As the train made its way up to Needleton, I was feeling optimistic about my plan to wade across the Animas given how low the water level appeared to be:

The train finally arrived at Needleton where I noticed they have a nice little sign now:

Seemed to be a very busy day for Chicago Basin, lol when I did Chicago Basin originally back in 2019 I think in addition to me like seven people got off!

As you can see in that video, the weather is clearly starting to not look all that favorable. Optimistically I was hoping to get all the way into No Name Basin, but at minimum I at least wanted to cross the river. I approached the water tank for which Watertank Hill is named and sure enough, it started to rain.

I sheltered under the tank noting that the rain seemed light and may just pass over (lol plus, I didn't want to downgrade my heavy gear yet to get my jacket and put coverings on and whatnot because I was kind of in a rhythm). The rain did pass and I continued up the tracks thinking I still had some kind of window to work with as I only had like 0.5 miles to to my intended crossing point, but as soon as the rain left it returned and this time with a vengeance.

At this point I'm in a complete torrential downpour and I'm sorely regretting my decision to leave the hardcover protection of the water tank. With the rain coming down this hard, the river is now roaring and crossing it anywhere is completely out of the question and I had no choice but to set up camp in that spot. By the time I got my tent up, my jacket and sleeping bag were both soaked but I was at least free from getting pummeled further and basically just called it a day, defeated before I could even ask the question I went out there to ask. To add insult to injury, water had seeped into my battery pack as well and it wasn't recharging any of my devices.

Day -1

Despite the rain, I was extremely lucky that it wasn't cold that night as somehow spending the night sleeping in a wet sleeping bag wasn't as annoying as I thought it would be. It had stopped raining, but the creek was still running high enough that I wasn't even going to entertain trying that or any other crossing spot. Furthermore, with my battery pack nonresponsive that put an end to my time in the wilderness. Lol I've gone full analog before, Capitol and Pyramid I did before I even knew GPS or electronic aids were options but I went there prepared to navigate without them. Sure I still had my watch, but from last year I knew that at some point I needed to recharge my watch, Inreach, and phone, and no battery pack basically deadlines the mission. So yeah, packed up the tent and began my short ~2.4 mile hike back to Needleton probably having had the shortest hike of all the people getting back on at around 4.8 miles RT :(.

Obviously I was disappointed that my drive from the Springs and my trip into Needleton ended this way WITHOUT EVEN CROSSING THE BRIDGE and had already mentally begun preparing for other Western Slope objectives like Vermillion, but as I was getting back on the train a seed was planted that would completely change what I thought my options were. A friend of mine recognized me and let me know he was going back in to get Pigeon and Turret after just having gotten Jupiter a few days prior on a SEPARATE train trip?! How did I not realize that this was an option?!! Lol that got me thinking the whole train ride back. Sure I got defeated and rained out and yada yada yada, but now the question for when I got back to Durango was is there a window for me to go back in? I'll worry about all this when I get back to Durango, for now I'll never get tired of this majestic train ride and the opportunity to ride it certainly helped ease the blow of not meeting my objective.

When I got back to Durango that Sunday night, my first order of business was putting my jacket and sleeping bag in the dryer at the laundromat and figuring out how to rescue my battery pack. I feared it was a lost cause, but three hours in a bag of brown rice was enough to get it up and running again! This was my biggest worry because if I couldn't get it working, I wasn't even going to try to get another train ticket. It started raining again that evening, but looking at the forecast it appeared it as going to be completely bluebird from Tuesday (September 1st) onward! I retreated to my base of operations whenever I go to Durango which is the Walmart parking lot, ideal for sleeping in one's backseat unbothered as no version of me is ever going to pay actual money for lodging when I have a free backseat and the whole reason I'm even out there in the first place is to rough it in the wilderness lol.

Day 0

The next day I secured my ticket, made sure to eat at Denny's to at minimum have their seasoned fries swimming in ranch dressing (seriously, #bringdennysbacktocoloradosprings and if you're reading this and in an actionable position to make it happen, please be square with the IRS), explore Durango a bit, and spend one more night in the Walmart parking lot before heading back to Needleton on Tuesday.

