Sunshine Peak

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 6/30/2023, By: ssowalskie
Info: The east ridge route is mostly snow-free, but the first 1.5-2 miles are absolutely brutal, with an incredibly steep, scree-covered route (that's almost just as miserable on the way down). The trail up until treeline is pretty easy to follow, thankfully. There isn't much of a trail to speak of between 11,900' and about 13,000', so you just kind of have to meander across the meadow and attempt not to crush the wildflowers. The trail picks back up in the talus around 13,000', and it's pretty easy to follow from there. Most snow on the route is avoidable, and the only unavoidable patch is right before the summit. No traction or flotation needed. I summitted Redcloud as well and chose to contour on a snowfield around 13,800' on the northeast side of Sunshine instead of resummitting it. From the Mill Creek Campground and back it was about 10 miles and took about 7.5 hours. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 6/28/2023, By: dakotasmama
Info: I camped at Mill Creek Campground and took the East Ridge route with the idea of doing a combo summit of Sunshine and Redcloud Peaks. I dont like telling anyone what to do, but if you are new to 14ers, if you are uncomfortable with route-finding, and/or if you dont like long stretches of elevation gain: DO NOT TAKE THIS ROUTE. I actually enjoy route-finding and steeper, shorter ascents and this tested me to my very core. The trail is relatively easy to follow, even across the long talus fields, until you reach tree line and then there is NO discernible trail the rest of the way to the summit. There were a couple of cairns leading straight up the meadow that were not the correct direction according to the route on here or AllTrails, and then I saw a handful of cairns randomly scattered around the rocky scramble - I really wish people would stop stacking rocks unless they are 100% certain they are marking the trail correctly. The wind once you reach the upper meadow is FEROCIOUS - it nearly knocked me over multiple times and didnt stop until I reached the summit and was able to move to the east side of the ridge on my way over to Redcloud. The exposure was exhausting and a little frightening. I decided to head down the Northeast Ridge route off of Redcloud because I didnt feel safe trying to descend the way I came, with the steepness, the unstable rocks, and the wicked wind. I hoped to find a ride at the other trailhead but I didnt get down until 5:05 and not a single vehicle passed going my way, so I walked another 5.5 miles to get back to the campground. Overall, 14.5 miles for a double summit isnt terrible but if I had to do it again, I wouldnt. Good luck. 

Route: Via Redcloud Peak
Posted On: 6/13/2023, By: MachoDiesel
Info: Climbed the Northeast Ridge to Redcloud summit, started at 8ish - with a good overnight freeze the snowfield at 11,600 was manageable, no traction needed and wasn't postholing. Snow off and on up the ridge, but very manageable. Saddle to Sunshine was snow free until the climb back up to Sunshine peak, climbed the snow, but there was a dry line available if that's your jam. Descended the Northwest Face of Sunshine, there was snow from about 13,800 almost all the way to Silver Creek. The couloir at 13,200 was manageable, firm enough snow not to posthole, but soft enough to kick steps where needed, made for a fun and speedy exit. 

Route: Via Redcloud Peak
Posted On: 6/11/2023, By: jway2952
Info: Started at 6:30 (actually started at 6 but forgot my phone in the car ). Redcloud had intermittent snow from about 11500' on. Snow was in fantastic condition all day. No need for snowshoes but bring your crampons/ice axe for ascending/descending the gullies. Summited around 9:30 before heading over to Sunshine. Will cross post there too.

The ridge and climb was pretty much snow-free except for about 200-300 feet at the end going up Sunshine. Summited here around 10:45. The San Juans looks INCREDIBLE right now. Headed back and re-summited Redcloud before heading down the North Gully for some glissading and got down in about 2 and half hours. All in all, about 7 hours car to car and a 6:30-1:30 day. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 5/30/2023, By: sabviv
Info: Made a 6am start from the Mill Creek Campground and hit the summit of Sunshine in a little over 3 hours. There was no snow below tree line and a little but totally avoidable up until the last few hundred feet or so to the summit. I stashed my snowshoes there because the snow looked packed from other skiers/hikers and was still solid at ~9am. Northeast slope headed over to Redcloud was also holding snow but still stiff. The rest of the traverse and Redcloud was clear. Only when I was reclimbing and descending from Sunshine again around 11-11:30am did the snow seem soft, only post holed a few times though. Going up and down the NE slope was the only time I thought about, but didn't, use my spikes. Was back at the car at 2pm and my Garmin logged 9.2 miles total (lost trail a little here and there below tree line above the talus field sections). Overall a gorgeous day but I don't know that I would recommend this trail if the standard route is an option (saying this based on route profiles, I haven't don't these peaks via the standard route). It was relentlessly steep so a killer workout both coming up and down and therefore might not be the most approachable way to do the set. 

