One of the main reasons for taking the train from Durango to access Chicago Basin is climbing Fourteeners. Windom Peak, Sunlight Peak and Mt. Eolus all ring Chicago Basin and are part of the 54 official 14,000 foot summits in Colorado. They are also considered three of the most remote Fourteeners in terms of access. If you don’t take the train from Durango or Silverton, it requires a 15-mile backpack hike into the basin. Suffice it to say, many if not all of the backpackers getting off at Needleton have the goal of summiting at least some if not all three of the towering peaks.
We started off the first day with Windom Peak, which is considered the easiest of the three. Peaks are rated in difficulty by a Class system, which runs from 1(easiest) to 5 (hardest). Harder climbs are rated more difficult due to the amount of exposure, and the climbing skill and route finding required. A Class 1 climb up a Fourteener is basically hiking a trail all the way to the top. A Class 4 mountain requires significant rock climbing skills and can be very scary. A Class 5 climb will require the use of ropes, harness, and climbing gear.
Windom is rated as a 2+, but we quickly found it to be more than challenging. While camping at the basin shortens the distance of the climbs, you are still climbing 3000 feet over 3 miles, which is pretty darn steep. Once you get above 13,000 feet, it’s pretty much all scrambling, and climbing using your analytic skills as well as physical skills. I was feeling completely tired after the first 1500 feet, and thought about turning around right then. But Bryon encouraged me to have a snack and push on, and miraculously, the last 1500 feet didn’t seem quite so bad and before you knew it, we had found the summit block. Success!!
Buoyed by our conquering Windom, we decided to push our luck and try for Mt. Eolus the next day, rated as a strong Class 3. The hike started the same way, climbing the same trail over the first 1500 feet, but then climbing up a basin to a ridge from there. The climb up the basin basically went straight up over little tiny crushed rocks (called scree), requiring me to really pace myself and take frequent small breaks to catch my breath. It got harder to follow the route, even though occasionally we would pick up the cairns (small little piles of rocks to signify the route) to help us find our way. We’d been told to aim for the notch, and even though we got a little off route, did make the ridge at a lofty 13,700 feet. No sooner did we make the ridge, than Bryon exhales and says, “Oh my God!”
Mt. Eolus and its dreaded Catwalk
We’d read and heard about the infamous Catwalk traverse you had to cross to make the final summit push, but that did not full prepare us for our first look at it. A narrow strip of rock led across the ridge, with steep drops off either side. As if that weren’t bad enough, once you got to the other side, the final 300-foot climb to the summit looked pretty exposed, steep and scary as well. My stomach felt queasy and nauseous just from looking at it, and my palms started getting all sweaty. We’d come all that way to be faced with this. We decided to try and climb North Eolus, a sub-peak that topped out at 14,039, and that was a bit scary too, with some moderate exposure and climbing. I tried not to think about the drop-offs and focused on climbing the rock, and amazingly we did make the North Eolus summit. The problem — the main summit looked as insurmountable as ever.
We came down and inched a bit out on the ridge leading to the Catwalk, an area where the ridge narrowed to two feet wide with drops on either side. Bryon said he was feeling more comfortable, but no matter how I tried to talk myself into it, I couldn’t get myself to go. We finally decided to head down only to spot an older man we’d met in camp who was on a quest to finish all 54 Fourteeners. He was nearly an hour behind us, but saying determinedly that he would never come back there again, he set off intrepidly toward the catwalk. As we descended, we could see him at one point on his hands and knees crawling across. Later that night, he stopped by our camp to tell us he had in fact summited, though the entire hike had taken him almost 12 hours. I felt a bit embarrassed and humbled that a 68-year old man had done what I could not and defeated his fears to finish the summit climb. But then again, that man had also served in Vietnam as a fighter pilot, so maybe he knew a bit more about facing fears and pushing through them than I did.
Oh well, there’s always next year.