Round 2

Day 1

Lol alright, I got my fix of the open air gondola and decided to go back to being cheap and warm this time:

Probably slept more than half of the way there, but sufficient as it is you don't exactly get the best night's sleep in your back seat lol. While the forecast was currently and projected to continue being completely clear, looking at the Animas on the way up it versus a few days earlier I perhaps should have taken a hint that attempting to cross it still wasn't going to be the best use of my time and effort:

Made it back into Needleton and being on the left side of the train, I caught a glimpse of my beloved slab that has become an all too familiar final resting spot on these trips!

Lol so now that weather's no longer a factor, it was time to embark upon this river crossing exercise in futility that Stevie Wonder could have seen wasn't going to pan out one more time.

I'm clearly seeing this water's running way faster and higher than it was a few days go, but I'm determined to test this out for my own mental satisfaction:

I finally get up to the planned crossing point where I can see No Name Creek and already I'm like that's not happening. I hiked a little bit farther up the tracks and it only seemed to get worse at which point I figured it best to cut my losses, defeats the purpose if I find a crossing point that results in having to do like a mile of deadfall hopping back to No Name on the other side of the river. I remember seeing a potential crossing spot on the way up that looked tame...ish. I got down to it and I wasn't feeling all that optimistic, but I brought these trusty dusty wading boots I just got off Amazon specifically for this objective and damnit I was going to try them out!

Lol as I said earlier, I don't take kindly to unnecessarily getting wet and will do all kinds of crazy stuff that potentially involves hours of effort to avoid it (Lindsey and Middle Palisade have entered the chat) and if I know it's inevitable, these boots are a small price to pay :). But alas, I probably made it about 30-35% of the way across before surrendering my effort. The current was too strong and I felt taking another step risked me getting swept out, not to mention the water being so brown that you couldn't see the river floor to make out any trip hazards down there.

You would think I'd learn my lesson though and just hike back to Needleton, right? Lol well there's this small problem of this rope I saw someone had spanned across the river last year, and I noticed the same rope again this time except from the tracks side. This is what originally gave me the idea to even consider crossing the river as an option as this rope was evidence that someone had done it.

I kept hiking down the tracks and figured I'd try this location as well, maybe even get an assist from the rope lol. Already I noticed the water was running way deeper and faster here, but I figured I could tie my pack and loop myself in as well and maybe make it across that way?

Lol so much for that idea, I made it like two steps in the water and I'm like yeah I'm good--notice that the opposite tree is higher than the one on this side so I'm getting no gravity assist either trying to pull this 66lbs pack across.

So yeah, that put an emphatic bow on my Animas crossing attempts and at this point I was like it's time to just head back to Needleton and do the No Name approach the way you're supposed to.

The first part of this was pretty routine, lol just go the opposite direction from where the Chicago Basin people are going. A short ways in at one of those initial clearings, I came across like eight tents though not a soul in sight. I assumed it had to be some kind of organization, but I didn't think any work ever got done on the Ruby or No Name approaches so it seemed inconveniently far if they were doing work on the Chicago Basin trail. I later found out from a friend who also encountered them that they were indeed doing trail work.

Came across this stump with what I thought to be a bunch of random nails hammered into it, but upon further inspection it's actually a bunch of small caliber shells hammered in. Probably .22LRs or something similar:

Lol and that pretty much ends the "pleasant" portion of the lower approach, pretty much everything from the Ruby Basin junction to crossing No Name Creek and actually joining the trail ranges from unpleasant annoyance to soul crushing nuisancery. Once you get to the trail on the other side of the creek, the approach into the basin isn't all that bad. Yeah there are definitely some nuisance areas, but nowhere near as bad as what you deal with down here. It starts out just fine and then you come across some deadfall on this "trail" you think you're on. Common sense would lead you to believe once you climb over these five trees the "trail" will just continue on the other side... nope! You clear the trees and there's no trail to be seen in any direction, so then you check your GPS. GPS says the "trail is to your left, so you climb over like 20 trees and find another "trail" and see that it's been going there in both directions?! Then what was I just on?!! Anyway, fine. It is what it is, let's keep it moving. I'm now committed to THAT trail that's seemingly in line with the GPS only to come across another deadfall pile. I climb over these thinking again the "trail" "should" be on the other side, and sure enough there was nothing there. Lol basically you'll be rinsing and repeating this process like 7-8 times over the 2.7 miles or so it takes to get to the creek during which you gain NO elevation, and all of this doesn't even include Watertank Hill. Lol so yes, knowing I had to deal with all this you see why I was so desperately trying to make the river crossing idea work but alas, I found myself back at square one.

