Mt. Eolus

After getting rained out from traversing over to Mt. Eolus, I took a rest day. The mother & daughter had hiked back out to the train, and my new neighbors were a couple from Durango.

The forecast was holding true – about 12:30 p.m. the clouds would start rumbling and a light rain might start falling, followed by a good rainshower with distant lightning and thunder starting by 2:00. I knew if I was going to avoid the storms I was going to have to start earlier. I set my alarm for 3:00 a.m. and was on the trail at 3:30. Five minutes later I was back at my campsite retrieving my camera. I didn't use my headlamp much as the moon was nearly full. Only when under some trees or to see the stepping rocks when crossing the creeks. But I'm at least consistent, it still took me two hours to reach the lakes.

Knowing the trail doesn't make it any easier, but it did allow me to make short goals along the way to break up the climb. As I reached the ridge I detoured below North Eolus to find the poorly marked alternate trail to bypass the green face at the notch.

The "Catwalk" was all its reputation promised—1000 feet of ridge only a couple feet wide with sheer drop-offs on both sides. I enjoyed it. What I did not enjoy was the east face of the summit. Made up of overlapping ledges, each one looking like the established route. Sometimes left was up, other times right was up, and sometimes up was just what looked good at the moment. Several times I followed a ledge until it dead-ended and had to backtrack. Once I climbed up to the next ledge to find that both ends were dead-ends and had to continue climbing over sketchier rocks. I found this section one of the hardest I've climbed (so far) although it was more mentally tough than physically difficult.

Once on the summit I was able to catch my breath, relax a little, and take some pictures. By a stroke of coincidence, as I was standing on the summit block, my campsite neighbor happened to take a picture of the catwalk and summit and caught me silhouetted against the sky.

Pictures

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