El Diente Peak to Mt Wilson Traverse, San Juan Mountains, Colorado

El Diente Peak (14,175’) to Mt Wilson (14,256’) traverse is one of 4 great CO 14er traverses documented in Gerry Roach’s classic 14er guide book. Located near Telluride, CO in the beautiful San Juan Mountains, both El Diente Peak and Mt Wilson are considered hard 14ers to summit due to loose terrain and route finding challenges, and the traverse adds additional difficulty with exposed class3/4 climbs, narrow ridge and ledge traverse. On this occasion we backpacked 3 miles to camp in beautiful Kilpacker Basin with lush meadows and wildflowers in full bloom. We had an early start of 3:30am on 7/20/2024, as forecast called for thunderstorm in the afternoon. It took us 4 1/2 hr to summit El Diente and another 3 hrs to traverse to Mt Wilson. I glissaded down a few remaining snowfields when descending from Mt Wilson which was a lot of fun. Total stats from TH: 14 miles with 4700’ elevation gain

Music:
Spanish Moss, by Chris Haugen
Spanish Rose, by Chris Haugen
Spirit Riders, by Telecasted
Anomalous Hedges, by Mini Vandals
Searching for time, by Telecasted
Peace of Mind, by AK & Liam Thomas

00:00 Approach and camp
02:12 El Diente Climb
07:13 The Traverse
14:41 Mt Wilson Summit

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