Sunshine Peak

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 2/8/2022, By: Ryspriggs92
Info: Spikes helpful. Didn't use snowshoes. Great trench right now. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 2/8/2022, By: Ryspriggs92
Info: Spikes helpful. Didn't use snowshoes. Great trench right now. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 2/7/2022, By: cloudkicker
Info: Latest snowstorm dumped a whopping 1" to 4" on SS/RC.

The bottom portion of the steep section through the trees was a mixture of dirt/gravel/mud and thin snow, with some short (steep) icy sections. Microspikes were helpful.

Above the boulder field crossings (still in the trees), there was some new snow, and some light trailbreaking was required to refresh the old trench.

We put our snowshoes on at treeline to provide better floatation while we navigated the one possible avy slope on the route. The snow was reactive here but we made it through just fine without any signs of trouble. CAIC forecast was "Low" with small Loose Dry avy's being the only concern. If Slab avalanches were a problem I would be more wary of this slope.

Kept snowshoes on all the way up to the narrow part of the ridge, where we swapped to microspikes.

The rest of the route to SS summit was a mixture of talus hopping and travel on firm, supportive snow.

The traverse to RC went fine. A couple tricky 2+ moves on the downclimb from SS but nothing too crazy, and on supportive snow. Stay close to the ridge when possible.

After the saddle you can stay close to the ridge or follow the summer trail which is filled in with low angle snow but could be sketchy in places.

On the way back we bypassed the summit of SS by contouring the NE face about halfway between the saddle and SS summit. Mixture of short kickstep sections on supportive snow, with some rock hopping. Return via SS summit if steep crossings like this gives you pause, or if conditions worsen. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 2/1/2022, By: the_hare
Info: Really enjoyable short winter day in the San Juans. The steep path up the south-facing slope is a mix of packed snow, ice, frozen dirt, mud, and loose dirt & gravel. Used some hefty Hillsound trail crampon microspikes to cruise up the trail. The sketchiest part I think is the talus chute crossing. I didn't see the cairns on the other side of the chute and ascended the extremely loose rock & dirt on the side after crossing. Every rock is loose and the large ones can crush your foot. The trail actually keeps going a bit past the chute and continues on up steep less loose dirt.

At around 11.9k the trees open up to a snow-covered hill where snowshoes became mandatory. I went straight up without issue but there was a track off to the right that curved around and went over some shallower snow. Dropped my snowshoes off on top of the small hill on the ridge at 12.5k. For the following wide, rocky ridge I ascended the bare, fairly stable rocks on the left side. I wish I had stayed on the snowy trail, so much faster ascending that with spikes. On the last part of the ridge towards the summit, I mostly stayed on top of the ridge which was hardpack enough to ascend easily with spikes.

Didn't go over to Redcloud for multiple reasons—late start, a bit wiped from weekend ice climbing, & forgot some wind gear in the car that I would need for the ridge. Instead I spent a bit longer on the summit taking in the utterly magnificent San Juan vistas. The descent went quickly. Spikes kept me from slipping in the mud but the snow didn't deteriorate to slush nearly as much as I thought.

Winds felt as forecast on the summit blowing towards the east at 20mph. Before that I only felt the wind in occasional gusts above treeline. This report is mostly for posterity due to an incoming heavy snow. Yes, it is a steep route overall but I didn't find it too bad with traction, I kindof prefer trail angles that use quads over calves anyway. Looking forward to next time and going over to Redcloud too! 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 1/23/2022, By: morgansperry
Info: Not a ton of snow, in the beginning. Some of our group wore snowshoes for part of the first mile just because it was so steep and there was a dusting of snow. I put snowshoes on after 1 mile, then they were required. We did switch to crampons to gain the ridge and all the way to the summit. Going to Redcloud, most of the way wasn't super snowy, but there was a section going to the bottom of the saddle away from Sunshine, where we postholed up to our waist, but the section was short. It was a grueling but beautiful day, it took us about 10.5 hi ours to do both peaks. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 12/23/2021, By: Eagle Eye
Info: I summited Sunshine Peak from Mill Creek TH on the East Ridge yesterday. There is a lot of postholing to be done here, currently. What I thought (at a glance from the road) was recent travel at the start of the trail was elk tracks and I saw no sign (low anyway) of travel through snow up the route. The lower, about 3/4 of the trail is very well cairn marked switchback and then above that I just made my way out of the trees to the ridge. I stuck with supportive hard crust and blown clear places when possible above tree line and when visible, sections of the blown clear summer trail on the upper east ridge.
! ! seasons greetings ! ! Mike Via 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 11/21/2021, By: WackiJ
Info: I can see why the East Ridge route is not the standard, and I don't recommend it without snow. It was dry until ~13,000 ft, which made the ascent chossy and loose. Plenty of snow on sunshine, mixed on over to redcloud. We spiked up for the saddle but it maybe wasn't necessary. Snow shoes, axe, crampons, flotation, etc all completely unnecessary. Overall, windy, cold, steep, and fun! 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 10/19/2021, By: longlevi823
Info: In a party of 3 (including self) we had a successful summit of Sunshine and Redcloud on 10/17 from the East Ridge of Sunshine (see report on Redcloud traverse).


