Chicago Basin 1: Sunlight & Windom Peaks

We finally reached the Siesta Motel in Durango after the long car ride from Denver, stopping only for a Thai lunch in Poncha Springs. We were four — Julie, Jake, Marina, & myself — and we had a coal-fed steam train to catch in the morning. The plan? Ride the train, backpack into the mountains, then hike three Fourteeners: Sunlight, Windom, & Eolus.

We checked into the motel & did our final packs. We had a nice dinner at Zia Taqueria before getting to bed early. Next day, breakfast was Durango Joes. Then we parked the car at the station’s long term lot, loaded our backpacks on the baggage car, and got to our seats on the 08:45 train.

The Durango-Silverton train was great. It’s a bit touristy, but the scenery is great and the experience is very Coloradan. Plus, without the train it’s an additional 18 miles of backpacking — I’ll suffer a few Texans to shave off that kind of milage. And you get to be one of those badasses that stays behind at the nowheresville Needleton stop while the train puffs on to take the Texans to lunch in Silverton.

We saddled on our backpacks, took the bridge over the Animus River, & start hiking. From Needleton we went along Needle Creek up to Chicago Basin. Needle Creek was roaring and frothy. The winter snows — historic winter snows — hit the San Juans even more than the rest of Colorado, filling the creeks and rivers with snowmelt. And further up, we picked our way through the tossed trees and packed snow of a few avalanche. We reached a suitable campsite, pitched the tents, and after dinner again went to bed early.

We started out at 03:30, climbing up the first 1,500′ with headlamps. We could hear the violent sound of the streams as we walked over the spanning ice. We got to Twin Lakes at first light. There we found a winter landscape of snow in all directions. But this was not a surprise — we’d read condition reports before we left and we were prepared. Our helmets went on, our ice axes came out, and our microspikes pulled on.

Sunlight Peak

From Twin Lakes we turned east and made our way up the high valley between Sunlight & Windom. By the time the sun hit Eolus on the other side of the lakes, we turned north and started up Sunlight. The ice was hard. Hard on top and hard underneath. We needed crampons, but only had microspikes. From the earlier postings on 14ers.com microspikes would’ve been good enough. We could see the glissade paths from climbers a day or so before. But for us, it was frozen so solid you couldn’t even kick-in for steps. Julie & Jake had forgotten the leashes for their ice axes, so they stayed at the bottom & enjoyed the sunrise. Marina & I, however, went up the slope. We had, as the French might say, “fiévre au sommet” – summit fever (I have no idea if this is true).

It was tedious, technical work. Pick in. Right foot. Left foot. Pick out. Repeat. And repeat and repeat until, at last, the snow ended and we found ourselves on the bare rock. The remaining scramble was fun, with not too much exposure to worry about. Until that last block, of course. Sunlight is a class 4 Fourteener, but the only class 4 move is the one to the summit block.

Physically, it’s not too much of an ask: an upward jump across a gap of, maybe, 3 feet. But the block you jump on to slants down towards you into a, say, 10 foot crevice. So if you under-jump, that’s gonna hurt but you’ll be okay. The other side of the block, however, is a very steep 1,000′ drop. So if you over-jump — well, you get the idea. Much like “the better part of valor is discretion,” the better part of safety is not trying to look too cool. I belly-flopped right on the top of the block. Pretty? No. Successful? Yes. And with that awkward move, I got my first class 4 Fourteener.

And now for the hard part: getting back down that 500′ sheet of ice. Glissading was out of the question. The hardness of the ice coupled with the rockscape at the runout meant that descent could get out of hand pretty quickly. So with arms tired from the ascent, we slowly lowered ourselves with our ice axes and microspikes. Slowly. I self-arrested a couple of times after loosing my footing and slipping down. I have to say that this was the only time climbing Fourteeners that I felt I was in danger. But a panic doesn’t get you down the mountain. So after taking a moment to center and take in those calming breaths, you get back to work to get back down the problem you’ve created for yourself.

Julie & Jake awaited at the bottom. From the summit of Sunlight we could see that the ridge on Windom was mostly clear, but after the wait they weren’t feeling it and decided to head back to camp. With a refreshing rest and a sky with no clouds, Marina & I started up for Windom.

Windom Peak

Although it had its challenges, nothing on Windom even came close to our morning fun. Not quite class 3, it was an interesting semi-scramble to the top with only a few sections of snow where we had to strap on microspikes. At the summit we had a it’s-funny-now-because-it-turned-out-okay experience with a marmot. As we had some food and enjoyed the view, we heard the jangle of microspikes. A marmot had grabbed one of Marina’s microspikes, pulled it backwards, and dropped it in a crevice. By luck, she was able to reach it — but it would have been a different trip back without one of her microspikes. Never trust a marmot!

It was now well in the afternoon and for our return the top inch of ice had melted into slush. We slopped our way back to Twin Lakes. After teh lakes, we saw the ice bridges we crossed before dawn. Geez. Untrustworthy would be a generous term. And the stream under the ice was just a riot of water. By the time we made it back to camp it had been over 12 hours since we began and we were exhausted.

Although the plan was to climb Eolus the next day, Julie & Jake were out because of the presence of ice and their absence of ice axe leashes. As for Marina & I, we decided that today we were lucky. And maybe let’s not push our luck for a second day. We also decided that tomorrow we would take the trail back to the train and the train back to Durango.

During the remainder of that evening and the morning before we left, the mountain goats — which elsewhere are so noble and so elusive — simply pestered us. A herd of maybe eight hung around the camp, walking next to the tents, and waiting. Waiting for pee. The Chicago Basin has no salt, so the goats get their recommended daily allowance of it from the campers. More specifically, from camper pee. It’s important to go on a rock, because they will dig up all the dirt if you don’t.

In the morning we hiked back to Needleton, waved down the train, and rode back to Durango.

It was quite the adventure, and adventures are what I try to avoid. The Good: got back safely, utterly beautiful views, a winter climb in July. The Bad: dangerous Sunlight descent, thin ice bridges in the dark. The Ugly: didn’t climb Eolus, so I have to do the whole trip again. Chicago Basin, Part 2, coming eventually.

• When: 9-11 Jul 2019
  • Day 1: Needleton -> Chicago Basin
  • Distance: 7.4 mi
  • Elevation: 3,773′
  • Time: 4:40 hrs
  • Day 2: Chicago Basin -> Sunlight & Windom Peaks
  • Distance: 6.2 mi
  • Elevation: 4,352′
  • Time: 12:40 hrs
  • Day 3: Chicago Basin -> Needleton
  • Distance: 7.4 mi
  • Elevation: -3,773′
  • Time: 3:30 hrs
• Colo 14er Rank: #39, #32
• Difficulty: Sunlight – class 4, Windom – class 2+