I was kind of locked in just trying to push through and didn't get any pictures going up Watertank Hill, so here's a pic from last year's attempt:

Heard the afternoon train coming back which was cool to see from the hill, lol I'd be amused if anyone saw me up there.

This is also a pic from last year from near the top because I was not in picture taking mode this time around lol:

A little more nuisancery descending and on the back side of Watertank Hill (which was soul crushing to ascend last year on the way back when wet, might want to bring microspikes just for that), but No Name Creek was finally within reach. Ideally I had hoped to make it all the way into the basin, but with all the energy I spent on the river crossing escapades I was feeling pretty spent at this point. There was a beautiful wide open camping area right before the creek and part of me considered camping there for the night, but I remembered there being some unpleasantness both crossing the creek and getting up to the trail so at minimum I wanted to make contact with the trail before calling it a day. FILTER YOUR WATER HERE IF YOU HAVE ANY DOUBTS ABOUT YOUR WATER LEVEL!! It will be a decent amount of effort before you have access to the creek again, and you wouldn't want to run out like some people who didn't learn their lesson from the year before...

Bit of a slog up the slope on the other side of the creek, but I finally joined the trail. I noticed last year and again this year that trail turns sharply north, like 90° to who knows where and I don't see it reflected on any map. I was fully intending to scope it out on the way back, but I guess that'll have to wait for another time. Probably pushed about a couple hundred more feet, saw a flat area on the side of the trail, and was like I'm good for the night right here.

Day 2

Think I had one of the longest night's of rest I've ever had in the wilderness that night lol. With the nuisancery of the lower approach behind me, I wasn't too worried about anything ahead between there and where I would camp in the basin.

Yeah, that whole not filtering water thing because I was in a rhythm but didn't want to take my heavy pack off and disrupt that rhythm really came to bite me as I started the morning running on fumes. I knew where the water spot was and for some reason I remembered it being closer than it actually was but yeah, it's a bit of a haul:

The creek isn't exactly off the trail and you do kind of have to take an easy scramble down to it, but it's the first place where the creek has climbed high enough to even be reachable from the trail.

Fully replenished now, I continued marching on until I encountered one of the first nuisance areas of the upper trail. Certainly unpleasant, but not soul crushing like the bottom stuff was so I pretty much just pushed through and tried to avoid as much of it as possible by staying to the left.

Lol you'll be ready for Swan Lake on logs instead of ice by the time you're done with this journey!

Once you make it to the top of this steep portion of the trail, the forest opens up and you'll be treated to an amazing view of your objective ahead:

Not much in the realm of unique wildflowers heading up this basin, but I did come across these which were pretty cool:

Not sure which path I took around the willows, but somehow I completely avoided passing Jagged Cabin which I passed both ways last year. Lol I'm pretty sure it's right on the trail, did it disappear or was I that in the zone that I completely missed it?!

Some moderate deadfall to deal with at the top of the drainage, but nothing crazy. It ultimately leads to a meadow which makes for another great camping spot which as evidenced by the fire pit, some have done before. Lol it'd be a bit of a chore though getting a heavy pack up the drainage, so I would only consider this as a camping spot if your pack is light.

The distance here from the campsite to Jagged Pass is quite far, like 2.3 miles of very slow progression up steep switchbacks and scree.

Eventually you get there though and face one final challenge in ascending the scree slope to get up Jagged Pass.

And there you have it, ALREADY looking more promising than last year!

A trail continues upwards towards the slabs, but after gaining about 150' it pretty soon becomes evident that trekking poles will serve no more purpose going forward and it's time to at least put my helmet on.

Lol during the "Ruse" section of this adventure, I actually had Roach's whole book in my pack with me only to realize that's unnecessary weight and I can just take pictures of the important pages for when I came back out. Both of these pictures are taken from the east, so it's kind of hard to orient the black dotted line when coming at a sharp angle from the north.

