #3 and #4, hug the wall and work your way down the gulley, being careful not to slip on the loose dirt and tumble down the couloir. Make your way up a staircase of blocky gaps in the headwall, then onto grassy ledges that provide access to a final gulley on the left (east) side of tower #4.

Your immediate difficulties are finally over when you top out on tower #4. From there it's a short jaunt across the final dip to the true summit of South Wilson. Stay directly on the ridge crest for the most stable rock. The view of Lizard Head was phenomenal, but I was disappointed to find a pile of glass shards where the summit register once was. Curious how long it will be for someone to lug a new one up there.

Now that you've summited, you're still a long way from home. Reversing the route is impractical, which gives you only one other reasonable descent option: following the southwest ridge down as it sweeps to the west, and picking a spot to dive off the side and scree surf your way back to the upper basin. The scree fields on the northwest side of this ridgeline are uncomfortably steep, and every single rock in the valley is perched at its very limit of sliding, so expect to set off waves of tumbling rocks with every step you take. The shallowest and safest descent option is on the other side of an extremely narrow, exposed catwalk of rotten rock so you can either avoid the exposure and take a steeper slide down the valley wall, or tiptoe your way across the scary, unstable ridgeline until you reach the saddle below the next high point on the ridge. The former option is actually a route that some have used to ascend South Wilson in the past, and I gotta say hats off to those guys because I couldn't imagine climbing up that nastiness let alone sliding down it. I opted to traverse the catwalk, which was about 40 feet of careful balancing and crabwalking with quite a bit of exposure. It can be most expedient to cross knife edge ridges by stepping low on one side and holding onto the ridge crest with your hands, but that won't work here. You definitely do not want to put any lateral force on any part of this section because it will probably pull out on you. I carefully walked directly over the top of the ridge, and could feel most of the plates grind and shift underneath me the whole way.

At last the ridge relents and you reach a nice, wide saddle. From there it's a straightforward (but still steep) plunge down the choss fields back toward the Mt. Wilson trail. Once things start to level out, don't go too far left or you'll cliff out in the upper basin.

It was a huge relief to get down from this mountain. I'll echo previous users of this forum by saying that South Wilson is probably best done as a snow climb to mitigate the looseness of the rock. If I ever had to do this again, I would wait for consolidated spring snow conditions and either ascend the steeper option on the SW ridge to avoid the catwalk, or bushwhack in from the Cross Mountain side and ascend the snow on the southeast face/ridge. As it stands, I think in summer conditions this is the most difficult single 14er in Colorado (still easier than Sunlight Spire though). The rockfall danger is exponentially worse than any other route I have ever done, and makes the Hourglass on LB look like child's play. Do not underestimate this one.

This little excursion took about 7 hours car to car from the Kilpacker trailhead. You can view my exact route here. I hope this helps any unranked 14er enthusiasts in the future!