Stats:

RT Distance: 40.58 miles

Vertical Gain: 11,703 ft

RT Time: 17hrs, 10mins

Approximate Splits:

Needle Creek Bridge: 2hrs, 20mins --> Twin Lakes: 5 hrs, 15mins --> Sunlight Summit: 6hrs, 15mins --> Windom Summit: 7hrs, 30mins --> Back to Twin Lakes: 8hrs, 30mins --> Eolus Summit: 10hrs --> North Eolus Summit: 10hrs, 30mins --> Twin Lakes: 11hrs, 45mins --> Needle Creek Bridge: 13hrs, 50mins --> TH: 17hrs, 10mins

The Build-Up

Coming into 2023, I had ten 14ers left to finish them all off! After securing a reservation for Culebra and having some vacation time before my last year of med school in Chicago, I knew it was well within the realm of possibility to get to 58 this year. The Chicago Basin 14ers were included among the ten peaks I had remaining, so I began to plan how I wanted to check these off the list. I had always thought I would backpack in from Purgatory to avoid paying for the train but had never seriously considered doing these peaks in a single push. However, I found that this wasn't as uncommon as one might expect after reading a few trip reports on 14ers.com and finding Strava activities from various ultra-runners who had pulled it off. Towards the end of June, the gears began to turn...

Third-year rotations had stymied my fitness somewhat, and I'd only gotten serious about running again at the beginning of June. After getting in a bunch of trail runs after returning to Colorado in July, things popped back into place pretty nicely, and I was feeling about as fit as I had in a long time. Still, I knew this would be a massive day. My previous biggest day in the mountains was in the realm of ~25 miles with 9,000ft of vertical gain. I was strangely confident I could pull this off with my improving fitness though. I recruited a friend, Brier, to join me on the adventure. We'd been friends since elementary school, and I knew she had more than enough ability to suffer through this slog-fest with me. We waited until the heavy and persistent snowpack had mostly melted off, wanting to move as quickly and lightly as possible on this long day. The monsoons hit in late July but a welcome reprieve from the storms shaped up over the weekend of August 5th-6th. This was our window!

We drove to the trailhead on Friday evening (August 4th) and slept in our cars. I only got a couple of hours of mostly restless sleep, with the adrenaline already starting to set in...

Off we go!

Our alarms blared at 1:45AM for a 2AM departure. I had loaded up my running vest the night prior with around 4,000 calories of energy gels/gummies/drink mixes/pop tarts, a very lightweight shell, a small first aid kit mainly to address possible blisters, a change of socks, a Katadyn filter, and 1 liter of water on hand. It was amazing to have access to water basically all day. I opted to wear my Hoka Speedgoats, wanting the comfort they provided my feet over such long mileage. They performed great all day, even on the technical class 4 terrain. I wore shorts and a t-shirt all day, not having to break out my shell even once. I crammed down some bars, a couple pop tarts, and we were off!

We hit the trail at 2:06AM and started descending down to Purgatory Flats. I started my watch about 4mins late but was glad I noticed so I could record this epic day. We hiked the initial descent, giving our groggy bodies a bit of time to warm up and wake up. Once we hit the meadow, we broke into a light jog all the way to the Needle Creek bridge, only slowing down to power-hike the uphill sections. These initial 10 miles passed by so quickly, and we chatted about all sorts of random topics the entire time. It was a fantastic running trail all the way up to the upper heights of Chicago Basin. We reached the Needle Creek bridge around 4:30AM, filtered some more water, and slammed down a couple hundred calories before starting the ascent into Chicago Basin. Knowing the approach into the basin featured consistent elevation gain, we opted to power hike these 6 miles to preserve energy for what lay ahead. Before we knew it, the stars gave way to soft light and the beauty of Chicago Basin was revealed. There were a bunch of tents set up, which was not at all surprising considering the amazing weather window that coincided with the weekend.

We powered up the headwall to Twin Lakes in good spirits. 17 miles in at 7:20AM, and our legs were still feeling quite strong. Our confidence was growing that we'd be able to pull this off. We filtered some more water at Twin Lakes, and I opted to get most of my calories in with Gu Roctane drink mix. My appetite tends to get pretty diminished at altitude and energy gels/gummies taste about 10x worse whenever I'm up that high in elevation, so sipping on calories was preferable.

Climbing the peaks!

We had originally intended to climb Windom and then Sunlight, followed by Eolus/N Eolus. However, we breezed past the turnoff for Windom and decided to press on to Sunlight. During the ascent up Sunlight, I felt remarkably fresh considering the mileage we'd already laid down, and we powered past everyone that had started from high up in the basin that morning. We climbed quickly, and I was barely noticing the altitude. While I'd read a decent number of complaints about the looseness of the gully up to Sunlight's saddle, I didn't find it so bad. I was probably just excited to be close to summiting peak #1 for the day though! We gained Sunlight's saddle and took a moment to appreciate the views.

The remainder of the climb involved a bunch of nice scrambling on slabby rock. I accidentally took us through the first hole in the ridge, which led to a slightly tricky class 4 downclimb but also a fun climb up and around a little ledge system. We topped out on our first summit 6hrs and 15mins into the day... not bad! Summit #54 for me!

Sunlight's infamous summit block awaited, and I was eager to test it out for myself. It's a pretty unique configuration of boulders to find at 14,000ft, and they appear miraculously balanced. I took off my running vest and scooted up without any issues. The backside is definitely quite sheer, but I found the final move to be comfortable. Exposure affects everyone differently though, and I was definitely aided by being on the taller side of things. Brier grabbed some nice action shots of me going up and down, which I'll include below.

