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
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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
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I’m really looking forward to Windom’s west ridge. This will probably be attempted early Monday morning.
Windom Peak
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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
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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.
Happy Birthday John! I can’t think of a better way to spend the event than in CO climbing 14ers! Safe travels and see you Saturday at the camp. Climb On!