| Peak(s): |
Sunlight Peak - 14,061 feet Windom Peak - 14,089 feet Mt. Eolus - 14,087 feet North Eolus - 14,042 feet |
| Date Posted: | 08/06/2014 |
| Modified: | 03/05/2015 |
| Date Climbed: | 07/26/2014 |
| Author: | glodder |
| Additional Members: | SenadR, wildlobo71, Shawnee Bob, Michael J, Oso Blanco, zdero1, saxlover, Cookiehiker, zsmith, Lady McClimbsalot, goingup, High_On_Thin_Air |
| Chicago Basin 14ers! |
|---|
|
This was the trip I had been looking at and researching for years and years. I think when anyone originally picks up Roach's 14ers book and reads through it, the trip to Chicago Basin to climb the four 14ers in the Heartland captivates more than any other. How can it not, with its crazy unique features to it, such as a train ride to the trailhead, a 6-mile backpack in to camp, and a probable 3-night adventure in one of the most remote areas of Colorado? The logistics for someone like me from northeast Kansas are a nightmare to plan out, and for that matter, Mike had never been able to plan out the logistics of this trip for himself despite living relatively close in Glenwood Springs. The Chicago Basin trip is not easy to figure out, nor is it supposed to be. In the summer of 2013, a group of climbers including Chuck and Noel, friends of mine and Mike's from the Front Range, had attempted to climb the four Chicago Basin 14ers. Chuck and Noel summited Sunlight Peak, Windom Peak and North Eolus, but did not summit Mt. Eolus, so their plan was to go back in the summer of 2014 to climb at least that one remaining summit. We came together in the spring and decided to try to plan the trip during the same timeframe in late-July. Of my normal climbing partners of Steve, Mike, Adam and Gordy... Steve, Mike and I were definitely in for the trip, while Adam and Gordy had family vacation conflicts and were not able to go. Noel and Chuck were in, along with our friend Mikey Z and his wife, Maggie. Mike and I had climbed Culebra with Mikey Z in the summer of 2013, and Mike had been on other climbs with Mikey Z as well. Another guy, Bill, decided he would go too, which I was very happy about. Bill had given me some good information on other peaks in the past, so we had corresponded many times but had never actually met. It would be good to meet him. There were several other individuals, mainly friends of Chuck's and Noel's, including Bob, Matt, Zach, Nathan, Danielle, Kay, Jenny, Senad, Andrew and Jorge, who all would be up in the Basin as well. The trip was set for Saturday, July 26th through Tuesday, July 29th. Steve (from Kansas City), Mike and I determined it would be better for us to come in from the Silverton side. Mike lives in the Glenwood Springs area, and Steve's plan was to work on the day of Friday, July 25th, and then fly in to Grand Junction on that evening, allowing me to pick up both them on my drive from northeast Kansas to Silverton. So, Silverton was more logical for us since I would be picking up Mike and Steve along I-70, but also because the 12:30 p.m. arrival back in Silverton on the final day (Tuesday) would allow us to drive back north and east a significant amount (vs. the 6:00 p.m. arrival in Durango). On that final day, I would be able to drop off Mike back in Glenwood, and then drop off Steve in Vail, where his family was vacationing. I would then stay in Denver on that Tuesday night, and make the rest of the drive back home on Wednesday. The rest of the group, except for Jorge, would be coming from Durango. The date of everyone's train ride was to be on Saturday, July 26th. Jorge would meet Steve, Mike and me in Silverton and ride the train in with us. Clear as mud. I told you the logistics were a nightmare. But I think we had it figured out reasonably well from the start. So I left Topeka on the morning of Friday, July 25th, to make the drive out to the Glenwood Springs area, where I would stay with Mike on Friday night. When I arrived that evening, we decided to meet at the Glenwood Hot Springs, which was a good pre-hike idea. We spent almost two hours there, and then left and arrived at Mike's house at around 8:15 that evening. We then talked for a while and retired for the evening, at around 10:30. I felt terrible that whole night, and I blame food poisoning from my dinner more than I blame any altitude sickness, because I've never really had any problems with the altitude before and I had just visited Colorado in late-June with my climbs of Mt. Elbert and Mt. Yale. Regardless of the reason, it sucked to start out the trip like this, especially on a trip where I would need a lot of energy. I did feel better on Saturday morning after we got going toward Grand Junction. I got some coffee and ate a banana and some grapes which helped. We picked up Steve at a hotel by the Grand Junction Airport. He had flown in on Friday night via flights from KC to Denver and then Denver to Grand Junction. We stopped at a grocery store in Grand Junction and picked up some additional last-minute items for our packs, and then we began the drive south to Silverton. The view of Mt. Sneffels from Ridgway was classic as always. We continued south on the Million Dollar Highway and arrived in Silverton at about 12:30, parking right next to the Silverton train station for