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It is starting to be a tradition
for there to be various
"tent" pictures of Mike
flipping the finger. I know I have at
least two, and Ginger probably has a
couple, etc.
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This was during our first day,
which after backpacking to our
camping site was completely rained
out, starting with setting up the
tent. Luckily my Hurricane Hole can
be set up from the inside in
inclement weather, and this was the
third time we made use of that.
Anyway, Mike is cooking our evening
repast in the vestibule while it
rains right outside the door.
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This is our campsite in the low
12,000' range, looking south down
the valley we came up and then across
the Lake Fork of the Gunnison valley
and up at Handies Peak (14,048'),
which is obscured by cloud, but the
aspen on its lower slopes are visible
here. Scale to Handies is about five
miles. Note cooking in vestibule
again, this time mostly as a wind
break.
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The summit of Redcloud Peak
(14,034') is the smooth white
area just visible in the upper right
center.
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Looking north from our camp toward
the "gendarmes" on the left
and the "shark's tooth"
on the right. Nice camp site!
Sheltered from the wind, with the
last little bit of the valley creek
still running (it peters out about
another 100' upstream of this
shot). It is helpful when looking at
the geology here to remember that all
of this is volcanic, and that in fact
Redcloud and its neighbors are part
of the "Lake City Caldera",
representing the remnants of a
huge volcano.
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Same as the last shot towards
Handies, except that I'm in it!
:-)
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A better look at the gendarmes,
but still not as impressive as they
were in person.
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From the summit of Redcloud.
Uncompahgre Peak (14,309'), sixth
highest peak in CO) is the big peak
in the center of the horizon, about
eight miles away past the Henson
Creek drainage. Wetterhorn Peak
(14,015') is the point on the
horizon in left center. Matterhorn
Peak (13,590') is the point to
its right. Coxcomb Peak (13,656')
is the flat-topped peak to
Wetterhorn's left.
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From the summit of Redcloud.
Handies Peak is the large snow peak
on the left at the head of the
hanging glacial valley. The lower
valley wrapping to the right is the
Lake Fork of the Gunnison river, and
it and the shelf road wrap around up
into American Basin behind Handies,
and also over passes to head to Ouray
or Silverton. 4WD driving only!
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From the summit of Redcloud.
Sunshine Peak (14,001') is the
snow peak just left of center. For
scale, it is about a mile away, and
an easy ridge walk the whole way.
However, it was also blowing gale
force winds that day, and after
battling them to the top of Redcloud,
I didn't feel like dealing with
them for another hour. Second time
I've been close to the summit of
Sunshine and then turned back (the
first was for avalanche conditions).
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From the summit of Redcloud. From
the saddle which is used to start up
toward the summit of Redcloud there
is a path heading ENE that clearly
follows the ridge over to this peak,
which is simply point
"13,832'" on the topos.
I would like to go back and do this
peak as part of a traverse all around
Silver Creek drainage.
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From the summit of Redcloud.
Speaking of photographic traditions,
my summit self-portraits seem to be
becoming one. Handies is behind me.
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From the summit of Redcloud. The
saddle at the head of the Silver
Creek drainage is below in right
center. The path was then up the snow
covered ridge to the false summit
just at the left of the photo, and
then up the snow slope to the actual
summit. About 200' from the false
summit to the summit (really
foreshortened here) and about
1,000' from the saddle to the
false summit.
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The reverse of the last shot, here
standing on one of the lower points
of the snow ridge just above the
saddle, looking at the summit of
Redcloud (left center). Route was up
the ridge to the false summit on the
right, then up the slope to the
actual summit.
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