We spent about ten minutes at Sunlight's summit before starting the descent. We ran into several groups of climbers on the way down, all of whom were quite encouraging when we told them what we were attempting to do for the day. The outdoor community rocks! We made quick work down the gully, wanting to spend as little time as possible in it while others were kicking down some decent-sized rocks.

We dropped to about 13,200ft, climbed up to Windom's ridge while avoiding any lingering patches of snow, and gained its summit about an hour after taking off from Sunlight. It was nice to not lose too much elevation between these two peaks! Whatever we were doing that day was working because I still felt great, and we were moving quickly on the climbs. 7.5 hours in and we were on summit #2 for the day and #55 overall for me! At this point, I knew Eolus and North Eolus were well within our abilities. As an aside, Windom also has a pretty funky summit block- some cuboidal rocks stacked on each other! For some reason, I was quite entertained by this.

We scurried down Windom, remarking almost non-stop about what an absolutely gorgeous day it was. This was definitely the kind of adventure where you need perfect weather, and boy, did it deliver on that front! We stocked up on water at Twin Lakes and admired the beauty that surrounded us. I felt really lucky to be so deep in the wilderness with the power of my own two legs!

As we started up the route to Eolus, the first weariness of the day set in, but we were still charging at a pretty good clip. Unlike the climb up Sunlight and Windom, we stopped twice to briefly recharge our legs. From Twin Lakes, we made it up to the Eolus saddle in about 40mins. We opted to go after Eolus first, knowing that North Eolus would be a "freebie" and a nice morale boost to finish things out. I found the "Catwalk" to be super wide across, which basically negated the exposure on either side. The ledge system that ensued was heavily cairned. Some cairns were helpful, while others seemed to lead to nowhere worth going. We relied on our own route-finding, zig-zagging back and forth as we climbed higher. We topped out at the summit some twenty minutes after gaining the notch in the ridge and just under 10hrs into the day! 3/4 summits on the day with a "gimme" left!

We lingered for a few minutes on the summit and started heading down. On tired legs, going down the loose and narrow ledges was a lot less fun than going up had been, particularly because we had to stare down the exposure. We took extra care here, knowing how close we were to being off the technical stuff for the day. Before we knew it, we were doing the quick scramble up North Eolus. We summited about 25mins after setting off from Eolus and 10.5hrs into the day. We'd gotten all four peaks, and I was almost in a state of disbelief that things had gone so effortlessly (up until that point...). We still had about 18 miles to go, but I was already proud of what we had done!

A long way from home...

We took our time coming down from Eolus and North Eolus, stopping multiple times to filter water, change socks, and talk to various groups who were ascending. We took in the views from Twin Lakes one last time before hiking down the headwall. Neither of us wanted to run this section since it was a bit steep, and we didn't want our legs to blow up on us quite yet. Once we made it past this descent, we started a light jog all the way to Needle Creek bridge. At first, it was a bit painful, but we both began to feel stronger as it went on. At this point, I thought we'd definitely be able to jog the entire way back and make quick work of the return trip. However, as we dropped lower in elevation, the temperatures started to creep up and the sun seemed to beat down us more intensely. I had stopped hammering the gels at this point and likely should have been taking one every 30mins. By the time we reached the Needle Creek bridge at mile 31 at a little less than 14 hours into the day, I began to bonk. We stopped, and I shoveled in a bunch of calories that helped me to bounce back a bit, but running was out of the question for me. We both had enough energy to power-hike the remaining 10 miles out. It felt like an eternity to get back to the Animas River bridge compared to how we had easily breezed through that section in the morning. The elevation gain in the last 4 miles was certainly no joke after being on our legs for close to 16hrs. There was probably a little more than 1,000ft of gain on this stretch, with ~2/3rds of it coming on the last climb out after hitting Purgatory Flats. On each hill, I was able to dig just a bit deeper and find something I didn't know I had left. On the final climb out, I broke into intermittent jogs, eager to finish off the day. And suddenly, that was it! 17hrs and 10mins after starting out, we had done it! We gave each other about the worst high-five possible and then collapsed onto the dirt parking lot, which I had been looking forward to and talking about doing for the previous several hours. It was an epic day, filled with memories I will never forget. I was amazed at how well our bodies performed and proud of our constant positivity. I hope this trip report encourages someone else to tackle Chicago Basin in the same way. As I learned, our bodies are capable of far more than we give them credit!

Some final thoughts...

The goal for the day was to climb all four peaks safely, and we were not at all concerned about how long it might take us. However, with only two months of relatively low-mileage training and no prior ultrarunning/mountain endurance experience to my credit, I think 17hrs is a pretty respectable time for this route. Had we both gotten better sleep the night before and had I managed my nutrition a bit better coming down from Twin Lakes to Needle Creek bridge, I think we could've snuck under 16hrs. There always seem to be "what ifs" with these kinds of adventures though, and I take a lot of pride in simply having completed it! For a bit of perspective -- I climbed my first 14er, Mt. Sherman, in 2016. I wore jeans that day (no hate on jeans, but they are not comfortable hiking attire) and struggled plenty with the altitude. I enjoyed it plenty though and stuck with it over the years. All this is to say that I have come a long way since then. I have thought a lot about what outdoor adventures I want to pursue next as I wrap up the 14ers (Mt. Elbert will be my finisher this coming weekend). I think the peak bagging will certainly continue, but I have really found what I love in trail running and putting together long days in the mountains. I'm looking forward to more epic linkups and likely some ultra-marathons in the future!