14,059ft., 14,087ft., 14,039ft. & 14,083ft.

San Juan Range

37, 38, 39 & 40/58

When I turned eight, the only thing I really wanted for my birthday was Aaron Carter’s Aaron’s Party CD (Come Get It).

The day rolled around and I opened my parents present, thinking they would surely be the ones to get me what I’d been desperately hoping for — it was a CD holder. In my freshly eight year old brain I was thankful, but also believed I had no shot at listening to I Want Candy whenever I wanted, or hanging that poster folded into the album pamphlet on my bedroom wall. In an attempt to mask my disappointment I forced an enthusiastic: “this is even better than an Aaron Carter CD!” My sister burst into tears, I opened her present (you guessed it), there was no recovering.

That story kept popping into my head on this trip because it is the only thing I can compare checking off the Chicago Basin 14ers to — finishing the Sawatch Range was beautiful, it was important, I needed it for my goals, I was thankful for it. But the Chicago Basin 14ers are what I truly hoped for, that Aaron Carter CD so to speak, I just really didn’t think I’d be able to squeeze them into this year.

Good thing mountains don’t get hurt feelings.

—

A good friend reached out to me earlier this summer about dates that might work to attempt these climbs and I never got back to him. One implication of my injury is that it has made me extremely hesitant to commit to plans, especially ones like this one with such physical demands. But, after returning from my Missouri Gulch trip I felt strong and reached out on a whim. I knew these were his final four big climbs before finishing the 14ers and I assumed he had already made plans to climb them, but he hadn’t. Train tickets were purchased (you can get to Chicago Basin by foot but it adds 14mi round trip) and plans were quickly thrown together.

The train ride was epic. The views were unreal and equally worth mentioning, we sat in a car with everyone else getting dropped off at Needleton. They were people with big plans and impressive histories, people who spoke this climbing language I’ve slowly learned myself, but they spoke it even better than I did. I quickly realized how little experience I had compared to most of those surrounding me: people who would be bushwhacking to climb trail-less mountains in the following days, people on the final stretch of their 14er list, even an individual near the end of his 13er career. It was an inspiration, an honor and a thrill to be surrounded by that level of experience and that caliber of people.

The train dropped us off and we got our bags off a different car before watching our only easy-link to civilization depart. That day we hiked in approximately seven miles, through the basin and up to 11,500ft. This is the highest you can set up camp and we took advantage of knocking off the extra distance and elevation due to our plans to attempt all four mountains the following day.

One other set up camp at this spot and as it turned out, my friend knew of him from the 14ers.com forum. This was foreign to me, as I am not a member of this forum, but I found it fascinating that they had pieced together the fact that they had interacted before in this online world. Our new friend made plans to hike with us the following day.

We all convened at 4am that next morning and began what we knew would be a long day, should we be successful with our plan. We agreed to start with Sunlight Peak and we reached the top of the final stretch and the prominent gully as the sun appeared. It was beautiful, but my hands were so cold I could hardly focus. I had been working to keep them warm leading up to that moment, but obviously unsuccessfully. I sat there watching the day begin with tears in my eyes and my hands in my armpits, welcoming the warmth the sun would soon bring.

Aside from the cold hands mishap, I otherwise felt strong and capable despite my injuries. We continued on to our first summit of the day, which required the most technical and exposed move I have ever completed. It ended up being a solid reminder of going up being optional and going down being mandatory and my kind friend lent me guidance, patience and his shoulders as I found an alternative route down. Lesson learned: I will no longer be participating in anything called a “leap of faith” when hundreds of feet are on the line should you mess up your leap, especially so shortly after being as cold and shaky as I had been.

The traverse to and then up Windom was fairly anticlimactic and later that morning we stood on our second summit of the day. This was my favorite view of the entire day as we could see the Twin Lakes at the base as well as several other alpine lakes, the 360 views were wild with an incredible vantage point and we could see all of the mountains we had and would stand upon that day.

At that point, we needed to head back to Twin Lakes for the ascent up North Eolus and Mount Eolus. We had plans to meet our camping friend, who was a bit behind us, and a train friend we had passed at that location. Turns out, our train friend knew our camping friend and my friend by forum-username, too and I inquisitively watched as they pieced together who was who. I found it fascinating.

The craziest thing about North Eolus, our third summit of the day, was looking at the climb for Mount Eolus that was a head of us. There is a stretch called the catwalk, followed by what looks like a crumbly old mountain with no clear route up, but I took a deep breath and listened to the confidence of my trusty climbing partner who knows far more about these mountains than I could ever hope to know.

We proudly stood on top of Mount Eolus thirty minutes later — his 57th and my 40th 14er.

We reached our campsite as the sun began setting and slept through the night before hiking back to the train, where we met up with all of our train friends and swapped adventure stories. It felt like a massive (stinky) reunion and I loved it even more than I loved the train ride there. This world is filled with so many adventures and beautiful people adventure-driven people, it truly blows me away and I can only aspire to compare myself to those I met and spent time with on this trip. Thank you, all.

Some numbers: This trip was only the second time ever that I’ve summited four 14ers in one day (the other time was the DeCaLiBro with my sister in 2015). I did summit three (Little Bear, Blanca and Ellingwood) last summer, which felt like a more comparable feat than the comparatively easy DeCaLiBro. This was me and this friends 9th 14er together, including Mount Yale, which is where we met. This officially makes him the individual I’ve climbed the most 14ers with (my sister is in second place with seven). We attempted Snowmass together in June this year, but were unsuccessful. This trip bumped me into the 40’s in the 14er summit world, which is where he was at at this point last year (that makes me think finishing up next summer might actually be doable, whaaat?! We’ll see). This trip was his 57th climb, he plans to finish his final 14er on the day I’m writing this (from an airplane enroute to Portugal). I’m so proud and honored to have been there for a handful of his passed climbs. I wish I could be there today.