Wilson Peak (14,020)
Route: Northeast face via Silver Pick Basin
Distance: 8.3 miles
Vertical: 4,220 feet
Date: May 02, 2022
Time: 8 hours 24 minutes
Partners: Chris and Jennifer Malone
My GPS track
Picture of the Northeast Face on a better show year.
Our ski route drawn on the previous image. Normally one would continue directly down one of the gullies all the way to the valley floor but this year none of these routes were skiable due to thin snow cover at the cliff bands. Thus we opted for a long traverse to the large snowfield to lookers right.
An ice sculpture just below Silver Pick Basin.
Entering Silver Pick Basin.
First good views of Wilson Peak's Northwest face. Although the upper section looks dry, there is a narrow snow couloir (not visible) leading through.
Higher in the basin.
View from about half way up the face.
Looking back down.
Chris and Jennifer climbing below me.
The sneaky route through the rocky section.
Further up in the couloir.
Looking back down at the top of the couloir.
Short remaining section to the summit.
Gladstone Peak, Mt. Wilson, and El Diente Peak from the summit.
Zoom of El Diente Peak.
Me on the summit.
Looking down from the top of the ski run.
Chris goes first.
Jennifer showing great nerve as she skis backwards onto the face.
The snow coverage really was not very good so we side-slipped and stepped slowly and carefully in order to avoid being tripped up by thinly-covered rocks.
Looking back up.
Chris again leads the second segment.
Jennifer makes it look easy.
Now it's my turn.
Finally in the main gully.
Jennifer.
We could actually ski this section.
Chris on the traverse, Jennifer waiting to go.
The snow was nice here so it is a shame that we could not continue straight down.
The traverse is surprisingly long. The next several images were taken along the way.
Finally able to ski again.
Instead of skiing all the way to the valley floor, we set a new traverse in order to exit the basin high enough to join our trail from the approach.
Some of the sights on the egress.
The snow lower down was dirty and sticky.
Entering the forest again.
Chris did an excellent job navigating and we soon found the road that would take us back to the car.
