Return to Chicago Basin via Kennedy Pass

Members – Brent, Luke, and Corey

Dates of Trip - 8/18/26 to 8/22/26

Stats - 7 total peaks. 4 ranked (Aztec, Overlook Point, Grizzly, McCauley), 2 unranked (Kennedy and Hope), 1 soft ranked i.e. only an inch or so from 300 feet of prominence (West Eolus). Total Milage ~ 39 miles. Elevation gain ~14,500ft of elevation gain and loss

Intro – Brent, Luke, and I have a tradition of a peak climbing trip in the San Juan Mountains around mid-August for nearly 11 years now. We initially met in med school 18 long years ago at CU in Aurora. Currently, Brent and I live in Colorado and Luke lives in Minnesota so he has not always been able to make it on the yearly outing. Fortunately, Luke has been on more than half of the trips and was able to join again this year. It has been a special tradition to meet up with these amazing buddies of mine and keep our friendship going in my favorite mountain range in the world. I have written several other trip reports about this reunion over the years to be reminded of the details as time passes.

This year the plan was to return to Chicago Basin. On Brent and I’s inaugural San Juan Mountain climbing trip in 2015 we went into Chicago Basin via Purgatory. I was chasing the Centennials at the time and we climbed Jupiter on the first day on a foggy drizzly day including one of the better wildflower displays I have witnessed in the Colorado mountains. The entirety of Jupiter peak seemed to be a flower that day. The next day we climbed the four Chicago Basin 14ers and dropped back to Needleton. On the final day we climbed Pigeon and Turret from the Animas via the North Pigeon creek approach and returned via the Purgatory trail that afternoon.

11 years have passed since that trip and I have progressed further along on my 13er climbing journey and I have hopes to finish all the ranked peaks eventually. This goal has become more of a reality over the years directly due to these yearly trips where we have chipped away at the harder peaks of the San Juans together and climbed all of the 5^th class by easiest route 13ers on these trips. I owe Brent and Luke a huge thanks as they are the main reason that I successfully have stood atop those particular peaks. In 2019 on this reunion trip Brent and I climbed Teakettle and Dallas. In 2020 Luke, Brent, and I climbed Jagged from a No Name Basin camp. In 2021 our trio climbed Peak Fifteen from Ruby Basin. In 2022 Brent and I climbed Coxcomb and Lizard Head on this yearly San Juan outing in what I thought was my 5^th class by easiest route 13er finisher! That is until LiDAR and West Eolus entered the picture. As you read on, I will discuss more my thoughts on West Eolus but ultimately it was too close of a call in my mind to leave it off the list and I knew if I finished the 13ers some day but didn’t do West Eolus I would feel like I missed out. I had been hatching a plan to climb it with Luke and Brent for a few years.

I have planned some doozy trips over the years with aggressive agendas, long approaches, and we have never used the train to get into the Wemi. As we age these big mileage trips are getting a bit tougher to pull off. I had recently learned about the Kennedy Pass approach to Chicago Basin from my friend Brent (Jorts on this site) who lives in Durango. With a plan to use this approach this year I promised the fellas a great, slightly more relaxed trip compared to our previous at times Type II fun trips. I pitched a multipitch 5.7 climb of a questionably ranked/remote peak in West Eulos to the boys including some other bonus 13ers from a base camp in Chicago Basin. I had Luke and Brent at the mention of a multipitch trad climb in the wilderness, so our agenda was set!

Day 1 – Work, pick up the fellas at the drug dealer lot outside of Grand Junction, drive to Missionary Ridge Road

On 8/18 I worked a usual clinic day at the office and had dinner with my family before leaving Eagle to meet Brent and Luke outside of Grand Junction. As has become habit for us, we stashed a car in the Gunnison Bluffs parking lot near Whitewater that we call the cocaine lot because it always feels like we are pulling of a drug deal in the desert near dusk. We drove from there to Missionary Ridge Road outside of Durango (which is a very smooth albeit long dirt road) and stopped more than half way to camp in my Tacoma. We were in bed by 12PM and woke up at 5AM (one of us slept more than the others due to some snoring but those details aren’t important) to start our trip with the backpack approach the next morning.

