After some spontaneous planning, I committed to a Wilson Peak trip with my buddies, Luke and Reed. My journey began around 7 AM on Saturday, August 2nd, when I drove from Boulder to Colorado Springs to meet up with the boys. We loaded up Luke's Subaru and headed off to Telluride. After a long and scenic journey, we pulled into the town of Telluride around 4 PM. We did some brief exploring, rode the free gondola, and had dinner and drinks at Smuggler Union. We then headed over to the Rock of Ages trailhead, where we set up camp and discussed our plans for the morning. It has to be noted that Luke slept outdoors on a cot in the middle of the woods, while Reed and I opted for the tent strategy.

We elected for a 5:30 AM wake up and were on the trail by 6 AM. The Rock of Ages approach has some steady elevation gain but is pretty uneventful, overall. The trail winds through some rocky slopes but is very smooth and easy to follow. Once you turn the corner into Silver Pick Basin, the trail turns to an old mining road that winds up towards the Rock of Ages saddle. The scenery and views are stunning though, as you approach the top of the basin and bypass some old mining structures. The steepness increases as you approach the Rock of Ages saddle, and the terrain gets trickier as you traverse across some talus looser rocks. We reached the saddle just before 8 AM and prepared for the more challenging part of the climb.

We initially lost our route on the initial traverse across the south side of the ridge from the Rock of Ages saddle. The trail harder to follow, and we ended up following the ridge too directly rather than traversing across the south side. After we cliffed-out, we backtracked and reconnected with the route. The difficulty in this section lies in the loose rocks and requires some more technical moves as you traverse your way back up to the ridge. Once we reached the ridge, we followed a rough trail through some slightly easier terrain until we completed a short scramble up to the false summit. Only the crux and the summit remained in front of us. The crux looked pretty intimidating from here, but that's usually how it goes. We made the short descent across an exposed ledge on the north side of the ridge before arriving at the bottom of the crux. I led the way, followed by Luke, with Reed bringing up the rear. There are some looser rocks at the bottom of the crux climb, but it gets more solid the higher up you get. We still opted on the side of caution and just sent one person up at a time to avoid kicking rocks at someone hiking beneath. We climbed just to the right of the gash (as outlined on 14ers.com), which was a fun, Class 3 scramble. The exposure isn't anything crazy and every move can be kept at Class 3. Once you get to the top of the crux, you are practically right at the summit. We made our summit at 9:15 AM and enjoyed some refreshing Coors lights in front of some stunning views.

The descent requires some focus and perseverance, as it is technical and slow-going until you get back to the saddle. Once we reached the saddle, it was a quick death-march back to the trailhead. We arrived just before noon and began our long journey back to Colorado Springs. Overall, this was a fantastic trip. My first visit to the San Juan's will certainly be remembered due to the sheer remoteness and rawness of the mountains. The scenery is phenomenal in all directions. Wilson Peak easily slots into my top 5 list of the 30-ish14ers that I have completed. Final stats: 9.48 miles, 3,764 ft of elevation gain, 6 hours and 10 minutes total time (including breaks).