Chicago Basin Part 1: The Trainride and the Hike-in.
Thursday, May 8th, 2008.
On the afternoon of May 8th, I headed out from Crested Butte to pick up Jarrett in Gunnison. Jarrett had contacted me on this blog wanting to join our group in the San Juans, and since I knew he head just soloed the Landry line on Pyramid, he seemed more than capable of the peaks we would be heading to. Thankfully, he’s also a good guy, and we had a good game of “name that obscure bike trail”, followed by gawking at all the skiable lines around Red Mountain, Coal Bank, and Molas passes. We made it to Durango where we crashed at my friends’ Maury and Marcia’s place. Jordan and Brittany soon joined us, and then we got some sleep before the early train ride.
We parked a few blocks away where the parking is free, so we got to walk through sunny and green Durango to the train station.
The gear:
We got on the train and enjoyed the scenery for the next couple of hours:
Then it was time to get off the train at Needleton. The conductors unload your stuff quickly, and then the train pulls away and you’re suddenly in the midst of a silent wilderness. Off we go with our “angry midgets” on our backs:
We were hoping to hit snowline quickly so we could put the midgets on a diet and get the skis, boots and skins off our backs. Unfortunately, the combination of the heavy snowfall and our being one of the first groups of the year meant that we had to deal with deadfall- and a lot of it:
After 3 hours, we were finally able to begin skinning, and after another 3 hours we finally made it to a campsite. That means we averaged just 1mph, but it was hardly easy walking or skinning, so I guess we did OK. Our home for the next 3 days (I think I look tired!):
The sun sets on day 1:
[...] and I first met Jarrett Luttrell on a trip to Chicago Basin, when we successfully skied and boarded Sunlight, Windom, and Eolus. Jordan and Brittany quickly [...]