Day 2 – Kennedy Pass approach with a side trip to Mount Kennedy and Aztec Mountain

Many of our previous backpacks into the Wemi have been via the Purgatory approach to Chicago basin, Ruby Basin or No Name (all very difficult days as many know with a full backpack) or Molas Pass to Vestal Basin (also ouch). I had learned of the Kennedy Pass approach to Chicago Basin from Jorts and reviewed his Strava data and felt it was almost too good to be true. How is this not used more often is what I have continued to think? I was excited to give it a try and see how it went and I figured we could add Aztec and Kennedy with a quick detour on the approach day. Any time I can add a peak on an approach day I feel that is a major bonus!

To access this area, take the Missionary Ridge Road all the way to Henderson Lake. It’s about 18 miles but any passenger car could drive this dirt road. The mile past Henderson lake gets a bit more rough to the usual parking area and some mild clearance is needed before where the road turns to more clearly a rough 4x4 road.

We started our backpack about 7 AM and our hike started out up the road about a quarter of a mile before taking an unmarked spur trail left at a big switchback in the road heading up towards the Overlook Peak area. I had done this trail before with my family to climb Overlook Peak and it is a pleasure walk in a beautiful alpine setting with rolling grassy hills. After a few miles of easy uphill hiking, we crested a small saddle where we could see our peak objectives for the day and Chicago Basin in the distance. West Eolus was lit up perfectly in the morning light and looked amazing. It was a great intro to the trip just a few miles in.

We hiked a total of 5.5 miles to Kennedy pass with only about 1500 feet of gain consisting of an easy uphill hike to start and then some rolling terrain to get to the pass all while above timberline most of the hike. From the pass we dropped packs and did a detour over Mount Kennedy to Aztec Mountain and back. This gave us a wonderful preview of Chicago Basin and our next days agendas. Kennedy and Aztec have such a striking contrast between their rolling grassy southern slopes and their massive huge northern cliffy slopes plunging down into Chicago Basin. We contoured beneath the summits on the southern aspects back to the pass mostly on grass but it may have been just easier to reclimb the peaks directly. Regardless it was a very easy detour to grab a few peaks before dropping into the basin and nice to relieve ourselves for a bit of the heavy packs. Aztec has a bit of scrambling if one desires.

The decent from Kennedy Pass with full packs was steep and I will admit a bit difficult due to the packs. It has some game trails along the way and the first 800 vertical feet drops quickly on mostly grass or game trails to a beautiful bench right at timberline. From the bench we contoured up the valley some above the willows to minimize bush whacking down to the trail ultimately finding some stable talus and mostly grass requiring only very mild bush whacking in the forest to get to the Chicago Basin trail. On our initial decent towards the trail, we got drawn down a bit too early into gully that seemed like it would go, but it got very rotten and into some mildly cliffy terrain so we had to reclimb this and contour a bit east until we could more safely and easily descend to the valley floor. Once we found the best way I was amazed at how overall grassy the decent was. There were some talus sections and steeper sections that were hard with full packs with climbing gear but ultimately it was straightforward and we really minimized any serious bushwacking; a huge relief compared to some of our other Wemi approaches over the years. The moment we crossed the creek we found an amazing camping spot right away and set up camp for the day very pleased with the approach. In total, including the 2 peak detour, the entire trip to camp we covered 11.5 miles and 3500 feet of elevation gain. It seems the entire approach to Chicago basin if not doing the side peaks would be about 1500 of gain and 7.5 miles from the parking lot with ~2500 feet of decent. It was an incredible way to access Chicago basin without the Purgatory trail, without the train, and with much better views the entire time. I HIGHLY recommend it to those willing to do some off trail backpacking travel.

