Opening day to Silverton. Very enjoyable start to the trip. People dressed in period costumes shared some of the history of the silver boom as well as stories of the famous and infamous people that lived during those times.
The train drops hikers / skiers off at Needleton to access the Weiminuche Wilderness area. Most of the the train staff was used to this, but the train clientele were a bit flummoxed by these folks carrying packs, skis and what not for a foray into the wilderness.
Offloading in Needleton
The basic plan is to hike / ski up to the upper reaches of Needle creek basin, near the foot of Chicago Basin. The access point to three 14er's, Eolous, Sunlight and Windom Peak. The forecast was typical springtime in Colorado. Chances of significant precipitation, 1-3", with varied snowfall (1-3 ft) depending on elevation. This must have scared some folks off. All together we had five people going in. Apparently there were an additional 20+ people planned to go in this weekend who didn't show. Wimps!
Various guides / trip reports / blogs suggest getting up to 10.2 to 11.4k ft the first day. That's ~ 8 miles and 4k ft vertical with hefty packs. Good training for Denali in case you were interested. We encountered snow (normal snow year) around 10k ft and were skinning at 10.5k ft.
Diesel mode to base camp.
As mentioned before, there are three 14er's in this basin. The most hearty and fit could tackle all three (four) in a day (think Chris Davenport). We had plans to tackle Sunlight and Windom on one day and Eulous on the second day. However, Mother Nature has a way with things.
We optimistically woke to clear skies on Sunday and one party headed to Eulous and we headed to the Sunlight / Windom Peaks. Mother Nature dropped in and there were periods of broken clouds and periods of full on Winter blizzards. Through some fortuitous navigational errors we ended up on the south side of Windom and climbed up to the West Ridge saddle around 12.5k ft. Options were drop down the basin below or continue up West Ridge to summit. Given the major storm, big cornices and winter conditions, we pushed up the ridge.
After much wallowing, thrashing and post holing, we arrived on top and began the search for the summit register. Buried in snow. Once located, we realized we were the first registered visitors since Sept 2015.
OK fine, halfway there, still need to get down. We had planned to ski off this thing, but with all the new snow, maybe not such a good idea to drop in a narrow couloir with 12-18" of new snow. Find the ridges! Dropping down the East Ridge was a shorter distance to safe terrain, albeit unknown terrain.
Intended Ski Couloir. Big cornices on the E Ridge.
Stomping down to safe terrain with Sunlight Peak above and left.
The ski out was buttery, but with very flat lighting. Glad to be heading "home". After exchanging tales of the day with the other party, we all indicated Mother Nature would dictate all for the next day's outing. No / little snow head back up. More snow, head down. And the answer is...
~12+ inches of new snow overnight. Damn, forecasters were right.
Given all this and our schedules, we decided to head down. We had a great trip and taste of the Ski Mo opportunities in the area and plan to come back for more.
Catching the Iron Horse back to Durango.
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