the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. This was perfect timing, as we were in a position to have lunch and get our gear organized before our 2:30 train departure. We had lunch at a deli place in Silverton, and I choked down as much of a turkey sandwich as I could, but really didn't eat much of it, unfortunately. Hopefully I would have enough energy for this huge hike/climb ahead of me. At this restaurant, we met up with Jorge, who was riding the train with us and would make the 6-mile hike in to Chicago Basin with us. Jorge informed us at this point that his main goal on the trip was to summit Sunlight Peak, as he had already summited the other three 14ers on a previous trip, and he would most likely pack out on Monday instead of Tuesday so he could get back to Denver for work. That sounded fine to all of us. After lunch, we headed back to the car and organized our packs. We were ready by about 1:45, and we all then headed over a few blocks to where the train stopped. When boarding the train, we placed our packs into a luggage car of sorts at the beginning of the train, and then we boarded a gondola car where our seats were. This gondola car was open to the outside elements, and it was a great choice of seats for us. The train left the station at about 2:40, and we arrived at the Needleton stop at 3:40. We immediately got off the train, retrieved our packs, and the four of us were off on our trek to Chicago Basin at 3:45. The hike in began with a ¾-mile jog to the south where we joined up with the Needle Creek Trail. We then turned east (left), and continued up the excellent trail. After about 3 total miles, we reached a beautiful waterfall with a bridge crossing the creek underneath the falls. From there, it was about 3 more miles to Chicago Basin. We arrived at the beginning of Chicago Basin at around 6:15. The meadow was beautiful, and the views of Windom Peak and Peak 18 were wonderful. Jorge decided to camp here. Steve, Mike and I continued to the Upper Basin, where at about 6:30 we came upon the other campers in our group, on the east side of the stream flowing through the Basin. I immediately saw Mikey Z, Chuck and Noel and greeted them. Steve and I set up our tent a little bit away from the larger group, and Mike set up his tent close to ours. It was a great spot! Pic of Camp:  I tried to eat something, but I still wasn't hungry at all. I choked down a little bit of food but hardly ate anything. After attempting to eat, we discussed plans for the next day, our first summit day, and it appeared the larger group had decided to go for Mt. Eolus and North Eolus. Steve, Mike and I decided to plan for Sunlight Peak and Windom Peak, due to various reasons such as breaking up the large group into smaller hiking pockets, us worrying about not making all of the summits due to different hiking speeds, and the weather appearing better on Sunday than Monday (knowing this from our last phone reception and weather forecasts seen in Silverton), all of which meant Sunlight/Windom would be the better choice for the three of us on Sunday. So we made the tough decision to hike against the grain, and climb the opposite mountains of the group at-large. With Windom Peak and Peak 18 staring us smack in the face from camp, Bill gave us a quick tutorial on what he knew about the trail to Twin Lakes and the Sunlight/Windom/Peak 18 terrain, which helped us out significantly. I was tired, so I got in the tent to rest and possibly go to sleep. Steve hung around camp talking for a little while longer, and he got in the tent at around 8:45. We both dozed off every now and then, but for the most part had our normal terrible night's sleep in a tent. We got up according to plan at 3:30 a.m. and organized our day pack gear. The other climbers close to our camp were also up and getting ready. Steve, Mike and I were on the trail at 4:00, and all of the other climbers were shortly behind us. This was a beautiful hike up the valley in the dark, and the weather was perfect, allowing us to hike by the stars. We shortly reached the turn-off to Columbine Pass, which I took note of in case I ever was to come back to this area someday, on an adventure such as climbing Jupiter Mountain, a high 13er in the area. We continued on the Twin Lakes trail, and we arrived at Twin Lakes by about 5:15. We could see the silhouette of Sunlight Peak, so it was relatively easy for us to continue on the correct trail, but we never saw the correct turn-off to Mt. Eolus in the dark. As we increased our elevation above Twin Lakes, light began to grow over the ridgeline. The slog up to the ridge was not too bad, and we made it up to the Sunlight/Sunlight Spire saddle in really no time at all, greeting the sun when we arrived. This was a great spot, and we snapped a few pictures here. Pic of Steve, Mike and me at the saddle:  The next section of the trail toward Sunlight stayed left of the ridgeline. We eventually reached the first "Window" or "Worm Hole". We were not supposed to go through this window, but I did anyway, finding out about a minute later that I couldn't reasonably go up that way so I turned around. Mike had almost gone through the window, but at the last second he started climbing up to the left to the ridgeline. I followed him on this