Route: Chicago Basin Approach Posted On: 2023-05-18, By: Kya Cav Info: Chicago Basin 5/11/23-5/13/23 Dry trail about 3.5-4 miles in. Then solid snow coverage rest of the way up. We camped at 11,000 feet and basically at the end of the flat valley. All peaks still in for summit ski decents but will definitely fade away after a week or so of sunny skies. Go getr done! |
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Route: West Ridge Posted On: 2022-09-29, By: scott_s Info: From the notch around 13800' to the summit is starting to accumulate snow, barely a factor right now but it won't be long. Probably could have used traction for a few steps but I didn't bother. Otherwise summer conditions on the rest of the route |
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Route: West Ridge Posted On: 2022-09-20, By: Buckie06 Info: Small patches of snow here and there, totally avoidable though. Basically summer conditions. We had microspikes but never had to use them |
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Route: West Ridge Posted On: 2022-09-16, By: jtfoss1 Info: We cut over from Sunlight and made a direct line for Windom's ridgeline. We ascended some mostly solid class 3 directly up to the ridge about 1/4 of the way up from the saddle with Peak 18. This seemed like a very easy way to combo the two. We saw some people working their way around to the left to avoid losing elevation but that seemed far worse than what we did. This peak is class 3 in my opinion, and not even in the gray area between 2 and 3. There is some exposure on various parts of the route, including at the super funky summit. Overall, a really fun mountain. |
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Route: West Ridge Posted On: 2022-09-05, By: shapovalovm Info: Did the whole CBasin from Purgatory: Day 1: Started at 9:10. Parking was full, so I had to park near the community center (lots of additional parking there). Got to the basin by 2:45. Lots of people! Camped at 11200 Day 2: started 5:10, did 4 peaks, back to camp by 1pm. Started down at 1:30, back to the car by 6:50pm Peaks (in order): 1) Eolus: class 2 to the notch, perfectly cairned, no issues with navigation even in pitch dark. The catwalk is nothing to be afraid of, if you can walk in a straight line (it's like 3-4 feet wide at worst). Scramble up is easy. 2) N Eolus. A tiny baby scramble from the notch. Overall from Eolus it took me 25 min to get there 3) Sunlight: shit shute until 13800, horrible experience. But from there it's a ton of fun. No way it is class 4, though, even the summit block. The fall from there is to the nearest rock which is like 5 feet below. I understand it may be scary to people, but so may be the catwalk, but we don't call it class 4 do we? 4) Windom. Having done 3 peaks, this one felt hard. The views are fantastic though. Also, again, I don't think the rating is right. Haven't seen a single person who managed to summit it with no scrambling above the saddle, so should be class 3. If Sneffels and Kit Carson are class 3, this one definitely must be class 3 as well |
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Route: West Ridge Posted On: 2022-07-25, By: cougar Info: Conditions are full summer for all the Chicago basin peaks. All trees are cleared off the trail. The washout section is pretty short, like .2 mile stretch at 10k feet, and partially patched already. Routes up the peaks are well marked and cairned, including between Sunlight and Windom. Flies are awful all day and night in the basin and along the trail, but none at Needleton. There was a goat that mostly was into the ladies, and porcupine at night. Despite the wet forecast, the weekend was surprisingly dry in the area, although it looked stormier a few miles north and easy. |
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Route: West Ridge Posted On: 2022-07-04, By: MountainBuhn Info: (Pics on Mt Eolus review) Copying this info for all 4. Backpacked in from Purg on Friday 7/1. Started at 3:30 and got to the lowest spot in Chicago Basin at 9pm. Started the day on Saturday at 2:30am attempting all 4. Mt E: Clear of all snow. Catwalk is overrated imo. Ledges were far tougher (and longer). Some loose rock to deal with. We found staying under the ridge was the best option on the way up. Headed more straight east on the way down. N E: Easy, self explanatory, maybe a slightly sketchy move getting from the saddle of Mt E to the beginning of the climb if coming from Mt E. Pup made it up N Eolus with no help. Put him in a bag for ledges due to the rockfall potential. Sunlight: Started from Twin at 10:30am after resting after Eolus. Storm clouds were moving in but we decided to send it anyway (wouldn't recommend). Red gully was bad as advertised but not as bad as say sneffels scree or Wilson/Diente scree so it's relative. Got to notch