return to the backpack in

__July 2__

Ugh! It was 4:00 a.m., and I felt horrible. I had spent the whole night tossing and turning and was maddeningly conscious for the entire time. I had never had this problem in a tent before, but this was my highest camp yet, so that may have figured into it. It was time to get moving, though, if I was going to summit peaks that day. Erin and I, in our camping inexperience, slowed the group's start that morning, and we didn't hit the trail until 6:00. Once on the trail and with a light daypack, I was feeling great, despite my lack of sleep. Tim, though, was still hampered by his allergies, so James gave him a walkie-talkie, so we could keep in touch with him and Mike. We reached the junction between the Twin Lakes trail and the Columbine Pass trail. This is an unmarked junction, by the way, so be sure to take the left fork if Twin Lakes and the 14ers are your destination. Already we were awed by what we were seeing. Needle Creek slides down into Chicago Basin over beautifully polished rock, and we had to take a detour to inspect these falls more closely.

While taking in the early morning views, James realized that he had dropped his sunglasses when he had given Tim and Mike the walkie-talkie. He ended up running down the 400' we had just ascended, but to no avail. He even checked our camp again, but he couldn't find them. Fortunately, Dwight had brought an extra pair of sunglasses, else James would have had to endure the sun's rays for the whole trip. Once past the first headwall, we saw a large herd of mountain goats with a number of kids among them. Tim, Mike, Erin, and I, knowing that we wouldn't be as swift as James, Dwight, and Kurt continued on ahead while Dwight and Kurt waited for James to return from looking for his sunglasses. As we climbed up towards Twin Lakes, we spied the mountain goats several hundred feet below offering our remaining group a close encounter.

As you near Twin Lakes, the Twin Thumbs suddenly appear above you. Once at the lakes, you're surrounded by spectacle. Eolus, Glacier Point, Needle Ridge, Sunlight, and Windom completely encompass you. It's truly amazing. We met a couple of climbers who were headed for Sunlight and Windom that day. We were impressed that they had packed it in from Vallecito Reservoir and over Columbine Pass. Brutal!

The guide books tell you to not go all the way to Twin Lakes to reach Eolus, but we never saw a viable trail cutting off the swing east to the lakes, either in ascending or descending. There's a great trail, though, that heads from Twin Lakes into the upper basin protected by Eolus' South Ridge, the Catwalk, and large slabs of unnamed points to the north.

Erin and I had fallen behind during this portion of the climb, but we reached Kurt, Dwight, and James near the top of the basin where some snow was still lying. We had all brought crampons, so we slipped them on for a brief, enjoyable, but unnecessary (if you didn't have the gear) snow climb up to the even higher basin between Eolus and Glacier Point. Just after starting the snow climb, I accidentally pulled off the nozzle of my hydration bladder. Water spilled all over me, as I frantically searched for what was suddenly the most important piece of blue rubber on earth. Just as I was about to give up, I lifted one more rock, and there it was! I marveled at my good fortune and quickly made the snow climb.

We removed our crampons and quickly made the scramble up to the North Eolus-Mount Eolus saddle. Especially after seeing a couple of young climbers who had just attained its summit, James and I concurred that it would be fun to go up North Eolus first, though this ended up being a fateful decision for Tim and Mike. We left our packs and poles at the saddle and started climbing. The scramble up North Eolus is easy and fun on large boulders that reminded us of Lost Creek Wilderness; we all highly recommend it.

The views! Pigeon Peak, Turret Peak, Vestal Peak, Arrow Peak, Jagged Mountain, New York Basin, and Mount Sneffels! New perspectives on the Twin Lakes cirque! Our mouths were agape! Meanwhile, the weather remained fantastic. Tiny, innocuous clouds were lightly scattered through a brilliant blue sky with no threat in sight. The two young climbers turned out to be Tim Jansen of 14erWorld and his brother. They had made the trip from Kansas City, if I remember rightly, and they told us how they thought the Sunlight boulder move was overrated. The Jansens left before us, and we watched as they started over the vaunted Catwalk. The five of us returned to the saddle just as Mike and Tim were reaching it for the first time. We should have had them come to Eolus with us, but we were so excitable about North Eolus that the two decided to head there first.

