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 Peak:  Mt. Eolus
 Route:  Chicago Basin Approach
 Range:  San Juan
 Posted By:  dakotasmama
 Date of Info:  6/1/2025
 Date Posted:  6/2/2025
Condition Update

There are 91 trees across the six miles of trail into Chicago Basin that are large enough you have to climb over, shimmy under, or route find around (at least 91 - every time I wasn’t sure which number I was on, I went with the lower of the two). So keep that in mind when planning how long it will take. I packed in snowshoes for the section above Twin Lakes and they only helped a little - dangerous, deep, soft spring snow conditions all the way up to the notch - I fell and slid backwards approximately 500 feet on the way up, then the snow collapsed under one leg on the way down and it took over 15 minutes to free it. There’s a huge crack about halfway down the couloir and I was terrified it would avalanche the entire time. Once I got to the notch I did Eolus first, lots of mud and running water so I was very careful, especially across the catwalk. After all of that, North Eolus was the quickest, easiest scramble ever. Took nearly 9 hours to go from Chicago Basin to the summits and back.


#1) Looking back towards Twin Lakes#2) Couloir#3) Looking down into the basin from the catwalk#4) Sunlight and Windom from Mt. Eolus#5#6#7#8


Comments or Questions
dcsheldon
User
Trinities
6/3/2025 3:40pm
Thanks for this condition report. Did you get a view of the Trinities?


dakotasmama
User
Trinities?
6/3/2025 10:59pm
I looked over my summit videos and took a few screenshots that I *think* are the Trinities? I added them to my review pictures, sorry if I didn’t identify them correctly.


Dad Mike
User
Sunlight and Windom
6/4/2025 10:48am
That's a lot of snow in the upper basin. Do you think you needed the snowshoes? Was most of that snow firm and supportive?

Did you climb Sunlight and Windom?

I talked to the forest service and I think they are headed up there this week to remove the downed trees. So you may have just missed that service by a few days.


jwiszyns
User
Strava or GPS
6/5/2025 8:04am
Any chance you recorded the hike and can share your strava or gps report? Curious about miles and elevation, etc. Want to attempt without the train but the distances scare me a little.


dcsheldon
User
Additional pictures
6/5/2025 1:47pm
Thanks. That's what I wanted to see!


dakotasmama
User
Re: Dad Mike
6/5/2025 6:01pm
I’m glad to hear they’re still funded enough to go do tree removal. I had never seen that many down on any trail, I thought it had to be due to budget cuts.

There is SO much snow in the upper basin, when I saw the big crack across the couloir it went down at least 10 feet. The snowshoes were very helpful as long as I was on snow untouched by the sun - even though I was in the upper basin by 6:30am, it was already softening and the snowshoes collapsed about a foot with every step. On my descent, nothing helped. Even with the snowshoes, I was post-holing up to my knees.

I did Sunlight last fall; the plan was to head over and hit Windom after I did Eolus/NE but I could see how much snow was in that basin, I was injured from my fall and exhausted from digging myself out and navigating the softened snow to get back to the lake. Plus there were three separate thunderclouds moving over that basin on my descent.ImageImage[/img][/img]


dakotasmama
User
Re: Strava or GPS
6/5/2025 6:05pm
Mt. Eolus/North Eolus from
I recorded the hike into the basin and the summit hike separately on AllTrails, here’s the link for the summit hike.

Chicago Basin
https://api-v5.alltrails.com/explore/recording/afternoon-hike-aac9337-770?sh=sarah-boggs-7&utm_campaign=memory&unfurl=false&showMemory=true

It was 6.1 miles from the train stop to my starting point for the summit hike. I didn’t know there was a way to do it WITHOUT taking the train, let me know if/when you decide to go for it, as I have to go back for Windom at some point.


d_baker
User
Image 7
6/5/2025 9:03pm
Is the Trinities.
Several of the others (5, 6, and 8) are Arrow and Vestal. l. to r.


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