with plenty of thunder but no lightning so we went for it. Class 4 move wasn't bad but tougher on the way down if you're shorter than 6'. I thought the move into the “chimney tunnel” was harder than the leap. Booted it off as thunder was heard straight above us. Pup stayed below class 4 move and my partner and I summited at different times. Windom: Weirdly my favorite. Boulder hopping up to the notch was tough. Notch up to peak was a blast. Pup needed a couple of butt shoves but besides that was good. Summit block of Windom was a blast. Definitely plenty of class 3 fun (the class 2 rank is just incorrect). Back to the lakes by 5pm. Somehow had no rain fall on us. It felt like there was a force field around the 4 peaks and we were just extremely lucky for a monsoon weekend. Backpacked out 7/3 in 4 hours of rain (finally got us). Fun weekend. To summit all 4 in one day is something else. Would do sunlight again and spend more time at the top. Real calf burner |
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Route: West Ridge Posted On: 2022-06-30, By: HikesInGeologicTime Info: (See Sunlight Peak CR for info about the approach.) Snow is largely avoidable, though there are just enough patches on what appears to be the main path to get your soles wet at potentially inconvenient spots where you'd want to have good grip on your footholds. There might be a way to keep this route strictly Class 2+, but if so, that option is still buried under a snowfield just below the summit, so at least a few Class 3 moves are necessary. |
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Route: West Ridge Posted On: 2022-01-12, By: bmcqueen Info: Getting to the Windom saddle was trickier than I expected. Lots of snow on northern aspects that were screaming caution. I got to the ridge just after sunset and summited at 6:15 pm. A few steep snow spots, but mostly just rock hopping up the ridge. I then retraced my trench back into the basin, opting for a known commodity vs a quicker descent. |
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Route: West Ridge Posted On: 2021-11-09, By: nicoinco Info: Copied from Sunlight post: I hiked into Chicago Basin over the weekend via the Purgatory Flats approach. Ended up summiting Sunlight, Windom, and North Eolus, but decided to turn around at the “catwalk” of Eolus due to what appeared to be unconsolidated and sloping snow on the ledges of Eolus. Sunlight was mostly dry and grippy above the gulley. Ended up with just under 45 miles and 13,000ft round trip for the weekend. I brought crampons, microspikes, poles, and an ice axe into the basin with me, but didn't end up using any traction. The poles were helpful for some post-holing at and above Twin Lakes, and I used my axe on Windom for added comfort traversing some short snow slopes towards the top. There was evidence of some sliding on the north face of Windom, so I'd be wary of any further attempts at the crossover from Sunlight with any new snow. Overall, less snow than expected and an excellent weekend alone in the mountains. |
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Route: West Ridge Posted On: 2021-07-10, By: E_A_Marcus_949 Info: Went down Sunlight gulley and traversed over to Windom across the middle basin area. Some snow - hard packed and icy in the morning, though some was soft enough to posthole (saw one gal posthole to her hip). Most can be avoided, though, with a walk around, though. Descended Windom standard route - very lose, follow cairns. This route seems very much Class 3, not Difficult 2 - we talked with quite a few people going up and down on this route who agreed. |
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Route: Looker right of Widow Maker Couloir Posted On: 2021-06-25, By: Will_Quillman Info: Climbed lookers right of the Widow Makers couloir due to it being dried up and that was the only section holding snow. Used axe, spikes and gaiters. Crampons would have been better but I would not have wanted to make the journey with mountaineering boots on, so I do not recommend using crampons, spikes worked just fine. Snow was soft enough around 9ish to boot kick with mid top runners and spikes. Fun route! There were cairns along this route at the top, it hung left under the ridge, so I am not sure if it intersected with the standard route or not, regardless very fun easy class 3 scramble. Took us 2 hours to summit Windom from the peak of Sunlight, we topped out around 10am. Took the standard route down and made it back to camp in the basin around noon. Had a buddy opt on doing the "couloir" with us and climbed the standard West ridge, he said it was fairly snowy and soft around this time. So I guess the same advice for the standard route... gaiters and spikes preferred. |