Still, I tried to orient myself as best possible. I tried to cut across the initial slabs, but I'm here to say that despite the chimneys getting most of the attention in route descriptions the slabs are not a trivial obstacle. I initially cut all the way across to the gully thinking that may be my easiest option, but there was the tiniest piece of ice clinging to dear life at the top of the gully making the whole gully wet and ultimately unclimbable, at least for me. This meant cutting back into the slabs which took a whole lot of guessing and checking and being willing to fully downclimb a section to try another line to finally find a way that goes.

After getting sketched out several times (to the degree that I was likely going to rappel some of those slabs on the descent), I finally made it high enough to intersect with the top of the gully and the entrance to chimney 1.

Chimney 2 is where the difficulty picks up considerably. Right out the gate there's a crack with a chockstone that I legit couldn't get up and was seriously questioning if I'd potentially have to turn around right there. It was here that I decided to switch to my climbing shoes as I was definitely not about to give up that easily. I surveyed the area though and I found a line out to the side that was a little exposed, but allowed me to ascend further up the chimney where the rest of the obstacles were more manageable.

Didn't really get a good pic of the entirety of chimney 3, but I remember it appearing difficult looking at it head on and finding a line up the side to get around it. Specifically, there was a crack I was able to get into and pull myself up to the next platform. Like I did with the Bells Traverse, I found that these chimney type obstacles are more manageable without my pack on so I took it off, short roped it, and would pull it up after navigating the obstacle. Lol this crack was very narrow and I just managed to squeeze in, so if you know you're on the larger side you may need to look for other options but it looked like there were plenty of lines to try there. The pic below is of an anchor at the top of chimney 3 that I honestly wouldn't use as it's in pretty bad shape behind the rock.

Through the notch! Amazing view of Pigeon and Turret but the exposure hits you here as well lol.

And we come to it at last, our final obstacle! This was indeed the most tricky of the chimneys and just like with chimney 3's obstacle, there was no way I was ascending this with my pack on. First order of business was to remove it, short rope it, and this time I put on my harness and tied it to a gear loop to ensure I didn't drop it on the way up (lol this is not the kind of chimney I had any interest in downclimbing). Basically had to brace my back to one side and my legs at 90° to the other and brace my way up like that until I got to a rock I could pull myself off on. But yeah, it's tricky!

There's an anchor at the top of the chimney and I would say of all the anchors coming up, if I were going back down this way this is one that I for sure would use because again, that's not a chimney I would feel great about downclimbing lol.

Most reports basically skip from the top of this chimney to the summit which effectively is true, but there's still a couple moves between the chimney that aren't routine and I'd still say you need to be alert for.

But yeah, after such a devastating failure last year I finally made it to the summit of Jagged!

Sure I've been living in Colorado Springs for 17 years now, but I'm still of South African descent and figured I'd put a little sticker in the summit register to represent, though if I'd know the direction this adventure was about to take I probably shouldn't have lol. But know that at the time this picture was taken and not knowing the future, it was a moment of pride.

By the way, I'm just going to throw this in here--I am not the only product of South Africa to be passing through the Weminuche! Down in that old cabin by Needleton, there's an abandoned crate that was shipped there from a South African cargo facility, like that place is literally next to Johannesburg's airport! But what on earth was in this crate and how did it make its way to Needleton?! I didn't check for it this year, but it was there last year and the year before.

Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked lol. With that, so concludes the "normal" portion of this trip report documenting my journey to the summit of a mountain and I hope at least this portion of the report proves useful for any Jagged interest or attempts. As for getting down from said mountain, it's safe to state that that part was anything but normal...

Day 3 Continued (uh oh, another color change...)

Now that I've "redeemed" (or so I thought) the previous year's failed attempt, it was now time to start my way down from the summit. Certainly going back the way I came was an option, though I knew it would mostly consist of several additional rappels or some sketchy downclimbing or both. A big rappel from the summit basically puts you back in chimney 2 which to me made it worth the attempt. I was also worried about daylight and figured that was the better option to get down as quickly as possible. I wasn't so much worried about daylight in the chimneys because even going slow as molasses, going back the way I came I would still have made it through the chimneys with daylight. My concern was having daylight for the slabs below as well which are not trivial, and I was hoping to make it through them while I still had natural light. If I had to hike back from Jagged Pass or something in darkness, while not ideal it's plenty doable.

