North Eolus - 14,039 ft

Mount Eolus - 14,083 ft

Date: 5/25-27/07

Climbers: George Barnes, Joey Luther

RT distance:  ~21 miles

Elevation gain:  ~8700 feet

Trip Report:

Joey and I are both very close to finishing the fourteeners, so we thought we would spend the long weekend in Chicago Basin.  Memorial Day is probably still "early season" for hiking in this area and a foot of new snow the week before didn't help our odds.  Regardless, we decided to drive down to Durango Thursday night and see what we could do.  The drive down was somewhat nervous, as every mountain range we passed was dramatically blanketed with new snow.  After dinner at the Scoot'n Blues in Durango (complete with country music karaoke), we found a cheap room and packed our bags for the next day.

I think I can run faster than this train

The train dropped us off in Needleton at 11:45AM just as the cloudy skies started to sprinkle.  We would have cloudy skies and thunder for most of the hike in, but never more than the occasional sprinkle of precipitation.  Knowing we had 8 hours of daylight to make our way in to Chicago Basin, we took our time and arrived at camp after a leisurely 4.5 hours.  We encountered fairly continuous snow above 10.2K, but not enough to warrant putting on our snowshoes or gaiters.  The skies cleared as we entered the basin, granting us phenomenal views of the area.

Views on the hike in.  Check out that deeply inset couloir on Aztec (?) Mountain!

Joey before and after wearing a heavy pack for 7 miles

Views from our camp at 11.2K

The recent snow made finding a flat and dry campsite pretty difficult.  After 30 minutes of poking around we found a decent spot a few minutes away from the Columbine Pass junction.  We went to bed with an alarm set for 4AM and optimistic plans of bagging all of the fourteeners the next day.

Despite waking up at 4AM, we didn't start moving towards the Twin Lakes headwall until 5:20AM.  Making coffee and hanging food in nearby trees apparently took longer than expected.

By the time the sun came up we had snowshoes on and were making slow but steady progress towards Eolus and North Eolus.  Two skiers accompanied us on our approach, who would eventually head for the steep couloir on Eolus.  To avoid sharing the route on Eolus with another party, we decided to head for North Eolus first, and evaluate the Catwalk ridge for a traverse to Mount Eolus.  Another party had recently been up Eolus, and we were happy to borrow their packed trail up the route.

Sunrise in Chicago Basin

Climbers ascending the East Couloir on Mount Eolus

Joey and North Eolus

After a blisteringly slow 4 hours we reached the summit of North Eolus at 9:20AM.  The views of the San Juans were obviously incredible, but I think we were both fairly distracted by the corniced Catwalk ridge over to Mount Eolus.  The previous ascent party had opted to pass on the Catwalk, for obvious reasons.

Despite being a bit anxious about the Catwalk, we decided to head down and see how things looked up close.  The ridge was immediately snowy and exposed, but not unreasonable for anyone comfortable on such terrain.  As we progressed the ridge became more heavily corniced (but no less exposed!), and I opted to cowboy up and go after it bareback style.  We were halfway to Eolus (and past the narrowest parts of the ridge) when we felt the need to reevaluate our situation.  The cornice we were straddling was growing in size and feeling increasingly unstable.  As we contemplated our prudence, we watched numerous sun triggered snow sloughs come off our remaining route.  This pretty much made the decision for us, and with no shortage of frustration we reversed our tracks back towards North Eolus.

Catwalk from the summit of N. Eolus

George and Joey heading across the Catwalk

View of our tracks on the Catwalk from Eolus (the next day).

Once we retreated from our Catwalk expedition we considered a quick romp up the east couloir on Eolus.  The couloir would dump us out nearly on the summit, and we were already at 13000 feet.  Despite these two obviously good things, we had concerns about the softening snow and increasing rockfall in the area.  We would eventually agree to come back earlier the next day and attempt the couloir under firmer conditions.  Spending an entire day just to summit an unranked fourteener was a little annoying, but knowing that we made decisions for the right reasons was sufficient consolation.

