Pigeon/Turret from Chicago basin

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Will_E
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Pigeon/Turret from Chicago basin

Post by Will_E »

Hi all, considering doing Pigeon/Turret from base camp in Chicago basin, rather than doing a loop and descending Ruby basin, if I think I can make it to/from before afternoon storms. Any rough guess what this distance/elevation gain would be?
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Re: Pigeon/Turret from Chicago basin

Post by atodor »

I am having a discussion on the reverse - Eolus from Ruby basin, but I am still not clear about the specific route. One suggestion is via the Little Finger - Eolus saddle, another via Noname basin, but I am trying to get more details, maybe a sketch of a map.

https://www.14ers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=60098
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Re: Pigeon/Turret from Chicago basin

Post by dwoodward13 »

Going from CB->Pigeon->Turret->CB is going to be a massive day. 90% off trail and not terrain you can move fast on. You certainly wouldn't want to have a storm roll in and then be stranded in another basin from your camp.

I clock it at around 12 miles and 9000 feet of gain using a track I used last summer (but camped in Ruby and then headed out after P/T). I added a screenshot of the route for atodor (although its the same as the 3 or 4 TRs out there).
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Re: Pigeon/Turret from Chicago basin

Post by atodor »

Can you cross the saddle around Glacier Point without climbing gear?
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Re: Pigeon/Turret from Chicago basin

Post by dwoodward13 »

atodor wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 7:28 am Can you cross the saddle around Glacier Point without climbing gear?
If you are meaning the saddle indicated by the red arrow below, I believe this is a photo of the area (saddle center left) taken in late August 2020. If you mean the saddle the blue line goes over, that is Twin Thumbs Pass and has a very short section of Class 3 on the north side before easing.
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Re: Pigeon/Turret from Chicago basin

Post by atodor »

Thank you, dwoodward13. I get that the blue line is easier than the picture, where the red arrow is, right?
Do you have a recommendation on how to schedule both Turret and Eolus from Ruby basin, between train dropoff at Needleton, Sept. 4 10:30 AM and train pickup, Sept. 6 2:45 PM? Is there time to do a loop, including also Chicago Basin?
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Re: Pigeon/Turret from Chicago basin

Post by dwoodward13 »

atodor wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 8:15 am Thank you, dwoodward13. I get that the blue line is easier than the picture, where the red arrow is, right?
Do you have a recommendation on how to schedule both Turret and Eolus from Ruby basin, between train dropoff at Needleton, Sept. 4 10:30 AM and train pickup, Sept. 6 2:45 PM? Is there time to do a loop, including also Chicago Basin?
I guess my advice would probably be to choose one or the other an not try and shoehorn both peaks in that short of at time frame as they don't easily go together. If you want two peaks, do Pigeon and Turret. They are done together commonly and Pigeon has a similar feel/difficulty to to Eolus minus the people. I wouldn't try to go Ruby->CB->Needleton by 2:45 if you started that morning in Ruby also. Its quite a long way, and if you miss the train you are stuck. Just go back out the way you came in.
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Re: Pigeon/Turret from Chicago basin

Post by smrcka »

If you only need to get Eolus and then Pigeon/Turret, I used a plan a couple years ago that worked fairly well for accomplishing something similar. I needed to get Jupiter instead of Eolus.

From Needleton, I hiked just a couple miles up toward CB but stopped and set up a camp where New York Creek crosses the trail. There’s a beautiful camp site just above the trail. From there, I did a faster/lighter day to get up, climb Jupiter and back to camp without killing myself. I basically added 6 miles RT to the ascent/descent of Jupiter but saved 6 miles of backpacking. I thought it was a great trade off.

Next morning I moved camp to the Campers meadow described in Roach’s book and then rested for a very big day. Again, the plan was to save tons of energy by not backpacking in, and using the saved energy for a faster/lighter climb. Next day, I got Turret by 10 am but chased off Pigeon by a storm. So I need to go back and get Pigeon.

Overall the plan worked great. The trade off of saving energy from the backpacking and using that saved energy for a faster/lighter ascent worked really well for me. By the way, I purposely used the terms faster/lighter instead of fast and light because I’m not very fast. I move at a fairly average speed.

Hope this info is helpful! JS
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Re: Pigeon/Turret from Chicago basin

Post by atodor »

I don't know where Jupiter is. I am not sure we are talking about the same amount of time. I have one full day, plus the afternoon after arrival, plus the morning of the departure.
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Re: Pigeon/Turret from Chicago basin

Post by dannyg23 »

I did this one time:

From chi basin, Eulos, N Eulos, down into NY creek basin from the saddle between them, over to Pigeon, back and then up Turret, then back to Chi basin via twin thumbs pass.

Very rewarding, and also very hard.

So, it can be done. Perhaps more efficiently than I did it. It’s a big day, but I cannot remember the stats anymore.

Good luck and have fun!
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Re: Pigeon/Turret from Chicago basin

Post by Will_E »

dannyg23 wrote: Fri Jun 25, 2021 1:17 pm I did this one time:

From chi basin, Eulos, N Eulos, down into NY creek basin from the saddle between them, over to Pigeon, back and then up Turret, then back to Chi basin via twin thumbs pass.

Very rewarding, and also very hard.

So, it can be done. Perhaps more efficiently than I did it. It’s a big day, but I cannot remember the stats anymore.

Good luck and have fun!
That’s tempting. Anything terribly difficult about that route?
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Re: Pigeon/Turret from Chicago basin

Post by dannyg23 »

Will_E wrote: Fri Jun 25, 2021 8:11 pm That’s tempting. Anything terribly difficult about that route?
If by difficult you mean 'technical' than no, I wouldn't say so. Nothing that I can remember about the traverses between basins was any harder than Pigeon was.
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