Top 5 tips for Chicago Basin

[tundraking]

Bring some money for food/drink on the train on the way back. You will be hungry and the beer on the train is great.

Bring a Spot device or a Satellite phone (heavy) for the Basin, depending on your communication needs. No hope of getting cell phone reception up there.

Start early, watch the weather and be prepared for it. It is unpredictable down there and changes quickly.

Take a camera, its a beautiful area.

Yes on N Eolus, don't skip it.

Practice for goat staring contests.

[CHWitte]

1. Take your time route finding the ledges on Eolus. Don't get in a hurry and turn back if you get on a ledge that turns out to not work well. Be very, very careful going from ledge to ledge.

2. Be prepared for the trek up to Twin Lakes each day from the basin. It's a nice hike but a lot of work.

3. Also, be ready for a long grueling day up Sunlight and Windom, especially if you are doing the Sunlight summit pitch and will exert a lot of effort in building up your confidence on this. It really is major day of climbing.

4. DO NOT FEED THE GOATS! They are fun to take pictures of but a little bit intrusive at times.

5. Take lots of pictures as you will get some amazing opportunities from each of the peaks.

[catullus]

Will see you up there Yikes and feral. My dad and I will be attempting Eolus on Tuesday.

Chase

[tommyboy360]

Bump! This is a great thread and I'm enjoying the posts. Much easier to read 5 bullets than go through all of the TRs.

I have this trip on my hit list for the fall and I'm debating Cheeseburglar's advice vs. Doggler's TR who took the train from Silverton and climbed all 4 in day. I'm also curious why there's so little beta on climbing Windom's north slope?

http://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepor ... m=tripuser

[djkest]

I don't have 5 tips because we are doing it in 8 days. I do have some questions though:
1) Should I bring my super lightweight 35 degree down bag, or my old warhorse 20 degree bag that weighs 2x as much?
2) How hot/how much shade is there on the approach hike?
3) What's the one thing you didn't bring but wish you had?

Thanks guys. We are trying to do the whole business in ~52 hours. DSRR approach... (:

[UTmike]

I climbed the north slope of windom last labor day and didn't care for it. The entire way was entirely too loose for my comfort. It's the most scared I have been on a 14er. If I get to climb those again I'll probably just descend Sunlight further and cut across to meet up with the standard route up windom. But I'm sure there's others out there that are more comfortable on loose rocks than me. I was able to do all 4 of the peaks in a single day though thanks to some amazing weather the entire weekend!

1) your 35 degree bag should be perfect

2) I remember the approach being a tough hike with all the weight and I was sweating a lot. But its mostly shaded if I remember correctly.

Enjoy!

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri= ... fqfyzUFrr8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[fepic1]

Do not kiss a goat !

[Kitten]

I don't have 5 tips because we are doing it in 8 days. I do have some questions though:
1) Should I bring my super lightweight 35 degree down bag, or my old warhorse 20 degree bag that weighs 2x as much?
2) How hot/how much shade is there on the approach hike?
3) What's the one thing you didn't bring but wish you had?

Thanks guys. We are trying to do the whole business in ~52 hours. DSRR approach... (:

My advice:
1) you should be fine with the 35 degree bag, remember it is always warmer inside the tent. Last week when we were there temperatures did not drop below 35 (I had my thermometer handy).
2) there is shade almost all the way from the trees, but it can be humid and hot.
3) mmhh, I did not miss anything, maybe ice-cream??

Have fun!

[nyker]

To add on to this question: I've seen a few trip reports which have varied, so what is the "normal "strategy" to employ for this group of peaks?
Is it:

Day 1: Take Train, hike in, set up camp
Day 2: climb, camp
Day 3 climb, camp
Day 4 packout and train back?

Is two peaks a day reasonable here?

Or it is even possible for non-triathletes to bag all four in one day or is this way too optimistic?

And, do you leave your car at the train station for four days? Is it safe there? (Remember, if you leave a car alone around here on the Cross Bronx Expressway, you'd be lucky to have sheetmetal left after one night! haha.

Alternatively, hiking in and not taking the train means and extra 3-4 days on the trip and commensurate provisions?

Thanks, didn't mean to hijack, but figured these answers would be helpful to the post also.

[Kitten]

To add on to this question: I've seen a few trip reports which have varied, so what is the "normal "strategy" to employ for this group of peaks?
Is it:

Day 1: Take Train, hike in, set up camp
Day 2: climb, camp
Day 3 climb, camp
Day 4 packout and train back?

Is two peaks a day reasonable here?

Or it is even possible for non-triathletes to bag all four in one day or is this way too optimistic?

And, do you leave your car at the train station for four days? Is it safe there? (Remember, if you leave a car alone around here on the Cross Bronx Expressway, you'd be lucky to have sheetmetal left after one night! haha.

Alternatively, hiking in and not taking the train means and extra 3-4 days on the trip and commensurate provisions?

Thanks, didn't mean to hijack, but figured these answers would be helpful to the post also.

Yes, this is exactly what we did, 4 day plan. It gives you time to relax at camp every afternoon and then leisurely packout and come down. Some people choose also to packout the same day they do the Eolus's group (since it is a shorter trip).
Not taking the train can add one to two extra days, although it depends, if you can hike 15 miles from Purgatory with a loaded pack then you would be ok, but it is a long hike... and the next day you have the peaks... I think it is better to be rested.
We left the car at the parking lot in the train station (7$/day), it is safe, we thought it was better there than to park it somewhere else in town.

[Aggie_05]

Alternatively, hiking in and not taking the train means and extra 3-4 days on the trip and commensurate provisions?

My wife and I hiked in from Purgatory last week, and our plan was to hike the whole way in, have 2 days for summiting, then hike out. Her knee started hurting on the hike in, so we camped at around mile 8 (there are some sweet spots along the Animas, plus campfires are allowed since you're not in Chicago Basin yet). This was the resulting itinerary:

Day 1: Hiked 8 miles, camped next to Animas around 1 mile from the Needle Creek trail
Day 2: Hiked 7 miles up to Chicago Basin, thought about summiting but clouds were rolling in
Day 3: Started hiking at 4:30 and summited all 4, back at camp around 11:30, packed up camp and hiked all the way out, reaching the car at 8 pm

Day 3 was crazy -- well over 20 miles and who knows how much elevation -- but we were glad to be back at our car. We found some pay showers by 8:30 and dinner in Silverton by 9. Another bonus hiking in is all the raspberries and strawberries along the animas trail...

Also, this makes two years in a row that the train was shut down due to rock slides while we were there...keep that in mind.

[peter303]

Has the mudslide been cleared?
Nothing about it on their webpage.