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THE SHORT VERSION - SUNLIGHT SPIRE BETA

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The Stats

• ~35 miles
• ~9k vert
• 50 hours
• 5 Snickers

The Rack/Beta

• 70m half/twin, doubled up
  • I ended up lowering on a single strand, but we believe you would have enough to get to the base if lowering on two strands
• Double rack cams 0.5-3
• Handful of small / medium nuts
• 6 alpine draws
• Thick tape gloves
• Fixed gear:
  • three nuts, wires are OK but beginning to look marginal
    • There used to be a piton around mid-pitch, that is no longer there.
  • Oval locker at the top through bleached webbing + hex and good stainless chain + bolt
  • Midway rap station on a single rusty pin, faded cord and single rap ring
  • Base rap station with sun bleached webbing and green cord. Several rap rings and quicklinks. Might have been nice to replace this tat with fresh cord.
  • ~100 ft (maybe less) below the Spire base is another rap station, we didn't get up close to inspect it.

The Approach

Follow the Sunlight Peak trail to around 13,700' then turn East towards the spire.

Aim for the darker band of broken ledges that will get you nearly level with the Spire base, then do a series of 4th/5th moves: downclimb a flake, traverse right, and finally climb a few more ledges to reach the base of the Spire.

This crack can be aided at C0/C1. Really good placements are always in reach. As for the free rating, I would say awkward 5.10 PG-13? Solid, deep hand jams occasionally spaced a little too far apart with thin hands in-between. Left foot is mostly smearing. The right feet required good flexibility and were painful until the crack got more vertical.

Lower or rap from the top, then rap ~50 feet from the base to a spacious grassy ledge and reverse the approach route. Below this ledge is another rap anchor that we did not get a close look at.

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THE LONG VERSION - SLIGHTLY DRAMATIC

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I mapped out our itinerary on Caltopo and had 8 peaks scheduled for a 4 day roundtrip from Denver. Foolishly, I named it "Weminuche Beatdown 2025." Instead of administering the ass-whooping, we were on the receiving end of it.

Intent on saving a little money and schedule flexibility, we opted to walk in from the Purgatory trailhead. Everything people say about this trail is true, it's easy to follow and genuinely a very beautiful hike, especially during the fall colors. Around 3.5 hours in, we hit the bridge over Needle Creek feeling invincible. Soon after, the wheels started to fall off.

Not long after a rest at the New York Creek crossing, I started bonking. Sean had been nursing a cold for the last few days and by all accounts should have been at home in bed, but that didn't stop him from taking my rope, sleeping pad, electronics, and a few other things from my bag for the last 2 miles of trail up to the campsite. I was absolutely sucking wind, facing the consequences of a sedentary work-from-home lifestyle. It took us around 7 hours to get the 14 miles to our camp just below 11,000'. We ended up a few hours behind some train-riders but still found a great campsite near the creek.

After a restless night of sleep for both of us, we hit the trail at 6am. It was my first time in Chicago Basin and I was constantly craning my neck looking at every peak and face, kicking myself for waiting this long to make the trip in. At this time, we were still considering combining the Spire, Sunlight Peak, Needle Ridge, and potentially some more extra credit for the day. We had toyed with the idea of migrating to Ruby Basin afterwards, but if the previous day's hike had been any indication, carrying full packs up to Twin Lakes and then over Twin Thumbs was a complete non-start.

As we got close to the Sunlight-Needle Ridge col, our enthusiasm waned slightly at the sight of the steep and loose slope. We decided that we should tackle the Spire (our primary objective) first, hoping that the stoke from that summit would be enough to carry us through the rest of the day. We begged the sun to come out, fearing frozen rock. But it wouldn't budge.

From the saddle, we scrambled up the darker band of broken ledges that lead directly to the base of the spire, generally keeping to 4th class, but this could be easily made harder. There were even a few helpful cairns along the way. See the above photo and the following for some landmarks. Based on some other trip reports, other folks chose to drop a bit lower before the final ascent of the "first pitch" going at 5.6/5.7. Staying a bit higher adds some exposure but let us avoid roping up for the first pitch.

This downclimb was one of two or three low-5th class moves just before the base of the Spire. After this brief downclimb to the grassy ledge, there was an exposed right step made possible by a good left undercling on a boulder. This step is committing and height-dependent. Then we found ourselves on a spacious ledge 8 feet below the main belay ledge + rap anchor of the Spire. Two or three low-5th moves + a mantle gets you up the broken corner to the belay ledge.

Indulge me for a minute:

I've wanted to climb the Spire since the first time I read about it in Jim DiNapoli's Hall-of-Fame trip report https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=12717 sometime in 2018.

