Sunshine Peak

Description

Elevation: - 14,001'; approx. 13,400' maximum altitude
Location - Southwest of Lake City in Colorado.

Trip Report(s)

The following is extracted from the trip journal notebook I wrote while on an unscripted solo tour through the mountains in February and March of 2000. In which our hero hears a distinctive sound. Photos follow.

Saturday, March 11, 2000

Made it to 13,400' or so on Sunshine Peak, then had to turn back because of snow conditions.

I started at the trailhead at 7:20AM. I ended up going right up through the two layers of broken cliffs directly across from Mill Creek campground. I quickly figured out I was not going to come down the same way, because there were places where, when I stopped and looked down, the exposure was pretty great. In fact, looking at the map, it is 3,000' in one mile, and there sure were places that felt like 60° to me.

I finally broke out of the trees about 10:45AM. Then it was a long slog through snow on open slopes. I pretty quickly figured out I wasn't going to summit today - the final ridge line was heavily corniced. But I went up the sloping shoulder, and then halfway up the pyramid shaped SSE slope of the summit block. I finally turned around somewhere between 13,200' and 13,400'. Three factors helped clinch it. First were the summit cornices. Second was the fact that the new snow from earlier this week had consolidated into a crust which, while making for good walking wasn't necessarily adhered to the snow layers below it. When I was below tree line it was no big deal, but it was disconcerting to see hairline cracks paralleling my movement about 6' upslope from me (in other words the crust was fracturing in big plates). The final straw was getting to hear the infamous "whoomf" as a small plate settled underneath me. At that point it was time to get the hell out of Dodge.

About 11:45AM I came down by the little gully shown opposite and slightly downstream from the Mill Creek campsite. A little less steep, but not much, so I had to go slow, be careful and even in a few places resort to "vegatative holds". I finally made it back to the car at 2:10PM. Almost seven hours solid of breaking trail, plus route finding both ways through the cliffs. Pretty good!

Photos

The following are panoramic, so make sure and scroll to the right to see all of them!

Lower cliff band

The start of the lower of two cliff bands. It got much steeper above this. At one point I looked down between my legs and could see about 1,000' straight down.
(Photo by Jim Lehmer)

Redcloud Peak

The summit of Redcloud Peak (14,034') to the north.
(Photo by Jim Lehmer)

Sunshine Peak

The summit of Sunshine Peak (14,001') from my highest point at about 13,400'.
(Photo by Jim Lehmer)

Garson Peak

Looking across the valley at Garson Peak (13,657) on the far right. All of the peaks in the picture are on the Continental Divide. The topography on that side of the valley is similar to what I went up through, so you can see the steepness of the valley sides by looking at the slopes with the avalanche tracks running through them to the left and right of the drainage in the center of the photo. Trust me, it was a climb!
(Photo by Jim Lehmer)

Lake Fork Valley

Looking down the valley of the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River. Lake San Cristobal is hidden down at the far end of the valley.
(Photo by Jim Lehmer)

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