line. Although we were definitively off-route here, I thought this was a fun way to get up there. We encountered a few Class 4 moves and probably a Class 5 move or two. One particular move required me to grab on to a higher ledge with my hands, jump upward with my right foot to a higher diagonal rock, and then lunge my left foot above to the ledge where my hands were, in order to continue climbing that line. Mike and I had a good time in this area; here is a pic of me here:  We continued up this line, and we finally made it to the flat area below the summit block, where Steve was waiting for us. Steve had taken the correct route to and through the second "Window" or "Worm Hole" and we met up at this point just below the summit block, at about 7:00 on this perfect Sunday morning. The infamous summit block was just sitting there waiting for us. Steve climbed up to its summit first. He took it slow, and got up on the highest point and sat down. He briefly stood for a moment, before descending back down to us. I went up next. The initial incline was very straightforward, and I just ran up this incline on smooth rock to the first gap on the series of rocks beyond. The rock was very grippy and wonderful to climb on. I assessed the rock here and wondered if the terrain was easier over on the climber's left, but then decided that it wasn't easier and I stuck with the current line I was on. I widely stepped, with a slight lunge, across the first gap onto the 2nd-to-last rock just below the final summit block. Here, there was a smaller gap to cross to the final block, with a climbing aspect to it as well. My 6'3" height here significantly reduced the difficulty of this crossing, and I worked myself up onto the final summit block. I immediately summoned some gumption here and stood up on the summit block, and stayed standing up long enough to let Steve snap a few pictures of me while Mike was taking some video. I mention gumption here because it definitely takes some bravery to stand on that block, as there is significant exposure on the back side of the block, and the precipice of the block is just not that big of a spot to stand on. Pics of me getting up to the final summit block:     After standing for about 30 seconds, I sat down on the block for a moment before deciding to descend. On the immediate move from the summit block to the 2nd block, I did not have to jump off the top block like a lot of people talk about. I sat down on the summit block, reached my legs out, and easily made it to the rock just below the summit without jumping. On the next gap, I did the same thing, but had to lunge just a tad bit more here than I did on the summit-to-2nd-block move. I then easily scrambled down the smooth slabs back to the area below the summit block. My 6'3" height made a huge difference here on these blocks and I thought the moves were pretty straightforward to complete. Like I said, the Sunlight summit block has significant exposure on its back side and it definitely takes some courage to stand on it, but I thought sitting on the summit was pretty straightforward. I say that, but I'm 6'3" and I know my long legs made a huge difference here; a shorter climber would definitely have a harder time with the two gap crossings. A climber can also decide to just touch the top of the summit block with his/her hands from the 2nd-to-last block, if they're uncomfortable with completing the final move. After I descended off the block, Mike climbed up onto it with no real problems as well, with his 6'+ height aiding him as well. After Mike came back down, I went up onto the block a second time, and I filmed some video and snapped some pictures from up there. I thought this was a wonderful place. Obviously, we each had the Sunlight summit to ourselves, due to how small the actual summit block is, really only accommodating one of us at a time. We then descended back to the saddle, with Mike and I actually taking the correct route this time and descending back through the second window. Here is a pic of me through the window:  From the saddle, we surveyed the route to Windom from there. We could see a general line where we would stay relatively high without losing too much elevation and without going too far down into the basin. As we began to descend from the saddle, we passed Jorge on his way up. We were happy for him, that he was going to summit Sunlight, the only mountain he had left in this group of 14ers. After talking for a few minutes, Jorge then turned to go for Sunlight, as we turned toward Windom. Steve trailblazed in this section and was out ahead of Mike and me, but we all descended then ascended about the same line to arrive on Windom's West Ridge route. From there, it was a talus scramble to the summit, which took me about 45 minutes from the point where we reached the ridge. The final little scramble to the summit was really fun on Class 2+ to Class 3 terrain, and this was an excellent summit to stand upon. When we first arrived at the summit at about 9:00, there were three other guys there who left the summit after about five minutes. After that, Steve, Mike and I had the summit to ourselves, and we lounged around and engaged in our normal summit banter. Pics:     We then began the descent after about 15 minutes