Route: Northwest Face
Posted On: 5/30/2023, By: Christensenje
Info: Great climb. River crossing is a little tricky if you are trying to stay dry but 2/4 of us got by without our socks getting wet. :)

Switched to skin .25 mile into the basin from the river crossing. Switched to crampons for the couloir which is filled well.

Shortly after the couloir, the trail is dry.

Since it wasnt in to ski, we skid down to the saddle, traversed over to Redcloud and skid the northeast slope down to the saddle. Quite a but if cornice fall debris down this slope. The north side of Redcloud still has great coverage to ski if you want to keep things less sketchy.

Skid down and had a 2.5 mile hike out with runners back on. 

Route: Via Redcloud Peak
Posted On: 5/28/2023, By: kylewiley
Info: To Redcloud:
The approach is completely dry and the beginning of the hike starts out dry. You start running into patches of snow around 1.5 miles in from the trailhead which are easy to travers and usually no longer than 10 yards or so. We had crampons but didn't even need them. Sometimes the trail disappears under the patches for a small section, but it is easy to find again. At around 3 miles in, you encounter a long flat section of snow, which again is easy to traverse when the snow is hard. As you start to gain the elevation, most of the trail is completely dry until the the two last inclines to the false peak and redcloud. We put on crampons and were able to simply walk up them.

To Sunshine:
80% of the trail is completely dry. It is only when you get closer to sunshine that you run into snow. I started to ascend around 11pm so the snow was starting to soften a bit leading to post-holing here and there, but totally worth it and was able to slide back down with an ice axe. If you are able to summit earlier, it should go perfectly smoothly.

Be mindful, the snow starts to warm up at around 11pm and we ran into a lot of post-holing on the way down, especially in the long flat section of snow. But other than, it was an amazing hike and would recommend it as ready to ascend. The snow is clearing up fast and we noticed even more gone on our way back! 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 5/13/2023, By: NelsonBrands
Info: Sunshine and Redcloud from Mill Creek. Started at 4am and had perfect snow until about 1/2 mile from tree line. Post holed a handful of times but never got bad enough to put snowshoes on. Very strenuous hike and I loves every second of it! 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 2/12/2023, By: goingup
Info: Summited Sunshine & Redcloud via Sunshine's east ridge and the out and back to Redcloud. Drove from Montrose to the small, plowed parking lot outside the closed Mill's Creek Campground gate and slept in my truck on Friday night. Mike did the same from Colorado Springs. It was -4F when we 'woke up' at 2:15 a.m. 'Woke up' is a loose term because no sleep was really had. I call it drifting. It was so cold it took an hour to get moving, but we were goingup by 3:15 a.m. Wanted to catch that sunrise good good. A strange phenomenon happened. I read two trip reports, BOTH of which were accurate. In my decade of climbing mountains in Colorado I have found that trip reports tend to over dramatize things, which is great, they should, then you go in a little more scared/cautious. These trip reports were dead accurate. I highly suggest reading Ben's report and Nick's report on winter summits of these two before doing them. There is some tricky navigation right out the gate in the morning. The southeast slope that leads to the east ridge of Sunshine is littered with cliff bands and long tedious talus fields. And it is really steep. Like 3000 feet of vert in 1.7 miles steep. Current conditions: We did not put snowshoes on until about 11,200 feet (frozen in the morning, all post holing on the way out) and kept them on for the rest of the day until getting back to the same spot where we put them on. I am a huge advocate for reducing gear transitions down to only what is necessary. The snowshoes can act as a crampon on slopes like the one leading on and off Sunshine (which was steep hardened snow) and a few other steep up and downs on the way to the summit. However, they are very cumbersome on the ridge windblown with rock exposure. But snowshoes are totally necessary on the initial ridge between Sunshine and Redcloud and in the trees above 11,200. You can totally keep them on as the summer trail over to Redcloud is filled with hard packed snow. So, you need the snowshoes and then you don't and then you do and then you don't. In my opinion it is just easier to keep them on and not make a dozen transitions. This could go the other way as well. Take them off once you hit the ridge, deal with a fair share of post holing and put them back on at treeline (where you do need them - from 11,200 to 12,400 there is very sinkable amounts of snow). A few notes, we resummited Sunshine on our way back from Redcloud. There is a steep hardpacked wind rollover on the northeast side of Sunshine which would have made trying to cut the 200 vertical feet back to the summit more trouble than it was worth. Sunshine's north ridge to the saddle with Redcloud is loaded with snow, we stuck very high on the ridge, right along the edge of the very cliffy northwest side of Sunshine. From the saddle to Redcloud and back is a breeze. Speaking of breeze, there was a hellacious wind that accompanied us. It is however a lot of demoralizing up and down, so make sure you have the energy to go out and then back. Lastly, look out for cornices, they are everywhere, and you spend a lot of time on Sunshine's east and north ridge proper. By the time we were coming back over Sunshine, its north ridge was turning a bit mushy, the snow in the trees was mush, and the once frozen ground was now quicksand mud. The southeast slopes going down took longer than going up. Shout out to that heinous rock field in the middle of the forest! It took us 10 hours round trip and my Strava read 8.75 miles with 6,004 feet of vertical gain. #19 & #20 in winter for me. We put in a good trench (read lots of wallowing) which will likely disappear with the upcoming forecast, and we got our sunrise! 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 11/22/2022, By: SnowmassCD
Info: Summitted Sunshine via E Ridge today. Trail was dry to around 11,400' or so, then shallow snow (less than a foot deep) until exit from trees. From there, a snowy hike on grass and rocks to 13,600'. For the last pitch, we appreciated traction and ice axes as there was a layer of wind blown snow that I couldn't even kick steps through.

