Finally finishing off Chicago Basin
(3rd try nets Mt. Eolus)

2-4 Sep 2008 - by Patrick Lilly

Eol_s_084tr

We (Trisha and I) took the train from Durango and hiked from Needleton up the Needle Creek trail on Tuesday, 2 September, 2008. After missing Eolus in the fog four weeks earlier, the sole purpose of this trip was to bag Eolus. It would be my third attempt, having been turned back by hard snow in June of 2005 on a run from the Purgatory TH.

With a whole day to climb, we slept until 6 am MDT, hit the trail at 7:15 am, and started across the Catwalk about 11 am. The Catwalk was fun, and the ledges beyond turned out to be easier than I had feared. We summitted at 12:05 pm. After re-crossing the Catwalk, and descending into the broad, flat basin SE of North Eolus, we stopped for a lunch break, and I did a quick out-and-back to climb Glacier Pt. 14 min. up, two minutes on top to sign the register, and 14 minutes back.

We took our time going down, too, under mostly sunny skies, and got back to camp (about 11,100 ft.) at 5 pm. We were able to get 13 hours of sleep before hiking back down to Needleton the next day. It felt to--finally!--have Chicago Basin finished off. Fourteener #40 for me, #38 for Trisha.


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