One of many
trip reports under the
SilGro home page for Alan Silverstein and Cathie
Grow.
Email me at
ajs@frii.com.
Last update: March 29, 2024
(Previous trip report: 1986_0726_MountWilson.htm)
(A
Fourteener
trip report.)
Sunday, July 27: The morning after the accident on Mount Wilson all we knew was that Dr Vanna Powell was in a hospital, probably in Montrose or Grand Junction. The weather was good and the other three (Dave Landers, his brother John Landers, and their friend Joe) decided to climb Wilson Peak as planned. I chose to join them, but not with great excitement.
We got a late start at 0735 from where the road was closed by snow. Wanting to be on the way to Montrose as early as possible, and feeling strong that day, I arranged with the others to get ahead of them and leave ASAP upon returning from the climb.
I pushed hard all the way up, making the 13000' saddle at 0905. From here instead of dropping straight ahead into Navajo Basin as for Mount Wilson, I made a sharp left on a pretty well-marked trail up the ridge east. After a time I came to the saddle on the ridge south to Gladstone Peak, and the going got tougher. I searched upwards a while before dropping down a ravine a hundred feet or so. From the saddle I had to drop to below some steep rock, unless I liked suffering...
Once around the "corner" and past the steep rock ribs the trail cut sharply up on the southeast face of Wilson Peak. It was spotty and the rock was loose, but I eventually reached the main ridge, very high up with a great view. From here I continued east along and sometimes below the ridge on an easy trail. It passed a couple of cuts where I looked down steep ravines on the northwest side, usable as ascent/descent routes if you had an ice axe and didn't mind exposure to falling rock.
The last leg was "interesting". I reached a false summit, then had to drop perhaps 40' into a deep cut with some exposure, then climb up again steeply. It was challenging, but easier than Mount Wilson's summit.
I arrived at the summit of Wilson Peak well ahead of the others at 1025 (2:50 to climb 2800'). It was a long, rounded ridge, not especially narrow, with just some cairns to mark the summit.
On a gorgeous clear day like this one was, the view was tremendous, most of the San Juan Range lying east and south. Mount Sneffels, Wetterhorn Peak, Uncompahgre Peak, and the nearby thirteener called Lizard Head Peak were all easy to spot. I stayed till 1115, when the others finally arrived.
Just after the first drop off the summit, I headed alone down the ravine northwest from the deep cut below the top. It was the first way down to the north, and a very direct route. I carefully descended on talus until reaching the top of a huge snowfield -- unfortunately still hard frozen. It would have been a nice glissade, but I had to carefully descend backwards, with ice axe, on icy steps left by someone earlier in the season. Once back on lower rock slopes the return was straightforward, if long and cross-country (no trail).
I returned to my Jeep at 1255 (1:40 to get down). With binoculars I could see the other three back at the high saddle, at least an hour behind me. So as pre-arranged I left when I was ready, unfortunately causing them to have to hike a little farther back to their vehicles.
Later in Montrose at 1530 I discovered that Dr Powell had not checked into that hospital. She'd come through about midnight and gone on to Grand Junction by ambulance.
A call there yielded me an unfriendly ICU nurse. She told me the lady had had a craniotomy early in the morning, was not reachable by phone or in person, and I could not contact her for at least a day.
I was rather bummed out... I couldn't even apologize to the woman and try to make amends. So I started the long drive home, leaving El Diente Peak for some later expedition.
I camped by my Jeep in the national forest between Buena Vista and Leadville, and drove home the next day.
Monday, July 28: My first stop in town was four hours at HP! Trying to get reoriented. That was not easy after two weeks of rich experience in the alternate reality of the high peaks.
From: ajs@hpfcla.HP.COM (Alan Silverstein) Date: Tue, 26 Aug 86 20:41:17 MDT Subject: Re: Trip reports on the San Juans Newsgroups: hpnc.general
Well folks that's it. A long two weeks in the mountains, and a long series of reports. Thank you, all those of you who told me you read and enjoyed them. More to come! I'm two expeditions and four peaks behind (grin). I'll start a new basenote sometime soon.
By the way, I finally got curious enough to call the Hinsdale County sheriff in Lake City. The climber lost on Redcloud and Sunshine did not die of a heart attack as I'd thought. Rather, he got disoriented and probably cold, and fell off an 800' cliff on the southeast side of Sunshine Peak. He was found Monday afternoon (two days later) by the military chopper from Fort Carson. So the moral isn't, "carry enough water to avoid damaging your body", but, "be careful route-finding in bad weather".
And oh man do I have a story to tell about that -- on Culebra Peak, two days ago [when I wrote this], I found myself in a similar situation. But that must wait for a future report.
(Next trip report: 1986_0815-16_PyramidPeak.htm)