on the summit. The descent of the ridge back down to Twin Lakes was a standard descent on talus and scree, but it was relatively quick. Steve was way out ahead of us on this descent, and he ended up arriving at Twin Lakes probably 30 minutes ahead of Mike and me. Mike and I arrived there at about 10:30, and there was no sign of Steve anywhere. He had talked about potentially summiting all four mountains on this day, but I doubted he would try it based on it getting later in the morning and having to start worrying about storms rolling in, so I assumed he had continued the descent back to camp. Mike and I took a break at Twin Lakes, and this was a beautiful place to just lounge around. Pic:  After about 20-30 minutes, we began the descent to camp. On this descent in the light of day, we noticed how beautiful the Basin was, and there were several kind-of-majestic waterfalls we hiked very close to on this trail.  This descent from Twin Lakes took us about an hour, and we arrived at camp right around noon. There was no sign of Steve at camp, but Kay told us she ran into Steve at Twin Lakes, and he told her he was going for Mt. Eolus and North Eolus. So he WAS going for all four summits today! I was actually very hungry when we returned to camp, which was unusual for me at high elevations. After the tremendous exertion of the 6-mile backpack the day before and the two high summits from this morning, I think my body finally realized it needed to have something to eat, and this need overrode any sort of nauseous feeling of eating at this point. So I chowed down on a just-add-boiling-water lasagna packet, along with some trail mix, a few cookies, and a bacon cheese muffin offered to me by Noel. Wow, this food hit the spot for me and it was huge for me to get that substantial amount of food in me at that point in time. As many of us ate lunch, Mike and I realized that the other group was also very successful on this day, and that everyone had made the summits they were after, namely Mt. Eolus and North Eolus. We were very happy for everyone! And Chuck and Noel had successfully summited their final mountain of the group, Mt. Eolus. After lunch, Mike and I relaxed for a bit around camp, and on and off during the afternoon, there was some light rain and a little bit of lightning, but nothing that was overly concerning to me when thinking about Steve up high on the Eoluses. However, just before 3:00, it started raining heavily with some lightning and thunder, and so we all got in our tents to take cover. I dozed off, which was a good thing for me, and then I was awakened at about 3:30 by Steve, who had returned to camp after climbing all four peaks on this day. What an accomplishment! He told me all about it and gave me good insight into climbing the Eoluses the next day. After continuing to lay down and relax for a while, Steve and I emerged from the tent at about 5:00 or so and talked to Mike about the plan for the next day, Monday. Steve said that he would like to pack out Monday morning and take the train back to Silverton, and he would relax there on Monday and wait for us to arrive there at mid-day Tuesday. We thought that would work, but I would need to tent up with Mike on Monday night, so the plan was for Steve to move all of my stuff into Mike's tent when he packed things up the next morning. And I gave Steve my car keys so he could get into my car parked at Silverton. At this point, the rain started again, and we all got back in our tents. Mike and I had devised a plan to get up at 4:00, for a 4:30 departure to climb the Eoluses the next morning. The rain lasted almost all night. I was worried about our summit ambitions as the rain continued. But, at about 3:00 a.m., the rain finally stopped. Mike and I awoke at our planned time, we said goodbye to Steve and that we would see him in Silverton the next day, and we were hot on the trail at 4:30. We made mincemeat of the trail on this morning, arriving at Twin Lakes in an hour, at 5:30. Luckily, Mike and I had scouted out the turn-off to the Eoluses on the previous day, because it seems difficult to find this trail fork in the dark. We found it due to our scouting, but if we had been trying to find it without having been up here, it would have been tough. There were two other climbers here at this turn-off, and they were also climbing Mt. Eolus and North Eolus. We all found the turn-off together, and they took off slightly ahead of us. The weather at this point was halfway decent, but there appeared to be low clouds all around us. We turned onto the trail and began the trail traverse over to the obvious couloir which leads to the saddle between Mt. Eolus and North Eolus. This trail was not difficult, but it did become steep as we ascended higher into the couloir. As light came upon us, there were definitely low clouds blocking our view of Mt. Eolus. The trail took a surprising turn to the right up high, and winded its way through cliffs toward the saddle. Here is a pic of me close to the high alpine lake below the Mt. Eolus/North Eolus saddle:  During our winding through this section, and as the sun came up, the clouds began to burn off. We finally reached the saddle with a little bit of scrambling toward the end, and at this point, the weather was