Williams Traverse
The Billy Traverse aka Traversing the Willys
Date: 8/24/22
Partner: Kristi Henes
Trailhead: Lost Man TH
Summits:
* PT 13039
* Williams Mountain South
* PT13204
* Williams Mountain
* PT13139
Distance: 14.8m
Elevation Gain: 6000ft
Duration: 12.5hrs
GPX
A fun Sawatch scramble that felt more physical than the miles and vertical might suggest. The day included plenty of route finding and scrambling(mostly class 3 or easier with a few shorter sections of class 4). If you get off route you could find yourself in low 5. The most intimidating part of the day for me was ascending the last 600ft after dropping 13139... hahaha!
PT13039 14ers.com Page
Williams Mountain South 14ers.com Page
PT13204 14ers.com Page
Williams Mountain 14ers.com Page
PT13139 14ers.com Page
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14.8m - 6000ft - 12.5hrs
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The sky was spectacular as we logged some pre-dawn trail miles
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After summiting Williams 13039 we headed north to Williams South
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Looking back to Williams South (summit is on the left)
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Bumps between 13039 and Williams South (mostly class 2 and 2+)
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Looking back to 13039
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A spicy little number to the east
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Looking ahead to 13204, Williams, and 13139. The bump on the right is a sub summit of 13204
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Looking south to Grizzly(L) and company
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Heading up the final pitch to Williams South
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L2R: 13139, Williams, 13204
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L2R: 13139, Williams, 13204
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L2R: 13139, Williams, 13204
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Looking back to Williams South. Descending this cliffy section took some trial and error route finding. We found a route with one short class 4 maneuver.
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Descending the bump just before 13204
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13204 had some easy 3 scrambling to the summit
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The blocky granite on 13204 reminded me a lot of Jagged or Sunlight
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Kristi summits 13204. Williams behind
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Descending 13204
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Looking back to 13204 from below the first tower
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Key Photo! There is a crack against the far wall with chock stones in it. We climbed the crack one to the left of that. Class 4
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The crack we climbed
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Just above the crack
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We traversed up and around 13204. However it was apparent Williams' south ridge would not go direct
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We dropped from just above the saddle
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The start of Williams' south ridge
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We contoured as high as we could
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After ascending an open gully we though we were about done until we saw this. Williams' summit block.
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There was more class 4ish scrambling to the summit
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Kristi summits Williams
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13139's ridge. Our plan of staying the ridge and dropping left as needed kept things at class 3.
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At the bottom of the ridge we contoured right around the towers
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Looking back to Williams and our contour route to 13139's south ridge
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The south ridge of 13139
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Looking back to Williams
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The final walk up to 13139
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We were honored to sign the summit register from 1990
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After descending an eastern gully, we climbed 600ft to the saddle front and center
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Looking back to Williams
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The last 600ft of vertical felt intimidating from here but it wasn't too bad
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Looking back to 13139 from the saddle
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From the saddle we traversed meadows back to the Lost Man Loop trail. PT13001 from the west
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Lost Man Res... just over a half mile more and we were back at the TH
