Of all the Fourteeners rising above Chicago Basin,
Mt. Eolus was the most forbidding when I considered the feasibility of shooting sunrise from the summit. Mt. Eolus had
both the most difficult, exposed scrambling and the most intricate route-finding, and I had never climbed the peak by any
route. On the third day of my trip in July, 2006, after shooting sunrise from Sunlight for the second time, I had descended
to Twin Lakes feeling exhausted. The sky was still clear, however, so I decided to scout Mt. Eolus as well as North
Eolus, a 14,000-foot subpeak of Mt. Eolus that is not considered a separate, "official" Fourteener. After
caching the 4x5 camera gear, I was able to move with delightful freedom with only a belt pack and a pint of sports drink to
burden me.
For the first thousand feet above
Twin Lakes, the route follows a steep but straightforward trail. Then the scrambling begins, first up a wide crack with
an awkward move or two, then across the famous Catwalk, a tightrope in the sky that narrows to two feet in one place, and
then on to the base of the summit ridge. Now I faced a choice. A friend who had done the route recommended
I go almost straight up the exposed crest of the ridge; the alternative was to find a way up the maze of ledges and cliff
bands that made up the east face, to the left of the ridge crest. I chose the ridge, thinking the route-finding would
be more straightforward in the dark. I soon discovered that while the route-finding was straightforward, the scrambling
was much more difficult than anything I cared to tackle at night with a 4x5 on my back. After descending the summit
ridge the way I came, I romped up the easy slabs leading to the summit of North Eolus. It looked much more feasible
to climb it in the dark than Mt. Eolus and from a photographic perspective, it offered what I regarded as a better composition.
On the final day of my shoot, I tackled North Eolus. Although desperately short on sleep, I was also acclimated and
fit, and I summited North Eolus an hour before sunrise. As dawn slowly brightened, I noticed to my astonishment that
a mountain goat had wandered up onto the summit ridge of North Eolus. The situation would have yielded a tremendous
photograph: a mountain goat standing on the rugged crest of one of the most dramatic peaks in Colorado with the Needles and
Grenadiers behind him. But I was helpless, photographically speaking: it is virtually impossible to photograph
wildlife with a 4x5 field camera. With a 4x5, you focus and compose the image on the ground glass at the back of the
camera, then insert the film holder, which completely blocks your view through the lens at the moment of exposure. I
could only watch, trying to etch the moment into my memory, as the goat casually ambled back down the summit slabs and disappeared.
My consolation prize was this image, looking west toward Turret Peak (on the left) and Pigeon Peak, a demeaning name for a
truly spectacular mountain that is just 28 feet shy of joining the hallowed ranks of Colorado's Fourteeners.
After shooting sunrise from the summit of North Eolus, I staggered all the way back down to Needleton, nearly 6,000 feet below,
and caught the Durango and Silverton Narrow-Gauge Railroad back to Durango. Between sunrise photo shoots and midday
scouting efforts, I had climbed every Fourteener in the basin twice except for Mt. Eolus, which I only climbed once.
It was the first and so far only time I've gotten up at 1 am four mornings in a row to shoot sunrise from the summit of a
Fourteener.
Read about my next Fourteener shoot, on Longs Peak
