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Sunrise from North Eolus, 14,039 feet

Sunrise from North Eolus, Needle Mountains, San Juan Mountains, Colorado, North Eolus, Fourteeners, summit
Sunrise from North Eolus, showing Pigeon and Turret peaks
Sunrise from Sunlight Peak, Needle Mountains, San Juan Mountains, Sunlight Peak, Colorado, Fourteeners, summit
Sunrise from Sunlight Peak, showing Mt. Eolus (leftmost peak) and North Eolus

            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

To order an 11x14 loose, matted-only or framed print of Sunrise from North Eolus, please visit my product catalog by clicking the link beneath the appropriate thumbnail.

Sunrise from North Eolus, Needle Mountains, San Juan Mountains, Colorado, North Eolus, Fourteeners, summit

Sunrise from North Eolus, Needle Mountains, San Juan Mountains, Colorado, North Eolus, Fourteeners, summit

11x14 matted-only print of Sunrise from North Eolus

Sunrise from North Eolus, Needle Mountains, San Juan Mountains, Colorado, North Eolus, Fourteeners, summit

11x14 framed print of Sunrise from North Eolus

To order an 11x14 loose, matted-only or framed print of Sunrise from Sunlight Peak (showing Mt. Eolus on the left and North Eolus just to the right of it), please visit my product catalog by clicking the link beneath the appropriate thumbnail.

Sunrise from Sunlight Peak, Needle Mountains, San Juan Mountains, Sunlight Peak, Colorado, Fourteeners, summit

11x14 loose print of Sunrise from Sunlight Peak

Sunrise from Sunlight Peak, Needle Mountains, San Juan Mountains, Sunlight Peak, Colorado, Fourteeners, summit

11x14 matted-only print of Sunrise from Sunlight Peak

Sunrise from Sunlight Peak, Needle Mountains, San Juan Mountains, Sunlight Peak, Colorado, Fourteeners, summit

11x14 framed print of Sunrise from Sunlight Peak

Glenn Randall Photography
At home on the web at GlennRandall.com and AGPix.com
Specializing in Colorado landscape photography since 1993
Now offering a select group of Utah landscape photographs from Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park
All images are offered both as prints for the general public and as stock images for professional photo buyers.