Day 3 – West Eolus

I had anticipated this day for a few years. As I said previously, I thought I had completed Colorado’s 5th class peaks on Lizard Head in 2022 with Brent. However, LiDAR showed West Eulos to somewhat surprisingly be very nearly ranked with about a half of a foot short of the magic 300 foot mark. I initially was interested to hear about this as it seemed West Eulos would immediately become one of the hardest 13ers in Colorado based on location and climbing difficulty if it indeed became ranked. When I learned it was this close I looked into some trip reports on the peak. The information was really limited as all I could really find were Boggy’s reports from 2019 here West Eolus Trip Report 09/14/2019 | 14ers.com and here West Eolus Trip Report 09/26/2019 | 14ers.com. These are great reports of him exploring the secrets of West Eolus and his initial climb of the peak. I highly recommend giving them a read but it was clear from this that if West Eulos became ranked it would be a very difficult add to the list especially as I wouldn’t have the skills to climb it personally.

It seemed like from watching this forum there was growing momentum to rank the peak based on the summit being such a tiny point and LiDAR likely missing the true tiny summit. So, with some contemplation I decided to go ahead and add it to my list as it seemed like it would be too close to call. With my slightly neurotic personality, I would not feel great omitting a peak so close to being ranked or possibly ranked. Also, if I ever finished the ranked 13er list, I decided I would rather not later get the news that West Eulos was indeed ranked and need to try to add it later in my life as I age. So, over the past few years I had hoped to add this to an outing with Luke and Brent as I knew they would love the climb and be very capable.

Our trip was planned already, but earlier this summer Josephnephi and Bdloftin77 of this site climbed to the summit with a highly accurate GPS to try to determine the actual prominence and astonishingly found the peak to be potentially the last remaining soft ranked 13er in Colorado with 299.931 feet of prominence with a statistical probability of it not being ranked but still 20% possibility of it being ranked based on potential GPS error. See that wonderful report here West Eolus Trip Report 06/21/2026 | 14ers.com. The fact that it was statistically likely not ranked at the magical Colorado 300 foot rule didn’t change my goal to climb the peak at that point and plus I would round up 299.931 to 300 in most everything else I do in life!

The climb itself was wonderful and an amazing day in the hills. Ranked or unranked this was a very worth outing and one I won’t soon forget with Brent and Luke. We woke early and were hiking under headlamp by 540AM. Our ascent up the trail was just 0.6 miles until we turned left and began the grassy steep ascent into the upper secluded basin below West Eolus. We found some great game trails up high in the basin and angled to the West Eolus/Eolus saddle. From below the saddle we started the contour on the access ramp mid-way up the south face of West Eolus. On our ascent we stuck close to the wall and got into some looser slightly more exposed 3^rd class climbing contouring across the ramp. On our decent we found a very nice grassy class 2 ledge system instead a bit lower.

From reading Boggy’s reports there is rumor of a potential 4^th class route up West Eolus on the right side of the southern face but on our contour below this I kept looking up and nothing seemed obviously safe for unroped 4^th class travel. I will be very intrigued to hear if anyone ever explores this further. The documented history of climbing this peak is very limited and it seems previous climbers had very fuzzy memories of how they climbed to the summit without a rope. Maybe a route exists or maybe something has changed over time but nothing 4^th class clearly stood out from our vantage point during the climb.

Boggy’s description in his report of climbing the south face direct route is spot on. Luke and Brent felt the grades were appropriate. The first pitch is short and easier climbing. At the top there is a tight slightly awkward belay stance for 3 people. The second pitch is much longer with the 5.7 off width crux early on in the pitch. I was very nervous for this crux. I am a fairly novus climber in a gym or outside (the only things I have ever climbed outdoors are with Luke or Brent). I was concerned on how I would manage this as I had never climbed an off width before. However, I found it to be very secure and easier than I expected. Obviously, some of this was being on top rope with Brent leading the climb but maybe since I have no true climbing skill, slithering up an uncomfortable off width that I felt fairly wedged into and secure in was more comfortable than an exposed face climb. The climbing above the off width was very enjoyable. With three of us climbing I tied in on the middle of the rope and Luke or Brent would follow on the end of the rope up to the belay station.