perfect and all the low clouds were gone. It looked like we had another perfect weather morning on our hands! The two guys in front of us had gone up to North Eolus first, but Mike and I decided to climb Mt. Eolus first. From the saddle, we ascended up onto the ridgeline. We quickly came up on the section known as the "Catwalk". Although the ridge was relatively narrow here, it really was nothing to be concerned about. Chuck had dubbed it the "Cakewalk" the day before, and as I crossed it, I tended to agree with Chuck. Here is a pic of Mike standing on the Catwalk with Mt. Eolus in the background:  After crossing this narrow ridge, we came up on a wall blocking our progress. This is the spot where the standard route goes off to the left of the ridgeline. Mike and I had previously talked about climbing the ridge proper, and we decided conclusively at this point to do exactly that. Our first goal was to bypass the initial wall, and get up onto the ridge somehow. We did this by traversing to the right side of the ridge, and then climbing up through one of several chutes leading to the ridge. These chutes have a little bit of loose rock initially, but once we got close to the ridgeline, the rock was extremely solid and comprised of larger blocks. For most of the rest of this climb, we were on top of the ridgeline, with maybe a few below-ridgeline moves mixed in there. Here is a pic of me climbing this ridge with North Eolus in the background:  This was an unbelievable Class 4 ridge to climb, on very solid rock. In hindsight, I wouldn't climb Mt. Eolus any other way. Apparently there is loose rock on the standard route that can be annoying, but this ridge climb was exceptionally solid and one of my favorite ridges I have ever encountered in any of the ridge climbs of my 55 14er summits. Mike and I reached the Mt. Eolus summit at 7:15, and the two of us basked up there for a while. Pics from the summit:   We had this summit and the views all around to ourselves. There were great views of Sunlight and Windom from here, along with good views of Pigeon Peak and Turret Peak. Pigeon/Turret:  Most awe-inspiring, though, were the incredibly rare close-up views of the Grenadiers and Jagged Mountain. Arrow, Vestal and Jagged all HAVE to be future climbs. Arrow/Vestal:  At about 7:35, Mike and I began the descent back to the saddle, and we decided to stay on the ridge proper on the descent as well. This worked well and it was not a problem at all descending this Class 3 to Class 4 terrain. About halfway down the ridge, we came upon the guys who were ahead of us and had already summited North Eolus; they were also doing the Class 4 ridge climb and we all commented on what a good decision that was. Mike and I continued on, and we made our way down the ridge, back across the Catwalk, and to the saddle again. We started our ascent to North Eolus, and we took note of the unique slabby Class 3 rock we were ascending. This was extremely fun rock to climb on! It reminded me very much of the rock on the Homestretch on Longs Peak. I loved this short climb to the North Eolus summit. Within about 10 minutes from the saddle, we reached the North Eolus summit, at about 8:15. Mike and I also had this summit to ourselves. There were more great close-up views of the Grenadiers and Jagged Mountain from here. Pics:   At about 8:30, Mike and I began the descent. This was not a difficult descent; it was mostly on-trail once below the saddle by a few hundred feet. We passed Twin Lakes and noticed a little bit of non-threatening cloud build-up starting. We eventually made it back down to camp at 10:30. With a 6-hour round-trip, we were much quicker on this morning than we anticipated. As we arrived, we noticed a few climbers in camp packing up their stuff, and they were planning to make the descent back to the train. Chuck and Noel were among these climbers, who had summited their main goal of Mt. Eolus on the day before, and they had had no need to go after Sunlight and Windom on this day so they had slept in and stayed at camp. Also among this group was Mikey Z and his wife Maggie, who had decided not to go for Sunlight and Windom after a glum night with a leaky tent. Maggie was also having some back issues which prevented her from making a summit bid on this day. When Mike and I saw these people packing to descend to the train, we thought for a minute about our prospects for the rest of the day. The weather was looking somewhat sketchy, based on the weather forecasts we had seen just prior to boarding the train, based on the significant rain the day before, and based on the little bit of cloud build-up we had seen at that point in the day. What were we going to do; just hang out in camp all day long and wait for it to rain on us? We knew we couldn't make it to the northbound Silverton train in time, but we could take the Durango train and have Steve pick us up in Durango that evening. It was only a 45-minute drive, and this would allow him to get back to Vail and his family much earlier on Tuesday. We knew he would be willing to drive to Durango to pick us up if arriving in Vail earlier was a possibility. So Mike and I packed up our stuff as well, and we headed down the trail with Chuck, Noel, Mikey Z, Maggie, Danielle and Nathan. This