Mount Eolus

Date to Climb: June 28, 2009

Climbed Date: June 28, 2009

Elevation: 14,083

Range: San Juan, Needles

Latitude: 37.62190, Longitude: -107.62260

Route: Northeast Ridge ll, Class 3

Pre-Climb Comments

Eolus has a couple hundred feet of exposed class 3 climbing, up and down. Should be fun. After climbing, we will go back to camp, break camp, pack, and hike the 16 miles back to the Purgatory trailhead. I wish all days were going to be this easy. Ha!

Post-Climb Comments

After meeting Nick, we soon were walking with two other climbers also going to Eolus. They were walking faster than us at times, but we still seemed to catch them with our slower but steady pace. Just below the ascent route, we caught them again, consulting their maps. A few joint decisions later, concerning route-finding, and we were traveling together.

Too much snow made the route hard to follow. We were not able to join the ridge separating Eolus and North Eolus at the low point without even more snow climbing. Instead of following the snow covered route we joined the ridge with a few fifth class climbing moves.

The traverse across the ridge was easy and the climb of Eolus was almost trail-like following cairns along some narrow ledges. However, by the time we summited it was time to hurry back to camp. We still had a long hike ahead of us (16 miles.)

Eolus was fun and along the way we met Josh and Paul, two med-students from Georgia - the two who had climbed with us. There were staying in the Chicago Basin for a week. It would be interesting to hear the rest of their tales.

Note: We were unable to even attempt North Eolus. If we had climbed it after Eolus, we would have had to stay in Chicago Basin for another day. We needed to leave for two reasons: 1) Everyone was expecting us out that day. 2) We had no food remaining.

The ultimate consequence of not summitting North Eolus is that we will not be able to complete the unofficial fifty-nine fourteen thousand foot peaks. We will now just focus on the traditional fifty-four peaks. Asterisks on the Original List indicate the five extra peaks which we now do not intend to climb. None of the peaks were designated to be climbed without also climbing their parent peak.

22 Peaks climbed, 32 to go.