Peak(s): |
Redcloud Peak - 14,037 feet Sunshine Peak - 14,004 feet |
Date Posted: | 07/06/2010 |
Date Climbed: | 07/04/2010 |
Author: | jedrejcic |
Peak(s): |
Redcloud Peak - 14,037 feet Sunshine Peak - 14,004 feet |
Date Posted: | 07/06/2010 |
Date Climbed: | 07/04/2010 |
Author: | jedrejcic |
Sunshine on Sunshine - July 4th |
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I arrived at the Grizzly Gulch slash Silver Creek trailhead on Friday night, planning on hiking Redcloud and Sunshine on Saturday morning with a group of folks, most of whom I hadn't yet met. Well, we planned for an ultra-early start due to the fact we wanted to do both peaks, and the weather was what stopped some folks from getting to Sunshine last year. So when my alarm went off at 2am and it was raining on my tent? I decided, along with the others, that we were sleeping in a bit and we'd just see what happens. Well, at 4am, the rain had let up. However, since it was so "late", some of the group decided to hike Handies instead, and me and two other friends went off to American Basin to take some pictures... Here's one of my favorites: We got back from taking pictures sometime areound 11am only to find the rest of the group at camp. I firmly believed that they had been turned back for some reason, only to learn that they had not only summitted Handies, but had been back for an hour or more, just hanging out. That meant that they were all about, oh, twice as fast as I was. So there would be no large group photo on top of Redcloud or Sunshine, unless they all decided that they would just hang out on the summit for about two or three hours waiting for me to get there. Anyways, the first day was a success for the hiking group on Handies, and for the photo group in the basin. However, one of our guys took a bit of a tumble on the rocks in the basin and dinged up his knee pretty bad, so he decided he would likely stay at camp the next morning, which he did - I certainly would have. The next morning, July 4th, we got up at 2am again and were greeted with clear skies and bright stars. We ate some food, gathered our things, and we were moving by 2:30am. Me and Rockfarmer started out at a more mortal pace, while the rest of the group seemed to be jogging up the mountain. We lost sight of them in about ten minutes, easily. Once we got clear of the trees, we could see their headlamps way up in the distance - one of them slightly ahead of the rest, and we weren't quite sure what that was all about. We kept on, and we had the goal of getting up to about 13,500 to see the sunrise, which we did: And once the sun rose, it hit Recloud with a fury - this is such a spectacularly beautiful mountain: The hike was just sublime, from start to finish. The views were amazing, although the weather was just a little on the cold and windy side, but when the sun came up that changed to pretty warm fairly quickly. We kept our eyes open for our group, as we had seen their headlamps up on the summit when the sun rose, so we figured they were likely on Sunshine by the time we were making the final push up Redcloud: We got to the summit sometime around 7am as I recall, and looked directly toward Sunshine. My goal for the day was just to summit Redcloud, and Sunshine would be an added bonus. Rockfarmer, however, had already summitted Redcloud last year, and was turned back from the summit of Sunshine due to weather that came in about 9am - our early departure was meant to prevent a repeat of this. As it turned out, we could not spot even one cloud in the sky until we were already descending back to camp. Anyway - we didn't tarry long on Redcloud, and being that the day was so spectacular, and we had summitted so early (for me), I got an adrenaline rush and started actually jogging down the ridge toward Sunshine. Not having ever summitted two peaks in one day before, I was excited that all the pieces were in place for the opportunity to happen this morning, and I wasn't about to let it get away from me. The road ahead: We got to Sunshine in no time at all, and ran into our group on the way there. They had already obviously summitted both peaks, but the astonishing part? One of them - the lone headlamp - had gotten to the summit of Sunshine to see the sunrise! Seriously, he climbed two peaks in something just over three hours? Man, that's not my speed. I was very happy to have climbed both peaks in something more like 6 hours. The day was still perfect: We turned around and climbed up to the top of Redcloud (again), reaching it around 9am or so, and hung out there with a couple of folks for a while. We heard there was going to be a flyover of Lake City at 10am, so we decided to hike down very slowly, hoping to see some jets if we could. Turned out the jets were either invisible and inaudible, or they were not jets, or perhaps they did not know where Lake City was, because we heard and saw absolutely nothing. After 10am, we made our way quickly down to the valley, and I think this is when we saw the first clouds of the day - they were miniscule, and likely hundreds of miles away on the horizon, and not threatening at all. It's hard to tell in the picture, but the fields were populated with lots of wildflowers - probably not as many as there may be in the coming weeks, but it was still cool: When we got back down from the mountains, many of our group were planning to summit Uncompahgre the next day, but I decided to drive home that night. Given the stunning weather and great success on both peaks, I felt quite accomplished, and I didn't feel like pushing my luck or my limits. So I packed up camp that afternoon, started driving home, and by the time I got to Lake City, I was in seriious need of a nap. So I slept in my car for about an hour, and then continued on back to the Springs. When I got back, I apparently had just missed golf-ball sized hail that damaged a lot of cars around town, so apparently the nap was good for a couple of reasons! I got a good view of the thunderhead that did it all... It was massive, and it was putting on a great show, along with all the fireworks visible around town. So, in summary? Couldn't have been better. Thanks to all the fine people I had the pleasure of meeting this weekend, I hope to see you all again soon, and Happy Birthday America! |
Comments or Questions |
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