For last year's attempt I brought a 70M rope having originally read reports that that's what was necessary to make the long rappel from the summit. Knowing that I was planning to single rappel, I tied a few sections of paracord together to use as a pull cord which was quite bulky (basically the size and shape of a honeydew melon). Since last year's attempt, I came across additional reports saying 60M was sufficient and seeing as I was trying to cut weight wherever I could I opted to bring a 60M this time. Additionally, I was looking for better pull cord options as that much paracord on top of being bulky twists easily. I came across some twine that was marked as having the same length at a fraction of the weight and volume of that ball of paracord, but was it strong enough? I practiced my retrieval system on several practice rappels I did at various low class 5 routes I found in the Springs vicinity and each time I was able to retrieve my rope without issue and the twine never broke, so I "thought" I had found a much more efficient pull cord alternative than the paracord.

So I see the two bolted anchors on the summit and check each of them, both feeling rock solid. On my practice rappels, whenever I needed to set a natural anchor I always tried to have redundancy on the supports. This time though, at least in the moment I felt the anchor was in there so solidly that I only attached a maillon and setup to rappel off of one of them which at the time I didn't think was unsafe to do. But in reading the comments on my lost and found post, I now realize was probably the most dangerous thing I did as however secure that bolted anchor appeared, it still could have popped out and I would have had no backup for it. Even before locking in, I threw the rope over the edge and tested that pulling the carabiner looped back on the rope could slide freely when pulled with the pull cord/twine and that when pulling down on that side the main rope would go up. So in my mind everything was set.

Day 4

Water ended up being a concern as well as I only had 0.25L when I first got to the ledge. I pretty much committed to taking a few sips on the hour, but I could feel myself getting more and more thirsty and dehydrated as the night carried on. Garmin had asked me if I wanted them to check on me every hour and I said yes hoping as I relayed my declining status that something I said would raise an alarm and move up the ETA, but unfortunately nothing moved the needle and I didn't want to lie or exaggerate either. It very much became a mental exercise to just do everything I could not to lose my state of mind. My fingers had started to get stiff as well from the cold and as a result, I didn't touch any of my food the entire time I was up there because I only wanted to have to expose my fingers when I had to use the phone or the Inreach. Garmin continued to check on me, though it kind of started to feel like I was interacting with a bot that wasn't going to sound any alarms unless I used some kind of trigger word. I was starting to get nauseous as well along with some pretty severe stomach cramping which I initially thought was me starting to get altitude sickness, but I think it was likely due to being unable to use the bathroom (the inconvenient version, another reason I didn't want to eat) while I was up there due to there being no place to properly dispose or store it and the cramping and nausea were the result of being... backed up (lol TMI, sorry).

My last message from SMR was around 12:30am (hourly communication through the night was with Garmin who would relay any significant updates both ways) saying that they were sending a team out at 5am with the hope that flights could get moving at sunrise (6:30-7am), so in my mind I was counting down to 5am or worse case to sunrise to basically look to the east and see my version of Gandalf on horizon (except it'd be dawn of the fourth day instead of the fifth if we're being technical lol). Dawn came and what a glorious dawn it was, but alas no Gandalf :(

While I was disappointed my salvation didn't arrive at dawn, I did get confirmation from both SMR and Garmin that the team had been dispatched and were en route so I should only have to wait a little bit longer. Finally around 8am I heard a helicopter approaching and shortly afterwards saw it come into view:

It circled the area a few times so I wasn't sure if the crew manning it knew where I was (or if there potentially was another rescue going on), but I eventually saw it landing in the basin probably about 10 minutes later. If I remember correctly, I believe it dropped off two people, left, and came back like 40 minutes later with two more. So after 14+ hours of being on the ledge and about 13 hours from the time of SOS activation to boots on ground, enduring the relatively freezing night given what I had on, dealing with dizziness and repeatedly falling asleep standing up because I never sat down once, rationing 0.25L of water through the night, and enduring stomach cramping and nausea from not being able to use the bathroom, and remaining completely uninjured, my means of rescue had finally made it and were making their way up to me! It was just a matter of waiting for them to get to me, like I'd been up there 14 hours so what's another 45 minutes?