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Route: West Ridge Posted On: 2020-10-02, By: Lichen Info: The attached photo of Windom's north face was taken from Sunlight Peak on 9/26/20. The extent of the snow patches when I climbed the West Ridge of Windom two days later was the same. Most of the West Ridge route follows the upper north face. I walked on snow patches perhaps ten times. They were small, with the two largest being perhaps 6-l0' long. I am posting this report to let the snow-wary know that these patches stayed hard through mid-day. Almost all of the patches were flat, and good handholds were always available. My only caution is to be especially careful if the sole of your boot gets wet from walking on the snow. If your next step is on a sloping rock, your foot may well slip. Just kick off excess snow on your boot before taking the step and maintain good contact with your hands and other foot. I am not trying to discourage anyone from doing this route, which I found very enjoyable. I am a cautious climber and was never afraid on the route; nor did I hear any complaints from others. |
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Route: West Ridge Posted On: 2020-08-24, By: jryor121 Info: Continuation from: https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/peakstatus_entry.php?recnum=17888 https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/peakstatus_entry.php?recnum=17889 Made it down from Sunlight at 11:00 AM, and traversed the tales field to the beginning of the Windom ridge at 11:20 AM. As we got to the saddle, there was some scare of thunder and rain, as to the south about 10 miles there was a mean looking cloud. About 1/4 the way up the ridge, the thunder continued, and I even saw a bolt of lightning. As I kept close to ridge proper to make sure the rain stayed far away, I continued on. Eventually the rain moved away, and made it to the summit at 11:50. We descended back down and made it to needle creek around 3:40 PM, making it a 20 mile trip. But we didn't;t want a full 10 mile hike out the last day so we packed up camp and kept moving all the way down to the Animas River, making it a full marathon day. https://www.strava.com/activities/3955220004 |
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Route: West Ridge Posted On: 2020-08-22, By: Clint the climber Info: We traversed to Windom from Sunlight. We stayed as high as possible in the basin to mitigate elevation loss and it worked out well. After we summited Windom it was a haul back to Cascade where we spent a second night. Took 44 hours car to car to summit all four peaks with big packs. It'd definitely be more enjoyable if done in 4 or 5 days. |
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Route: West Ridge Posted On: 2020-07-31, By: durkan Info: Windom/Sunlight on July 26th, Jupiter on the 27th, and North Eolus/Eolus on the 28th. SurfNTurf and I were able to bag the Chicago Basin Centennials in what felt like a sunless few days. Photo taken From Sunlight after tagging Windom. Summer, albeit post-monsoon, conditions from Purgatory Flats up to Chicago Basin and then up to the summits. Moisture and mist made for some spicy ascents depending upon the time light hit and dried up a route. We had the summit to ourselves each time, but as we left it definitely seemed the area was getting more foot traffic. Some small snow fields to traverse going up Windom, but that was largely due to the route we chose going up to Windom's saddle. They probably could have been avoided. We left all traction at home. |
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Route: West Ridge Posted On: 2020-07-15, By: Unknown Info: Once again, CFI trail which has great steps to the basin, different route than gpx provided. Take your first right after the lake, once at the big cairn above the headwall, snow lingers at the 13,100' split. Ascended Windom which was a very fun class 2-3 scramble depending on the line. Dropped down the 2nd from furthest gully to gain Sunlights saddle. Very loose and don't really recommend it |
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Route: Chicago Basin Approach Posted On: 2020-07-11, By: s mckinney10 Info: Hiked in from the Purgatory trailhead. Everything was in full summer conditions. There are a couple small snowfields to cross, but no traction is required for the ascent or descent. Lots of marmots and goats in the basin and around the twin lakes. |
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Route: West Ridge Posted On: 2020-07-08, By: emily_m Info: Traverse from Sunlight has snow, but is soft enough where you don't need microspikes or an axe. You won't posthole as long as you stay away from rocks poking up from the snow. There is one small (maybe 150 ft) section you can glissade down (fine without an axe) below the saddle. The ridge is dry, apart from a couple very small remnant snow patches that are very easily avoided. |