Never Stop Climbing
Mountaineering, Technology, Coffee, and Other Essentials

We arrived in Durango last night and I will head back to Houston tomorrow. The trip surpassed all my expectations. I summited Mt. Eolus on Sunday. Alan Arnette finished his final 14er Sunlight Peak after a dramatic 24 hour battle with the weather and also summited North Eolus, Mt. Eolus, and Windom Peak. Patrick Vall sumitted Mt. Eolus and North Eolus. Kevin Martin, Anne Martin, and Robert LeClair each summited Eolus, North Eolus, and Windom.

It was a great adventure with amazing people. It all still seems very surreal at the moment but once I get back to Houston I’ll start work on a full trip report.

I’ve spent the day checking and re-checking gear. The Osprey is finally packed – and a couple pounds lighter than when I left Houston. The gang is assembling in Durango this evening. On saturday morning at 9am the six of us (Alan Arnette, Robert LeClair, Patrick Vall, Anne Martin, and Kevin Martin) will board the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Train. The train will take us to the middle of nowhere and drop us off so that we can begin the over 6 mile hike up 3,000 feet to the Chicago Basin. There we will make camp and prepare to attempt Windom, Eolus, and Sunlight.

If you want to follow the climbs live you’ll have to get up early. We’ll be leaving in two teams each day. I’ll be in the first team and it will likely depart camp around 3-4am each morning. The first attempt will be Mt. Eolus on Sunday morning followed by Windom Peak and Sunlight Peak on Monday. For more details on the routes we’ll take and images of the mountains we hope to climb check out my earlier post.

I’ll be carrying a Spot Satellite Messenger on the trip since we will be far beyond cell phone range. To follow the climbs live just click on the “Track John” button to the right. I will also use my Spot to send status updates to Twitter and Facebook. Alan Arnette will also be carrying a Spot and his updates can be found here. Don’t miss his blog post about this trip either.

Before I go I want to thank the many friends, family, co-workers, and members of the online climbing community (from around the world) who have offered their support and advice. My nervous but incredibly supportive girlfriend deserves special mention. This has been a long and difficult (but extremely rewarding) process and my support network has helped tremendously. Summits aren’t guaranteed but just being in position to attempt them with great friends in one of the most beautiful spots on earth is reward enough.

I would to get in one more good workout at elevation before the adventure begins on Saturday so I drove out 550 to hike Pass Creek Trail up to Engineer Mountain. The trail covers just over a couple of miles, gains over 1,400 feet, and meets up with the Engineer Mountain Trail somewhere around 11,500 feet. My goal was a relaxed hike to 12,000.

The concentration of oxygen at sea level is about 21% and the barometric pressure averages 760 mmHg. As altitude increases, the concentration remains the same but the number of oxygen molecules per breath is reduced. At 12,000 feet (3,658 meters) the barometric pressure is only 483 mmHg, so there are roughly 40% fewer oxygen molecules per breath. – The OA Guide to High Altitude

I was the second person at the trail head. The weather didn’t look great, it was damp and cloudy, but wasn’t especially threatening. I expected light rain, possibly even hail, but didn’t see either during the hike. The trail itself was pretty muddy from showers the night before but that didn’t present any real problems until the final 400 or so feet.

I moved quickly through the initial switchbacks. This is an amazing beautiful trail through alpine forest, small streams and waterfalls, and small lakes. I had the trail completely to myself until I reached the highpoint. Traveling solo in this kind of territory is new experience for me but I loved every minute of it.

I didn’t really notice the altitude until 11,300 but even then it didn’t give me too many problems. I had a little less power but felt great. Very few breaks were required throughout the hike and when I did stop to catch my breath I noticed that my recovery time was much improved. The few breaks that I did take lasted no longer than a few seconds. It felt good to keep pushing up.

Somewhere around 11,400 or 11,500 you leave the treeline and Engineer Mountain comes into view. The scene is stunning and well worth the hike. My camera phone doesn’t do it justice.

First View of Engineer Mountain from Pass Creek Trail

A couple hundred yards up the meadow and you run into intersecting trails at the “T”. I was feeling strong so I took the steep rocky, and today quite muddy, path directly up Engineer. What followed was a bit of a struggle but fun. Slipping was a constant threat but my trekking poles and careful foot placement kept me moving up despite the mud. I had to occasionally move off trail a few feet but eventually made it to an awesome bit of rock that allowed amazing views of the valley and rock glacier to my left.

iew from 12,050 Feet on Engineer Mountain

It had taken me less than two hours to reach this point. That’s not record time but I’m happy with the way my body responded to the altitude. I even briefly considered moving further up to around 12,500 or so but decided that I didn’t want to tackle the even steeper muddy trail above.

I hung out at 12,100 for a while. A trio of college girls (or recent graduates) caught up with me and said they were going to the summit. I wished them luck before tackling the steep muddy descent. The descent turned out to be easier and faster than anticipated – largely because I moved a few feet to the right of the trail, into a rocky gully, and avoided the mud. Once I was back to the intersecting trails heading down was predictably easy and fast. I moved quickly and only stopped to chat with hikers on their way up.