Lol so insert random hiker. I was standing on the ledge waving and calling down to the helicopter to try to better announce where I was and all of a sudden I see someone coming up chimney 2 below me! At first I was like did they already have a team on the ground from somewhere else that made it up to me that quickly?! But when he called out to me it was clear that he was just up there randomly, which is crazy seeing that I'd been out there three days without seeing a soul but here someone shows up out the blue on day 4. He asked about the situation and I told him how I got there and how long I'd been up there and was mainly just waiting for SAR, but then he tells me he has an extra rope that should be able to get me down. Part of me really didn't want to try anything because the plan already in motion was for me to wait there and being up there for 14 hours both dehydrated and hungry, I really didn't feel like I had any energy to get back on the rope on a whim. Still, being thrown a rope felt like a lifeline and seeing that it was long enough to reach the bottom after attaching it to my rope kind of gave me a boost of energy to actually think this was worth a try.

After throwing the spare rope up to me, the hiker continued up the chimney and I began preparing myself to get off the ledge and get on rappel. By the time I finally had all my stuff packed up, was on rappel, and was ready to commit to it, all of a sudden I felt some slack in my rope?! I look up and I hear the hiker calling down to me from the summit saying that he's removed the rope, assuming that I had rappelled of the ledge by now lol. So yeah, that's a testament to my level of energy in that moment and the speed of that hiker--in the time it took me to get back in climbing mode and get on rappel on the ledge, the hiker had already gone up chimney 2, 3, the traverse, the summit chimney, and summitted! But yeah, I yelled back up to him that I hadn't finished the rappel yet and to please put my rope back, so those of you that summited in the days that followed and took pictures of my rope in a position secured to both anchors, that's how that hiker put it back after removing it. Lol so now I'm a little nervous as my rope has been disturbed--error of using a single anchor aside, I knew how I tied my rope in was secure and was hoping that was still the case. Fortunately it was actually MORE secure now that it was through both anchors, though it would definitely no longer be retrievable with a pull cord (which really didn't matter anymore). Once I felt my rope was secure, I finally stepped to the edge of the ledge to commit to the rappel and soon as I leaned back into it I felt myself free falling not knowing what was going on. It was likely only a couple seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Eventually the hiker's rope does catch me and I'm in a position to continue to rappel to the bottom, but not before getting all kids of banged and bruised with my left ankle getting the worst of it. I had heard a pop but didn't think it was anything that severe, kind of just figured it was a sprain and finished the rappel the remaining short distance down to the base, relieved to finally be off the ledge.

When I took myself off rappel and stood up in chimney 2, my ankle was definitely in pain but I was ambulatory and figured it was something I'd just have to nurse on the way down. As for what happened with the second rope, perhaps in the excitement of seemingly being thrown a lifeline I didn't do my due diligence on properly inspecting the tension in that rope as that rope stretched considerably before finally catching me. Like I knew my rope had minimal stretch in it, but this rope might a well have been a rubber band in its past life despite outwardly appearing normal. Definitely a lesson learned! Lol the spiderhiker eventually glided his way back down to me because it's mindboggling how quickly he made it up to the summit and back using the standard route both ways! Absolutely fearlessness this guy had, lol earlier he had even suggested the possibility of Tarzan swinging off of the ledge which to me was complete lunacy (especially due to the precise landing angle you'd have to hit on chimney 2 to not risk a steep tumble backwards) though probably a no brainer for someone like him who I'm sure had much more experience with that kind of thing. But yeah, once he got back to me he gave me a lot of cookies and water which was desperately needed. He saw I had injured my ankle and he helped me down to just below chimney 1 where we finally made contact with the first SAR team from SMR.

There were two teams of two that had been brought down, with the first team down with the helicopter pilot still and the other team making their way up to me. When we made contact, we exchange details and the spiderhiker went about his day disappearing into the landscape as quickly and as randomly as he originally appeared lol. Even the SMR guys were astonished by how quickly he moved. But yeah, the sun was up at that point and it was progressively getting warmer but I was still involuntarily shivering from being cold so long and they had brought several layers to get me warmed back up initially. They put a pretty tight wrap on my ankle as well which at the time still looked normal, so I was still under the impression that it wasn't anything severe. We were still at the upper portion of the slabs, so quite a bit of non trivial terrain to descend still for which team 1 had brought plenty of gear up to do a series of rappels on the way down.