The top of pitch 2 has a great belay ledge with 3 nuts and Luke took the lead of the 3^rd pitch to the summit ridge. I had expected to climb the chimney with the chockstone pullover move Boggy described but Luke climbed the face left of the chimney and chockstone. While Luke was climbing, we heard him express some frustration and he told us his wedding ring had fallen off a draw he had it attached to during the climb and he heard it tinkling down the gully. We thought certainly this ring would be lost forever. However, near the end of his climb, to Brent and I’s astonishment we looked in the coil of rope at our feet to see his Tungsten ring somehow nestled softly in the rope on our belay ledge. We quickly hid it without telling him in a zippered pocket to surprise him on the summit. I still don’t really know how it is even possible that his ring fell off on that climb 20 or so feet above us to somehow land in our rope on the small belay ledge! It was a great bonus blessing to the day. On pitch 3 I started into the chimney to find he had placed a cam on the face left of the chimney and had to extract myself from the chimney to finish on the face. After this difficulty it eases to about 20-30 feet of class 3 climbing and Luke had set up a belay right at the base of the summit block.

Brent followed me and we took turns climbing the exposed summit block and standing on top. It was an amazing summit, in an amazing place, after a very memorable and enjoyable climb. Surprising Luke at the summit with his lost wedding ring was a moment I won’t soon forget. We could see several climbers on the ridge to North Eolus and a few on Eolus summit while we celebrated our climb.

On descent we had a few difficulties with the rappels. Luke bypassed the belay ledge at the top of pitch 2 down an alternate gully a bit and had to climb back up to the belay ledge before we could all rappel pitch 3. For the pitch 2 rap the 70m rope just barely stretches to the top of pitch 1 belay and Luke yelled up that it was a “rope stretcher” to get to the next belay which it certainly was. On our rope pull of pitch 2 the pull went easy but the tip of the rope got caught in the off width near the bottom. Brent had to climb back up to the base of the off width to release it and fortunately it wasn’t a higher or more difficult hangup before our final rappel. The roped climbing took us about 3 hours and we celebrated a great climb taking off the climbing shoes and packing up at the base of the climb. We found a much more pleasant switch backing grassy class 2 ramp back to the saddle then we found on the way up to the roped climbing and then enjoyed the steep grassy stroll back to the trail and camp.

Thank you Boggy for putting up the route and for the information on this peak! Thank you to Luke and Brent for helping me summit this peak and for helping me to summit all the roped 5^th class 13ers in Colorado. If I ever finish the list, it will be only because you guys made it possible!

Day 4 – Grizzly and McCauley with a side of Hope

With the main event of the trip completed our plans turned to Grizzly and McCauley for our final day in Chicago Basin. We had completed Peak Eleven from Ruby Basin a few years prior so this left Grizzly and McCauley as the most nearby ranked 13ers. We started the day about 520AM and climbed to Columbine Pass on the wonderful trail. From the pass we contoured on a use trail above Columbine Lake to the pass next to Hope Mountain above Hazel Lake. From Hazel Lake we contoured around the upper basin high on grass to avoid losing elevation until we made it to the obvious weakness, a steep gully cutting up towards to summit beneath cliffs to climb Grizzly.

Grizzly was very well cairned and the route was great. The initial gully up to the ridge seemed to be mild class 3 initially turning into mostly class 2 climbing up to the ridge. On the back side there is more class 3 climbing to be had but never overly exposed or difficult. We eventually made it to the summit block and all stood on it. From the summit block you can see another potential candidate high point with a precarious boulder somehow stacked on another rock. Luke and I made it over to this and I just planned to just touch it with my hand. Luke of course immediately climbed it and once I saw it was stable and followed his lead and mounted the boulder as well. It looks pretty obvious that the other pointy boulder was the high point however.

From Grizzly’s summit we contoured back down the standard route, avoided some cliffs above Hazel Lake by backtracking to take grass down towards the lake and then contoured on grass to the Grizzly/McCauley saddle. From there fun class 2 with a bit of easy scrambling was had to the summit bypassing a tower prior to the summit on the Hazel Lake side. We had service on McCauley and got a few calls out to family and enjoyed this summit for a while.

From there we retreated our steps and descended all the way to Hazel Lake planning to reclimb the pass next to Hope Mountain and quickly scamper up Hope before returning to Columbine Pass. As we walked along the shores of Hazel Lake there is a small sandy beach on the northern side, Luke commented that it looked like a great spot to swim and within the next minute or two we were taking a skinny dip in a remote Wemi lake enjoying a nice and cool refreshening before the climb back to Columbine Pass.

