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Our goal for Thursday was to climb Eolus' south ridge, then descend the standard route to the "catwalk" and climb N. Eolus' south ridge. We started the hike at 5:30am. Here is a view of our route from Windom the day before:
The first part of the ridge was mostly very steep grass. Thankfully, the goats had pounded in numerous traversing trails. The grassy sections were broken up with fairly solid, very rough or "sticky" rock. Perfect for scrambling:
Here is a view looking down towards camp before the scrambling began in earnest:
Our tent is in the trees on the far side of the river, to the left.
Here is the sunrise over Windom:
Finally some warmth.
This is where the ridge got really fun and narrowed to about 18". Eolus' false summit is in the upper left hand corner:
Here is a close up of the narrow section:
And a few more shots of the ridge:
The view to the west:
The view to the east:
The view to the south (where we started):
And to the north was another false summit of Eolus. North Eolus is on the right and you can see the ridge that we will continue on:
This shot looks back at the false summit after passing over it:
And this one towards the real summit:
Mandatory summit photos:
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
Most were optional by going below the ridge, especially on the lower sections. But as you climb higher the ridge becomes more exposed and rocky. There are many ways to go about this ridge, depending on your comfort level with climbing. If you like scrambling you‘ll love it!
did it take you to finish this route from start to summit? Not including descending through the catwalk and doing North Eolus? Is it mainly a lot of class 3 scrambling or more of class 4?
It's been too long to remember the timing. I think that it was class 3 only, and much of it could be avoided until the last section of ridge. I recommend checking the topo for elevation gain and planning ~1,000 feet of ascent/hour, +/- for fitness.
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