I’ve been working on updating my fourteener trip reports page and the Mt. Wilson/El Diente trip was in dire need of an update. I carried my video camera that day, so I only have a few photos from a disposable camera that Jeremy Wegner brought along. At some point in the future, I hope to edit the video and get it on youtube or vimeo. But for now, we’ll stick with words and photos.
After our ski descent of Wilson Peak the previous week, we knew the Wilson group was holding better snow than most years, and the chance of getting summit ski descents was better than average. At the time, I had no plans of skiing all the 14ers, but Mount Wilson and El Diente both offered sufficiently aesthetic and challenging lines to motivate me for a return trip.
We made good time, mostly on foot, up the Silver Pick approach on our way to the Rock of Ages saddle. Our running shoes were stashed near treeline and the view from the saddle looked good:
We chose to ski El Diente first, since that route faces slightly East (but mostly North) and would be the first to soften up. The climb up the face was mostly straightforward until the end, when we were faced with either climbing the difficult ridge or following the exposed snow ramp that leads to the summit. With Chris Davenport’s group’s tracks from 2 weeks ago still quite visible, we chose the snow ramp.
While easy climbing, the exposure was still tremendous. I called my mom from the summit, since it was Mother’s Day, but I didn’t tell her I was about to ski a steep and exposed line. We were easily able to ski off the summit, something which hadn’t become the accepted norm at the time. The skiing was excellent corn that had already baked to perfection and we regrouped at the bottom of the valley to survey the scene on Mount Wilson.
Our plan was working well as we started back up, with the slightly less sun exposed slopes of Mount Wilson remaining mostly frozen and bootable. Once again, the going was quite easy until we got within 100′ or so of the summit, at which point the climbing got quite difficult. While short and less exposed than others, these last few moves were harder than any other 14er except Pyramid and Capitol.
Like El Diente, Lou Dawson had not skied off the exact summit of Mount Wilson during his 14er project, but Davenport had been able to ski off the exact summit just a couple of weeks ago. We could see his tracks, which appeared to be straightline for about 40′ into a big sweeping turn, but that option was no longer available since much of the East facing snow had melted out there. We were left to either billygoat a short section with our skis on, or do a difficult downclimb of the terrain we had just ascended. I chose to put the skis on, simply because I’m more comfortable with them on. About 10′ of this:
Got me into a position where I was able to pivot off my tails and do my own straightline into more snowy and open terrain. That was a fun move! We made our way through a mini-col to the north face and once again skied near perfect corn to the valley floor. A quick snow shower blew in while we reascended the Rock of Ages saddle, where more quality corn skiing awaited us. Mount Wilson and El Diente make for a great two-fer of skiing with some pretty good access, and are a great tune-up for the toughest peaks like Pyramid and Capitol.