This climb motivated me to learn crack climbing, inspiring a few ill-fated toprope solo sessions on cracks in the South Platte, including a particularly windy day on Scorpio Crack that ended in bloody knuckles and a tucked tail. I read on Mountain Project that it would be a good training climb, so off I went.

It took me two hours to climb that coarse-grained, irregular crack and I don't know if I employed anything resembling "real" crack technique, but I was glad I tried. I planned to come back but never did. Some of the climbs at Turkey Rocks might be better training, but you can't beat Scorpio Dome for the isolation (read: privacy) so no one can see you (me) flail.

Anyway, back to the present, a few years (and climbs) later, but still the same jacket.

I made it one piece past the first fixed nut and called "take!" As soon as I had to take my left foot off that ramp, it felt like I showed up for a test that I hadn't studied for one bit. I was toast. What the heck was I doing here and why did I think I could do this? No time to cry about that though, the clock was ticking.

So, what else to do but start pulling on gear? We packed in a double rack, may as well use it. This crack is fairly irregular and devours stoppers. I would place a cam as high as I could, clip in direct with my lanyard, then call for slack to clip the rope into the piece. Repeat. As the crack got more vertical, I occasionally pulled a free move and placed a piece under my own power, but I was pretty dependent on Sean to sit on the rope for me. There are some truly awesome, deep, perfect hand jams. But there are also sections with very punishing thin hands and off-fingers. My left foot occasionally helped, but my right ankle may never recover from the awkward jams.

45 minutes later I hit the summit and let out a very satisfying "whoop" that echoed throughout the basin. I couldn't believe it! I took in the views of Jagged and the Grenadiers, making a mental note of what looked like an impending snow shower.

I always wanted to investigate the other side of the spire, but couldn't see past this bulge. Not sure a climb is getting put up on this face anytime soon.

I ended up untying one of my strands and let it fall to the ground, unsure that the 70m doubled rope would be enough for me to fully lower. In the end, we decided it would have worked just fine.

Back on the ledge, we swapped over and I got Sean on belay. Around the same point as me, he called "take" and began the process of inching his way up the climb. He didn't bring a lanyard or ascender so he had to do a lot of work to get up this climb, especially because I jacked up the toprope rigging and had to fight a ton of friction. Sadly I took no photos except this one of his shoe.

At the top of the ramp, there is a single rusty piton with an orange cord and a single rap ring if you need to do some shenanigans.

I lowered him to the ground and we prepared to transition to rappel the route. After pulling the rope, it immediately got sucked into the crack between the spire and the ramp. After a few tense moments, we managed to pull it free.

We both agreed that we had blacked during our respective climbs. Maybe it was hypoxia. Maybe it was a trauma response. In any case, we decided to boogie over to Sunlight Peak and keep the train rolling.

Sean made it ahead of me and exchanged a few words with a party on their way down the Peak. They had seen us from the summit and said "I think I heard one of you say, 'I feel like shit!'"

No comment.

Onward to Sunlight Peak.

The snow came in an instant, so we needed to expedite our descent. Sean suggested we head down the east ramp that his party had skiied a few seasons prior. This was a little dicey due to some wet rock but was otherwise a viable way down - there was one distinct corner/chimney that was a low 5th downclimb (but not too exposed), then one more 4th class flake before we were able to rejoin the standard trail on the southern aspect.

At some point, we agreed to bail on the rest of the trip. We had wet rock and more rain/snow forecast for the next day, so we thought it was in our best interest to move camp back down to the Needle Creek / Animas River junction.

After a brief siesta in our tents, we shouldered our packs and headed downhill, reaching the Needle Creek bridge well after dark. The next morning, with only a little over 9 miles ahead of us, we put in our respective headphones and both listened to the new Lorna Shore album, numbing our aches and pains with blast beats. That last climb up to the Purgatory TH was welcomed since it at least meant we were close to the truck. Once again, Sean generously took the rope off my shoulders, all the while coughing up a lung.

We went directly to Animas Brewing in Durango and had delicious burgers and beers.

Final Thoughts

On the Mountain Project page, George Bell (the younger) wrote: "This is a decent climb, but it is a long way to carry a rack for 60 feet of overhanging crack." Yep.

I built this climb up a lot in my mind and had a few missed opportunities to climb it, so when we had the chance to go, I had to take it even though I knew I had a snowball's chance of freeing it. I still learned a lot from the journey, maybe I'll come back after I spend a lot more time leading crack.

I highly recommend the Spire to anyone who has the opportunity to climb it, whether you can free it, aid it, or even jug a fixed line. Just an incredible summit in one of the best places in Colorado.