was a fun descent with all of these people together. Pics:   After about four miles, it started to rain on us, and then it rained hard on us! We all already had our pack covers on, anticipating the rain, but I decided not to put my rain gear on because the rain was actually refreshing to me at that point. The rain stopped just as we were approaching the suspension bridge at the train stop. We were all pretty stoked to have reached this point, and we threw our packs off and celebrated. It was about 2:30, so we had about an hour until the train arrived. I went down to the river and cleaned myself up a little bit, and changed my shirt and socks. That felt better. I then went back up and sat down with Mikey Z on the train track, and we talked for a long time sitting there. When we got up, we realized the track left a black mark on our shorts, which I was OK with since it covered up the rest of the shitass on my shorts from the climbing trip! We snapped about a million pictures sitting here waiting for the train, and we all had a good time. Pics:      The train finally arrived, and after boarding and getting going, we all predictably went to the refreshment car. They were out of hot dogs, but I chowed on two burritos and a beer, all of which hit the spot. The food and drinks were perfect for all of us, and a few toasts were had on a great trip. As we approached Durango, I called Steve to tell him to come pick us up at the Durango train station. This was when logistics got interesting. Steve answered, and I told him we would be in Durango shortly for him to potentially come to pick us up. He told me he was in Vail! The one thing Mike and I had not anticipated was the situation with Jorge. Jorge had also packed out on Monday morning and rode the train with Steve to Silverton. While on the train, Jorge offered to give Steve a ride to Vail on his way back to Denver on that afternoon. Steve obviously took him up on it, and gave my car keys to the folks at the Silverton train station. He had sent me a text to that effect, which I would have received when approaching Silverton the next day, and then I would have just retrieved the keys from the station and we would have been on our way. But now, we had no ride to Silverton. Plus, even if we could get back to Silverton on that evening, the train station would be closed and I would not be able to get my keys anyway. Chuck, Noel, Mikey Z and Maggie were staying at a hotel in Durango that night, and Mike and I decided to also get a room at that hotel. Mikey Z and Maggie graciously offered to give us a ride to Silverton the next morning, which was an incredibly nice gesture and Mike and I very much appreciated it. They said they had never been to Silverton before and wanted to check out the area anyway. So we all spent a nice rainy evening in Durango, had dinner together, retired for the night, had coffee and breakfast together the next morning, said our goodbyes to Chuck and Noel, and then Mikey Z and Maggie gave us a ride to Silverton. It was a great Monday evening and Tuesday morning, and it all worked out perfectly thanks to nice people and great climbing friends. Once back to Silverton, Mike and I retrieved our keys, threw our gear into the car, said our goodbyes to Mikey Z and Maggie, and started making our way back north toward Glenwood. We stopped in Grand Junction for a quick lunch, and then got back to Mike's house at around 3:15. We again went to the Glenwood Hot Springs, and Mike and I parted ways at about 5:00 as I started heading east toward Denver. The drive to Denver was uneventful, and I of course finished off everything with a Chipotle burrito for dinner on that evening before going to my hotel. With the Chipotle dinner, I was thinking I was now caught back up on nutrition and food in my body, although the scale at the Glenwood Hot Springs indicated I had lost 5 pounds on the trip. Actually, I was surprised I hadn't lost more, with the exertion combined with the lack of food over the 3-day climbing timeframe. The next day, Wednesday, I returned home from Denver. What a whirlwind of a trip! These were some of my favorite 14ers I've climbed, and they comprised my 52nd, 53rd, 54th, and 55th 14ers climbed, out of my list of 59. For Mike, it was his 54th, 55th, 56th, and 57th 14ers out of his list of 58! One left, Pikes. And I was so happy to be able to share these wonderful mountains with a group of such outstanding people. Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow): 
|
| Comments or Questions | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Caution: The information contained in this report may not be accurate and should not be the only resource used in preparation for your climb. Failure to have the necessary experience, physical conditioning, supplies or equipment can result in injury or death. 14ers.com and the author(s) of this report provide no warranties, either express or implied, that the information provided is accurate or reliable. By using the information provided, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless 14ers.com and the report author(s) with respect to any claims and demands against them, including any attorney fees and expenses. Please read the 14ers.com Safety and Disclaimer pages for more information.