No snowshoes needed.

Didn't go on to Redcloud. From afar, between Sunshine and the saddle with Redcloud looked like it had more of the very hard wind blown snow. From saddle to Redcloud looked like a hike on snowy rocks. 

Route: Via Redcloud Peak
Posted On: 11/3/2022, By: markf
Info: Submitted with no real difficulty, other than a fairly long day. The walk across from Redcloud was quite doable in micro spikes. As I said in my report on Redcloud, there was about 6" of snow at the TH on the morning of 11/3, with more coming down, so any attempt for the next few months should probably be considered a winter climb. Prior to this snowfall, the route was essentially dry until about 12000 feet. 

Route: Via Redcloud Peak
Posted On: 10/18/2022, By: HPIvelocity97
Info: Reached the summit of both Sunshine and Redcloud on spectacular day. Drive to TH was uneventful. CR30 was a little rough, but overall smooth sailing. Only 1 other car and no campers visible at trailhead at ~530am. Trail is dry until about 12,700'. At that point mostly hard pack snow broken up by generally short, intermittent dry patches from there to both summits.

Spikes and gaiters helpful from that point on, but could probably be done without either. For reference, my son and other hiking buddy wore spikes to/from 12,700 for both ascent and descent. I only put spikes on the descent from Redcloud. 

Route: Via Redcloud Peak
Posted On: 9/26/2022, By: Stellar_climb
Info: Beautiful clear and sunny day. There were some chilly wind gusts up to 17mph between Redcloud and Sunshine Peak but overall a lovely September day. We checked mountain weather and were prepared as usual for inclement change. The wind gusts felt like it was going to knock me over once and briefly. No Ice or snow that day. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 9/7/2022, By: benopp
Info: I hiked solo from Mill Creek Campground (actually could have camped for $7-- still the price-- but I drove and parked just across wooden bridge). I really enjoyed making this a loop hike for Sunshine and Redcloud Peaks. The advantage of not repeating any portion of this 14+ mile loop easily outweighs the disadvantages of a steep slog up the East Ridge (especially at the beginning) and the over 5 miles on CR 30, which I mostly ran (note that my opinion may differ if it was a crowded weekend day, but a car shuttle is not difficult). Overall had an excellent (and better-than-expected) day on what are often considered overlooked and un-noteworthy 14ers. Took me about 7.5 hours. East Ridge not just for early season ascents IMO. 

Route: Northwest Face
Posted On: 9/2/2022, By: quandary34
Info: I usually wouldn't post a condition update for a 14er, but I think that some extra information on the Northwest Face route and especially the gully that you have to ascend/descend could be helpful. I descended the route this morning, and while the gully wasn't the worst scree gully I've encountered, it wasn't pleasant.

Even on route, I was glad that I was hiking alone due to rockfall, and the top of the gully especially required some very careful foot placement. It wasn't particularly hard to find (thanks to the helpful route description), but the description could do a bit more to describe quite how loose/steep it is, especially when there's no snow. The rest of the route (the talus above the gully and the surprisingly nice trail below) was actually pretty nice, and I was the only one on it. That wasn't quite enough to outweigh the garbage gully though, and if anyone is thinking about this route to make a loop out of Sunshine/Redcloud, I would say skip it and go back over Redcloud.