There is a mild switching back trail up to the pass above Hazel lake below Hope Mountain. Brent and I took a quick detour to climb Hope Mountain from this pass which offered wonderful views of the Hazel and Columbine Lake area and we then made our way back to the Columbine Pass where we rested and ate snacks as some storms slowly started to build around us. I had contemplated trying to climb Mount Valois using Trimble pass but it was going to have to wait for another outing and we made our way back to camp before the afternoon storms began.

Day 5 – Return home via Kennedy Pass with a detour climb of Overlook point

We had joked most of the week about the reclimb of Kennedy pass and how difficult it might be with our full backpacks and we often said “no talking about Saturday until Saturday” arrives. However, this went much better than we expected. We woke up fairly early due to some forecast storms, packed camp and were hiking about 6AM up the pass. We learned a few lessons on the descent a few days prior and I think we nailed the easiest route up the pass to limit loose talus, bushwhacking, etc. Ultimately the climb went very quickly, and we were standing in the pass 1800 feet above camp within 1 hour and 40 minutes from starting the climb with a few short breaks along the way. We all thought the climb out was much easier than expected and I think we thought it was easier than the descent actually as the descent was scarier to step on something that rolled and caused you to get off balance with the packs. Our fears of an absolute grunt to get out ended up being not warranted and we all felt the Kennedy Pass approach to Chicago Basin was much better then Purgatory in terms of distance and elevation gain and substantially better in terms of views. I am sure it is not an approach for everyone but in my book if you’re not taking the train take Kennedy!

From the top of the pass, we followed the rolling terrain back towards Overlook Point. The weather in the early morning was great, so we dropped our packs just off the trail and hiked on wonderful gentle grass to the summit of Overlook Point for our last summit of the trip taking the chance to soak in the views of many trips gone by.

After enjoying the views for a while we returned to the packs and finished the enjoyable trail down to my truck. Total mileage including the 1.75 mile detour to Overlook Point was only 9.36 miles with 3,000 of elevation gain. I included the GPX track of this day if anyone is ever interested in the future.

Final Thoughts on the Trip

Kennedy Pass is an incredible option if accessing Chicago Basin and not wanting to use the train. It’s much easier than any of the other approaches in the Wemi other then maybe Stormy gulch over Hunchback pass in my experience. It starts you nearly at tree line and the low point of the trip for us from the car and back was our campsite in Chicago Basin at 10,700 feet. There is no dropping to the animas at 8,000 feet on the way in or out and no reclimb to purgatory 10 miles into the exit. The climb up Kennedy Pass from Chicago Basin is steep but it is over quick and the views the entire climb are spectacular and the views on the rolling tundra terrain of Missionary Ridge are incredible too. Finally, you can climb Kennedy, Aztec, and Overlook easily with little detours offloading the packs on the approach days which is a huge bonus! In my opinion Purgatory approach doesn’t even really hold a candle to Kennedy Pass if Chicago Basin is the intended destination and I don't even really mind the Purgatory approach!

West Eolus is an awesome peak! It’s climbing history is somewhat shrouded in mystery and it’s ranked status is as well. It’s the only soft ranked 13er left in the state which is a ranking befitting to such a spectacular peak. The setting is wonderful. The summit gives some of the coolest views of the Wemi I have seen with Eolus towering over head and Pigeon, Turret, Peak Fifteen just across New York Basin at eye level. I’m glad I included it in my ranked list and it’s so close why not include it in my humble opinion! If you do, I don’t think it will be an outing you soon forget.

Thank you, Brent and Luke, for your friendship! You guys are two of my heroes. If I ever complete the Colorado ranked 13er list it will be due to you helping me climb some of these peaks I would have never been able to on my own. You are my heroes for far more then climbing however. Thank you for being great role models in your careers and your families. I look forward to next year already and once our climbing trip days end let’s start the yearly tradition of travel with the wives as we talked about!

Thank you to our families who allow for these outings and for us to recharge and adventure in the hills. I love you Kim, Bryce, and Nolan!!! Finally, thank you to God for making this incredible place, for loving us, and allowing us to enjoy these amazing places and keeping us safe on these endeavors.