This hike was worth the trip in itself but my main goal was to test myself and get some altitude prior to our 14er attempts. That adventure starts Saturday morning with a 6 mile hike 3,000 feet up to about 11,200. I’m a little more confident (just a little) after this morning’s hike.

I felt surprisingly good late yesterday afternoon despite the fact that I’d been on the road since 3am. So after checking in and getting settled I took a trail across the road from the hostel for a short hike. It felt good to get the heart pumping again so after reaching the top of the hill, maybe 100 feet or so, I hiked back down, crossed the road, and started hiking the steep ridge behind the hostel.

The initial couple hundred feet was pretty tame dirt trail but I eventually found a steep, rocky, section that took me pretty directly up another 400 feet. The hiking was easy from then on but beautiful. Most of Durango was in view directly below me.

Steam from the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad train as it pulls into town.

Locals apparently spend a lot of time up here. There were several structures built from dead wood and stone – like these impressive chairs.

I eventually picked up about 1,000 feet of elevation before heading back to the hostel. Friends and family think I’m nuts for hiking the same day I arrived but it felt great to get moving – not too challenging at all.

Today will be a full rest day but there may be another hike Thursday. There are some easy trails nearby that pick up a couple thousand feet to 12,000. Whatever I do will be relatively easy because I don’t want to go into Saturday’s 6 mile +3,000 foot hike, and the climbs that follow, tired.

Today is my 42nd birthday. I’m leaving for Colorado in just a few hours. I’ll be spending the week in Durango and meeting up with Alan Arnette, Patrick Vall on Friday. Robert LeClair will join us a day later when we all take the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Train to the Needleton stop and begin the 6+ mile hike 3,000 feet up to Chicago Basin. Once there we’ll establish camp and prepare for summit attempts on Eolus, Sunlight, and Windom.

I’ll probably be attempting Eolus on Sunday morning. It will be an alpine start – probably before 4am. The same goes for Windom on Monday morning. You should be able to track my progress via my SPOT satellite messenger. Just refresh this page for updates.

Here’s the general plan as it stands now:

This is the hike up to Chicago Basin. Over 6 miles and about 3,000 feet of elevation gain. We’ll be packing in about 50 pounds worth of gear and food each.

Chicago Basin Approach
Route Details | Route Photos | Route Maps

Mt. Eolus will be my first attempt at a class 3 climb. It’s famous for a somewhat exposed section called The Catwalk (video). To be honest the exposure isn’t keeping me up at night. I’m more worried about my conditioning. I’ll deal with the exposure if and when I get there.

Mt. Eolus
Route Details | Route Photos | Route Maps

I’m really looking forward to Windom’s west ridge. This will probably be attempted early Monday morning.

Windom Peak
Route Details | Route Photos | Route Maps

A summit attempt probably isn’t a realistic option for me on this one but I’ll make the call after seeing what happens on Eolus and Windom.

Sunlight Peak
Route Details | Route Photos | Route Maps

Here you can see all three routes leading out of Chicago Basin.

This trip is amazing in so many ways. It’s a chance to spend time with my friend Alan Arnette who will hopefully finish climbing all of Colorado’s 14ers with a successful summit of Sunlight. It will be my first climbs with Patrick and Robert, both of whom have been a great source of information, encouragement, and humor over the past couple of years. And we get to do all of this in a remote and unbelievably beautiful place. I don’t know if I’m ready, or if I’ll succeed, but I’m going to try. I can’t think of a better way to start year number 42.

This list isn’t quite complete but it’s getting there. It doesn’t contain some of the winter gear like my Asolo AFS 8000s and some of the weights (on non-critical items) are estimated. However, most of the stuff needed for the Chicago Basin trip next week is on the list. I will be confirming some of the weights over the next few days as I work through my pre-trip checklists.

The great gear refresh of 2010 is now complete. With this final (for now) purchase I think I have a really solid 3 season setup that should, with some luck, last me a few years.

I actually hesitated on this one because I could have gotten by with my old Kelty Coyote 4750 on the next trip. However, the Aether 85 gives me 650 cubic inches more room with only a slight increase in weight (3 ounces), a well thought out compression system, lots of options for attaching tools/gear, a better suspension, and other conveniences. It’s a tried and tested mountaineering pack that should last me a few years.

I’ve wanted one of these packs since my first Belford attempt. My friend Alan Arnette had his that day (read his review) the contrast between his Osprey and much lighter gear vs. my unwieldy overstuffed Kelty was pretty striking. I don’t think better gear would have made the difference that day but it would have certainly made the attempt less miserable. Memories of that difficult attempt are still pretty fresh and make pulling out the credit card to buy better gear less painful than it probably should be.

I will say the Kelty served me well on long training hikes and on Guadalupe Peak. It’s bombproof, cheap, not unreasonably heavy for activity closer to sea level – a decent option for casual hikers but I wasn’t looking forward to packing it into Chicago Basin. I’m going to hold on to it though. I’ll load it up with about 50 pounds of something and use it as a dedicated training pack.