Introduction

DISCLAIMER: Despite what is listed in the report description, we climbed these peaks over Fourth of July weekend. I had to set the climb date to July 15th to make it appear at the top of the trip reports page.

The Chicago Basin group is indeed one of the most beautiful basins in all of Colorado. Its classic group of 14ers surrounded by the towering 13ers of the Weminuche make for a set of awesome views. Getting there is indeed arduous however, as they are in my opinion the hardest group of mountains to access in Colorado. Our methodology for completing this group would be different compared to the majority of climbers that ascend them. We would be doing the Chicago Basin approach on horseback! One of the climbers in our group Patrick (Tony) Mazza, has backpacked into the Weminuche Wilderness at least seven times to climb all the fourteeners and high thirteeners and this time he wanted to do it differently.

Railroad -> Horses -> 10,850 feet.

Before we get underway, big shoutout to Western Sky Outfitters for helping us make this trip possible. They are a fantastic group of kind souls that help make our trip to the Chicago Basin possible! They do drop camps in numerous areas in the San Juan mountains. The did a drop camp for us in the Chicago Basin and this included meeting us at the train stop and taking us up to the basin on horseback. They also set-up camp for that included a very large tent with cots and all the accessories. It was an incredible trip for us and made for a unique experience that we would do again! Their website is Summer Adventures (westernskyoutfitters.com). I highly recommend them. Everyone we talked to during the trip was amazed by the trip that Western Sky provided us.

Western Sky Outfitters was a huge help to us during this trip, but we wouldn't have ever considered them if it wasn't for the mastermind of this trip, my dad Patrick (Tony) Mazza. He was the brains behind contacting, arranging, and planning this trip. Big thanks to him most of all :).

After a long five-and-a-half-hour drive and overnight stay in Durango, we were ready to board the Durango-Silverton railroad with all our equipment. The train ride to Neddleton was quite pleasant and we enjoyed ourselves on the way up.

If you do end up taking the train, store all important items INSIDE of your pack. The Luggage handlers on the railroad seem to have the propensity to roughly handle the bags haha. After getting off at the Needleton stop, we met our outfitter Andy who we be taking us up to Chicago Basin on Horseback. After a short hike to the stop, he had our horses staged, it was time to saddle up! Andy did an incredible job the entire trip and we thoroughly enjoyed his company.

We would then spend the next two hours ascending about 2,850 feet to our drop camp at around 10,850 feet. Riding horseback up the approach was an awesome experience and it was amazing shaving off a little under half of our elevation gain for the trip.

Drop Camp at 11k

If bypassing the elevation gain of the approach wasn't already cool enough, Western Sky outfitters had also set up camp for us by the time we arrived!

After arriving at camp at 2:00 P.M., we were able to spend the rest of the day relaxing and preparing for our ascension of the peaks the next morning. Our plan was to knock all four out in one day. We would start with the Eolus twins in the morning and hoped to be finished with sunlight/windom by the late afternoon. While staying at camp, we had plenty of time to take in the scenery of the Chicago Basin:

The Climb

Our story in the Chicago Basin is one of changing plans and coming to terms with the conditions put before you. The Watershed the Chicago Basin is in peaked at 200% of average for its snowpack this year. This combined with a cool and rainy May/June in Colorado made for winter/spring conditions being a reality in the Chicago Basin over the Fourth of July. All four peaks held significant snow in them during our stay, with snowfields 1-5 feet deep making up a majority of the peaks above 12.5k. Twin lakes, the site of the turnoffs for the Eolus twins and the S/W pair was mostly frozen over when we reached it.

When we reached twin lakes in the morning, we took the Eolus pair turnoff and headed up. We were going to climb them in the order of Mount Eolus and then North Eolus. The approach required spikes and ice axes on steep snow. In the morning, the snow was firm and ok to climb on. It only takes about 15 minutes of sun exposure for the snow to start turning soft, however.

After the gruesome ascent of the snowfield, we mounted the Eolus-North Saddle and it was time to head up the ranked one.

The upper sections of Eolus contain a large number of cairns – too many! If you follow all of them, you will spend a lot of time on the upper sections – our recommendation is to follow until you can find a straight shot up the face. The summit was a wonderful experience. The weather was great and the views of the surrounding Weminuche were to die for. North Eolus is a fun little turn off before you dismount the Eolus-North Eolus saddle. Personally, I think it is the better of the two. It has a significantly easier climb with superior views. Unfortunately, for many of you that are trying to climb all of the 14ers, whichever is better is irrelevant haha.

The route down presented softer snow but we were able to glissade down approximately 1,000 feet – fun!

Our plan to climb Windom and Sunlight in the same day was thwarted by soft snow on both routes. The snow is going to take a long time to melt out on all the peaks. An ice ax and spikes are absolutely necessary.

After descending back down to camp, our group took some time to rest and enjoyed some time next to a river near our site. The bodies and flows of water in the Chicago basin were truly awesome during our trip! The massive waterfalls and strongly flowing rivers were truly a treat. That night, we enjoyed some more downtime and views of nature.

We had some considerations about doing sunlight and windom the next day but decided against it considering the 3:00 P.M. train we had to catch the next day.

The Descent

After a night of well-earned sleep, our group enjoyed a very nice sunrise in the basin and started packing to go down. We departed from camp and said goodbye to one of Colorado's beautiful places. The ride down on horseback was once again quite enjoyable and we were glad not to have to descend another 2,850 feet. We arrived back at needleton around 1:30 and said goodbye to our outfitter Andy and our horses.

The Train Back

With a little bit of downtime on our hands, we congregated with all the other climbers who had backpacked into basin that weekend. I even got in a chess match against some friends we made from Oklahoma ! Apparently, high elevation makes the brain less able to see back rank weaknesses. Although I did get checkmated, I couldn't be happier. I was in the San Jaun mountains after all :).

The train picked us up at about 3:15 and it was back down to Durango from there. It was sad leaving the place, but we all knew we would be back there! We did have to pick up sunlight and windom still.

Conclusion

If you ever have some time and money on your hands, visit the Chicago Basin in Colorado! Whether it's views, climbs, backpacking, or everything in between, this place won't let you down.

“Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.”

â David McCullough Jr