The Catwalk, we decided, should be dubbed the Cakewalk. It's huge! I find it hard to believe that some people get down on all fours for this segment of the route up Eolus, like is suggested in the Colorado County Highpointers book. We were across in no time. Kurt tackled he initial part of the northeast ridge directly, and James followed, leaving Dwight, Erin, and I to find the standard ledges route ourselves. Numerous routes exist on Eolus' East Face. As the guides say, if you're attempting a move that seems too hard, you can find something better. Take your time, and you should have no problems. Kurt and James abandoned the ridge for the ledges higher up, so they reached the summit 10-15 minutes ahead of our 11:15 summit time.

Atop the summit, I was busy identifying peaks. Tim Jansen remarked that I must have plugged into topographic maps Matrix-style, as I was pointing out Knife Point near Jagged and the colorful Vermillion Peak situated from our vantage between the Wilsons and the La Platas. I needed help, though, finding Lizard Head, identifiable only by its shadow given the light that we were in. Erin was particularly impressed with the South Needle Mountains. Their monarch south of Columbine Pass, Mount Valois, wasn't very exciting from our perspective, but Organ Mountain and Amherst Mountain were stunning. With binoculars we could see that Organ seemed to have a chair-like feature among its towering summit cliffs. Animas Mountain and Monitor Peak looked nearly as good as Pigeon and Turret. There are too many mountains in the heart of the San Juans calling my name!

James hopped on the CB radio to check on Tim and Mike after we had spent a half-hour on the summit. They had made the descent off North Eolus, but Tim's legs were feeling wobbly, and he didn't feel comfortable with the prospect of descending Eolus in such a condition. We stressed how easy we thought the climb was, but he didn't have it in him. Mike was joining him on the return to camp. Hopefully he won't be offended by this comment but I couldn't help but think of Mike as Tim's Samwise Gamgee, ever dedicated to the plights of his friend. Very admirable.

We spent a total of an hour on Eolus' summit before making our descent. Once we got below the North Eolus-Eolus saddle, we took a moment to stare at how exceptionally well-lit Sunlight, the Spire, and Windom were, and then we split up again. While the other three had had enough. Erin and I were interested in summitting Glacier Point, which hovered diminutively over a mostly frozen tarn, which featured some striking, thin, sky-blue ice. Erin and I crossed a few small snowfields to the saddle between North Eolus and Glacier. From there we picked an easy scree traverse across Glacier's south slopes, leading to some good rock on Glacier's Southeast Ridge. We knew we'd have an awesome view of the Noname Creek drainage and of Jagged Mountain, but we were unprepared for the many hundreds of feet of North Eolus' east-north-east face. Equally striking were Sunlight Peak and Rio Grande Pyramid, which form a marvelous pair from Glacier. There was a waterlogged summit register atop Glacier with names extending back to 1992. No one appeared to have signed the register since 2001. As we let the register dry out a little, we took an altimeter reading atop Glacier so that we could make a saddle rise calculation. Glacier is one of Gerry Roach's soft rank peaks – peaks that may or may not be a summit with 300' of rise, due to interpolated saddle and/or summit elevations. Between the summit and the saddle, I measured 313' of change. I know barometric pressure isn't always the most accurate thing, but I believe that the margin of error would be reasonable over such a short distance and during such a short amount of time. So I'm counting Glacier Point as a ranked summit.

It took Erin and I just 15 minutes to descend from Glacier's summit and head back up to the area where we could begin our descent into the Eolus basin below the Catwalk. All in all, I think this detour to Glacier cost us around 1 hour, and if you have the time and the gumption, we recommend this side trip, as well.

Erin and I descended the rock route into the Eolus basin, not wishing to re-don our crampons. We noticed Kurt's distinctive standing glissade path, and quickly plungestepped down the snow. Back at Twin Lakes, she and I took a break. Meanwhile a Search & Rescue helicopter had entered Chicago Basin, flying well below the ridgelines. We think that they were simply on a training mission because they went to and fro without any clear aim before heading south over Columbine Pass.

We were exhausted once we reached camp. We took down our hanging gear and began the night's work of getting fed, pumping water, and getting settled for the night. We shared our account of Glacier Point, while many of our group were resting on their bedrolls.

continue to Windom Peak and Sunlight Peak