July 18, 2020
Thought upon waking: Oh crap the alarm didn’t go off.
Thought upon going to sleep: I miss my snuggles.
Cravings: a warm embrace with my little one. A kiss from my wife.
Heading to Sunlight and Windom peeks
There is something about bagging a peak. A feeling you can’t get through any other activity. Its an exhausting, thankless activity we return to over and over and only those who have undertaken will understand its draw on our souls.
Mountains are unforgiving. They are unrelenting and their granite foundations offer no comfort and no forgiveness. There is no such thing as conquering a mountain. Many times your very safety will be in doubt. There is only surviving a climb on one. In the most simplest of terms, their very nature commands our utmost respect and we can certainly be tossed from them at any time. Scaling a mountain takes both physical and mental fortitude of which the mere act of summoning is its own just reward. Fortitude leaves an impression on your soul. Long after the eye’s delights from the majestic views have faded, this fortitude is all that remains. Nowhere does a man feel so small and insignificant and yet so close to God at the same time.
If you are unfamiliar with Chicago Basin most people come here to summit. There are 4 14,000ft peaks to scale and all are reachable from one basecamp. Sunlight, Windom, Eulos and North Eulos are the peaks names. All are worthy of a visit.
Summiting Sunlight Peak
We got a later start than planned due to the alarm not ringing. This has happened once before, most notably on my last trip to scale Mount Harvard in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness. The cause in both cases was relying on someone else’s alarm clock. Next time I remind myself to set my own. Luckily, the sun rises early out here so 20 minutes after our preferred wake up timer the lights were coming on to wake us anyways. Our original plan was to wake while dark and be hiking the moment it got light out. This was to minimize the chance of encountering any storms which might pop up and maximize the amount of time we had to climb. In Colorado storms typically come in due to mountain updrafts in the late morning or early afternoon. We set out a bit later than intended with plenty of morning light and without a cloud in the sky.
Onward and upward
The hike up from the valley of Chicago Basin to the peaks is full of adventure on its own. Its climb is also rather acute. To give you an idea Sunlight Peak is only 2.5 miles away but we gain 3,000ft to summit. The change in grade was almost immediate from the start. Within a few minutes of steady climbing, I was already gasping for breath in the thin air.
The journey upward was stunning. Truly, it was some of the most amazing mountain terrain and snowmelt runoff scenery I’ve come across. The San Juan’s definitely don’t disappoint in the views department. Onward we go over a well -marked path that all climbers use. After an hour of constant climbing we arrive at Twin Lakes. Once again mother nature did not disappoint.
From here the terrain changed from the lush green vegetation, fed by the run off from the peaks above, to the familiar alpine dessert of loose stone and granite.
The paths to sunlight were well-marked from this point with cairns every few hundred feet. Route finding was not difficult. Unlike the path up to the basin which was one solid trail, from this point there are multiple footpaths one can take.
We crossed boulder and ice fields before we reached the base of the summit. Over the next two hours the climb turned steeper and steeper until it was a scramble on all 4s over a nearly vertical scree field. We reached the top of the field along the knife’s edge. Our selected route required us to then use our hands to grasp the rock face to reach the spire before the final peak. There wasn’t much of a foothold beneath as we traversed from one side to the other. One slip of our hands off the precipice would’ve meant a long fall off the backside of the mountain. A fall one is not likely to survive from. In hindsight, this was one of the dumber things I’ve done in life. Especially since there was an opportunity to go back down 100ft and back up the other side of the scree field which would’ve saved us from that scramble.
After our short scramble, we reached the spire and finished our scramble to the top. The view was amazing and became more and more so with each step we climbed. Three of the original 4 climbers in our group made it and we snapped a few good pictures of us at the summit. Our plan from here was to take the traverse to the top of Windom peak. Mother Nature had other plans. Off in the distance there were storms brewing. We didn’t stay long but rather started making our descent back to camp to avoid starring in any lighting shows. Windom would have to wait for another day.
As the thunder began to roll in the distance, we quickly completed the descent of the scree field and proceeded to make our way hastily down the mountain. We made it back to twin lakes before it began to sprinkle. Every now and then the crunching of rock beneath our feet was interrupted by a clap of thunder. We never saw any lightening. The storm mostly passed behind Sunlight peak sparing us from the storm. We continued back down to the campsite on a quicker than normal pace in case the storms worsened. We made it back to camp uneventfully but exhausted from our climb and quick descent.
Back at camp
Once we returned to camp we got into our tent and about the moment we did the rains came hard so we took the opportunity for a 3 hour nap. I was exhausted. All the energy stores in my muscles had been spent from the festivities earlier.
As my body tightened up, we thanked the Lord via celebration, made dinner and prepared for our climb tomorrow. Our plan is to go back and finished what we started and summit Windom peak. My thoughts at the time, while suffering from pure exhaustion from our Sunlight climb, is that we had basically done all but the last hurdles of Windom already. Therefore, I wasn’t all that enthused to wake up early tomorrow. My initial thoughts were wrong, albeit for different reasons of which I will go into in more detail tomorrow. Let’s just say today was physical, tomorrow would be mental. And mental challenge is where our insight grows.
Good night.
