Resolution Arete climbs the long, turreted arete which forms the left edge of Aeolian Wall all the way to the top of Mt. Wilson. Despite a few scrappy sections, this is a classic alpine endeavor requiring good route-finding skills and efficient climbing.
I love a good adventure route, especially one that ends on a summit. I'd had this route on my Red Rocks to-climb list for years. Every time I looked at Mt. Wilson it beckoned me. In Spring 2025, I found myself on an impromptu climbing road trip with my friend Nate Beckwith. (Funny story: I had left my home in Estes Park on what I planned to just be three days in the Creek before returning home. It ended up being a six week climbing road trip involving Indian Creek, Zion, Lime Kiln Canyon, and Red Rocks.) Nate's plan for the spring was to get strong by hitting various sport climbing areas. My plan was to climb big routes. So we worked out a deal - I would join him sport climbing as long as we threw a big route into the schedule on occasion. The first of these big routes had been
The Moonlight Buttress (5.12c, 11p, 1200') in Zion. Followed by a week of sport climbing at
Lime Kiln Canyon in Arizona. This inched us closer to Red Rocks. So that's where we headed, with the plan to sport climb at
Clear Light Cave at Mt. Potosi and break up the bolt-clipping with an occasional big route. Our first big route was
The Original Route (5.12a, 13p, 1000') on Rainbow Wall. A week later, we climbed
Resolution Arete.
I thought that
Resolution Arete was a classic long adventure route, with varied and good climbing throughout, with enough challenging sections of climbing to keep one engaged. We never really discussed the lead/follow plan, but Nate began leading the route and ended up leading all the way to the top. I carried the pack full of water (we started with about 1.8L each = 8 lbs of water), food, extra clothes, headlights, etc. Weather was great - it started off a bit cloudy but cleared by mid-morning into a sunny day. But the higher elevation and a slight breeze prevented it from ever feeling too hot. We checked the route description at the start of every pitch except one pitch (Pitch 5), and we only got off route once (Pitch 5), but only by a bit.
The following page gives a route overlay, time stats, and photos from our climb.
My adventure trad desires were fully satisfied by this route, at least for a week. I am now looking forward to some sport climbing!
High 80's in Vegas means comfortable on Resolution Arete.