On our way back to camp we ran into a group of 4 or 5 who had spent the day attempting Sunlight and Windom.  They reported that despite having the benefit of a belay (rope) on Sunlight, no one in their party had the cojones to make the final, exposed Class 4 moves onto the summit.  Apparently the summit block itself was fairly clear, but the 2 or 3 blocks leading up to it were covered with ice and snow.  This was certainly disheartening news, as I wondered if we would have the bravado to attempt these moves without a rope.  On the other hand, I feared that if we got up to the summit block we might "want it too much" and make regrettable decisions.  We both agreed that we needed to stand on the summit block to say we climbed the peak.

Due to the layout of the basin, we agreed to try Mount Eolus via the east couloir in the morning.  If we couldn't climb all the peaks it made sense to at least finish off the two peaks that were on one side of the basin.  Knowing that we'd be repeating our ascent route we made a high gear cache of snowshoes, axes, crampons, and helmets to minimize the amount of gear we'd be ferrying up and down the headwall.

By 3AM the next morning we were again on our way up the trail.  Feeling much better acclimated, we reached our gear cache in under an hour and strapped on our snowshoes.  By 5:30 we were trading our snowshoes for crampons and gazing up the couloir.  The same party we had talked to the day prior was already well up the couloir, apparently getting a much earlier start than us.  We waited until the were out of the couloir before we started front pointing our way up.

The snow here was my favorite flavor: steep and firm.  We made short work of the climb, reaching the notch on top just as the sun came up behind Sunlight Peak.  At the notch we met the other party on the way back down from the summit.  To our disappointment, they reported that they would be roping up for the descent.  We knew that this meant they'd be occupying the couloir for the foreseeable future, and it would be challenging for us to descend above them without trundling snow down on them.

The couloir tops out around 14K, and we had only a short traverse to the summit proper of Mount Eolus.  This final stretch proved to be fairly engaging due to sugary snow conditions.

"All that sugar [snow] sure made the traverse sweet!". - Joey

Expecting that we had some time to kill (with the party roped up in the couloir) we lounged on the summit for about half an hour.  Even after visiting 57 of 59 fourteener summits, sunrise in the San Juans at 14000 feet is still spectacular, and time passed quickly.  The view of our tracks on the Catwalk proved to be more than a little amusing from this vantage too.

Turret Needles

Joey got serious and applied Banana Boat War Paint for the upcoming descent.

We reversed our tracks back to the notch above the couloir, and saw that the other party was less than a rope length down the couloir.  Not anxious to hang out in/above the now sun baked couloir, we asked if we could descend (carefully) above and with them.  We carefully kicked steps down the couloir, and managed to not bombard them with any significant snow.  Somebody apparently set the thermostat in the couloir to "broil" and we were both "medium well" by the time we got down.

From the base of the couloir we enjoyed almost a thousand foot/half mile glissade towards Twin Lakes.  The angle of the glissade was relaxed enough that I was comfortable opening the speed up a bit on my way down.  I decided it was time to start braking when the seat of my Mammut pants began growing uncomfortably warm.  I've seen more than a few pairs of "assless chaps" from similar glissades, and I wasn't anxious to own a pair myself.

Our plan was to head for Sunlight and catch up with another party we knew had attempted the peak while we were on Eolus.  The climbers we had hoped to rendezvous with ended up making a ski descent that took them away from the line on which we expected to meet them.  Consequently, at 9:45AM we were 1000 feet from the summit of Sunlight and faced with a decision.  Option one: Turn around now, make it back to camp in time to catch the train out today, and come back under more favorable conditions.  Option two: Continue up the peak, possibly get skunked by ice and snow, spend another night in the tent, get back to Denver after 1AM Monday night, and still need to come back later in the summer.  As we weighed our options we watched clouds build in the previously cloudless sky.  After no small amount of soul searching we decided to boogey back to the tent and try to catch a train out to Durango.  Because I knew I wouldn't be finishing the fourteeners this trip there was no real reason to stay another day to attempt nearby (easier) Windom Peak. 

 We'd later find out that the other party had to settle for touching the summit block with their avalanche probes as the final moves looked too dicey (especially in ski boots!).  Knowing that no one made it onto the summit block all weekend certainly made me feel better about our decision to come back later in the summer.

We cruised the 7 miles from camp back to Needleton in less than 2.5 hours, which gave us ample time to soak our feet in the Animas River before boarding.  All in all it was a pretty enjoyable way to not finish the fourteeners!

Joey looking for a good place to nap in Needleton.