Some stretches they let me rappel on my own, some they assisted me down based on how I described my ankle pain level. Either way, this team was highly professional and highly skilled and I felt like I was very secure in their hands all the way down. Even though I didn't get any more pictures, you can see more that they took in their media release highlighting this particular incident:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Hm5UmPRuW/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Lol I know I shouldn't be laughing, but I was amused by the attempt to hide my identity with the ambulance emoji!

One thing to address from their media release that I saw someone asking about in my lost and found post. They mentioned rope pick-offs in their write up and there weren't any, unless they're referencing the segment in which they set me up to tandem rappel with one of the members of the team a pick-off (which I don't think it is). Based on the media release, I think it as written based on the planned mission rather than the executed one because if the other hiker hadn't gotten involved and I was still on the ledge, it is likely SMR Team 1 would have had to fully ascend to the summit, lower down to me, and do a pick-off from there. So I think they were planning and prepared to do a rope pick-off and whoever was aware of the mission when they left back at the office wrote the media release as such, but they ultimately didn't have to because I was off the ledge by the time they got to me.

We continue to rappel down the slabs to a point where they level out enough to no longer need to be tied in. They had taken my pack to make it as easy as possible on me trying to navigate that terrain which was mostly easy scrambling, but admittedly far more difficult than it should have been due to my ankle and occasionally they took turns helping me where I appeared unstable. SMR Team 2 had made it up to us by that point who looked at my ankle again, checked for pain and range of motion, and rewrapped it. From that point on, the five of us gingerly (lol as in they were moving at my gingerly pace) made it down the rest of the way to the helicopter.

I originally thought that this was the first helicopter I'd gotten to ride in my life, but upon further reflection I remembered that when I deployed to Iraq back in 2010 they flew us from Kuwait to Iraq in a chinook so technically not the first time lol. That was way different though, this for sure was my first time in a "normal" helicopter and it was awesome to experience even though it was unfortunate to have to be under these circumstances.

Lol I couldn't help but be amused by how peaceful the No Name approach looked as we were flying out knowing full well how much suffering it's caused me for two years now. Seeing the Chicago Basin peaks or Pigeon and Turret or Vestal, Arrow, and the Trinities off in the distance from that vantage point gave an entirely new sense of scale to these peaks and made them that much more awe inspiring! The flight wasn't that long as we were only going to Silverton.

At that point the offered to take me on a second helicopter flight to the hospital, but seeing as I would still walk (in a lot of pain, but could still walk) I figured it was something I just had to nurse and worse case follow up with a local hospital when I got back to the Springs. A couple of the members of Team 1 where headed back to Durango, so they offered me a ride back after giving me some much appreciated pizza! They had mentioned the possibility of another crew potentially getting the gear from my campsite on the No Name Basin side, but unfortunately they weren't going to be able to mobilize for that which prompted my lost and found post. They dropped me off where I was parked at the train station, I gave them my eternal thanks, and we went our separate ways where now I was left trying to pick up the pieces of this week of 13ering I had planned that just got blown up lol.

I started running wrap-up errands and realized after all that, I REALLY would like to sleep in a bed and think I will break my own practices and spend ACTUAL MONEY on a room?! Lol I think the universe said not so fast because when I tried to book something on Expedia, VRBO, Airbnb, even ChatGPT, EVERYTHING in Durango was sold out?! Don't know if there's some kind of event going on in Durango over Labor Day weekend that would cause that, but not a single vacancy in sight! Lol serves me right though for having the audacity to even entertain paying money on a room on a wilderness trip, backseat yet again in the Walmart parking lot it would be :).

Problem was in the midst of recivilizationizing myself with things like getting gas or eating at Denny's with my seasoned fries swimming in ranch dressing and five glasses of Pepsi, my ankle pain was actually getting worse as the hours went on to the point that I figured it'd best to call the VA and get their opinion. When I described what had happened and the level of pain, they told me to go to the ER which I felt much more comfortable doing under the VA's direction. I drove to Mercy Hospital's ER which was a literal ghost town, emptiest ER I'd ever been to but at least I was seen immediately. They took x-rays and sure enough they confirmed that my ankle's broken. Lol before the reality of my season being over even settled in, I remember my internal kneejerk reaction being "damn this means I can't do the incline for a while, life's about to suck" knowing that's my default hike I do every week before any mountain enters into the equation outside of Pikes. But yeah, they proceed to splint my ankle, give me crutches, and let me know to follow up with an orthopedic surgeon within a week.