The road to the trailhead (if getting Redcloud first) as of 10/18 is pretty dry with a few patches of snow/ice but doable with a 4WD (or AWD) vehicle. Though the trailhead says it's 2WD you'll need something with decent clearance. My Scion TC wouldn't have been able to do it but a Subaru works fine.


On 10/16 when we were scouting out the Silver Creek/Grizzly Gulch trailhead when ran into a party of 2 coming back to their cars from attempting the Northeast Ridge of Redcloud. From the TH it looked like snowshoes were unnecessary but the two said when they got further in they realized it was too much postholing which is what turned them back. They did say if they had their snowshoes they would have kept going.


Because of the beta we got from them, we chose to do the East Ridge of Sunshine and then traverse to Redcloud.


The Mill Creek trailhead for the East Ridge is easily accessible right now by low clearance 2WD vehicles.


The East Ridge had very little snow, it was a steep incline in the very beginning. But choosing this route meant we felt more confident leaving the snowshoes and mountaineering boots behind. Microspikes were helpful though. Gators were helpful near the summit, but you could live without them, until the next snow comes through.


The overall day was great with lots of sun. 

Route: Northwest Face
Posted On: 10/17/2021, By: winter_wisher
Info: Northwest Face route has 6"-12" of snow throughout. Snow covers lots of loose obstacles, making for uncertain footing. Climbing out of the basin requires navigating waist-deep snow and an ice flow just below the ridge. Connected to Redcloud after reaching Sunshine - see Redcloud update. 

Route: Via Redcloud Peak
Posted On: 10/4/2021, By: ltlFish99
Info: I attempted to hike Sunshine peak via the east ridge route from mill creek on Saturday 10/02.
From the route description I knew it was going to be a steep hike.
8 underestimated just how steep, and how long it would take me to complete the beginning of ghd hike to timberline. It seemed to just keep going. I hike at a slowish moderate pace. The trail is quite faint, and is definitely not like a well worn standard route trail.
The main reason for this update is to mention that the cairns on this part of the route are Very helpful.
I thought I was losing the trail at least several times, and would just hike in the general direction of where I knew I needed to go. Sure enough, I would spot another cairn, then another, etc.
I was very comforting to see these to let me know I was still on route. The route crosses a lot of talus, for a fair distance and the trail is really faint in this area.
I started late, took forever to make progress, and clouds started getting darker and more threatening at about 12,200 feet.
With ghexsays getting shorter, I decided that was far enough, and headed back as I did not want to descend that route in the dark.
It was still an enjoyable experience and as I made it back to the trailhead, it started to thunder and rain. 

Route: Northwest Face
Posted On: 9/25/2021, By: lkjustplay
Info: CCW Sunshine and Redcloud route. Got to TH at 9a. Took the NW Face route to Sunshine and tagged Redcloud coming down the standard route. Coming up the creek beware of fallen timber and keep your eye out for the path. If you lose the path, ascend to the left of the stream and continue paralleling the stream towards the tree line in front of you, you'll find the correct path that begins to go into the tree line and pass the abandon hut. Gully is definitely a class 3 section, albeit short, it's steep. Wouldn't recommend descending this section. All sections were clear and bluebird conditions for the day. Descending Redcloud is easier to find the wide, long, switchback along the talus field. Looking back up, you can see how difficult finding the path ascending must be. 2 hikers and 6 year old husky (plenty of water along both routes for dogs). ~9 hours and ~10.5 miles. 

Route: Via Redcloud Peak
Posted On: 8/23/2021, By: feldspar
Info: Did the loop up to Redcloud and then over to Sunshine. Snow the night before which left around an inch and froze everything together. This should all be melted now (did Handies the next day and there was very little left). I descended Sunshine's Northwest Face route. No issues until the gully which was much steeper then expected (helmet advised / lots of rockfall). Just before reaching the gully I passed someone who had just ascended it. They believed it was a hard class 3. I think its a 3 also (but don't have the experience to really gauge that). Yes, the gully we took was the one listed in the route description. If some of my usual hiking partners were with me (class 1/2 hikers), we would not have gone down the gully. Instead we would have turned around, re-summited and returned the way we came. Rest of the route was a bit difficult to follow until you get back into the forest. Once in the trees, lots of trunks and debris littered the creek but for the most part easy enough to navigate until you meet up with the other trail.

PS: Lost phone (galaxy S6) on descent (probably in the gully) 

Route: Via Redcloud Peak
Posted On: 8/9/2021, By: E_A_Marcus_949
Info: Great trail from Redcloud. 1.5mi out and back goes by quickly. Wind shelters on summit are nice. We descended via Redcloud, as did everyone else I saw. Peeked over to look at NW Face, and it looked nasty. 

Route: Northwest Face
Posted On: 7/18/2021, By: Wentzl
Info: Hiked Redcloud/Sunshine as a planned night hike. Descended NW Face of Sunshine, having been there before. All good to about 300 yards from rejoining the main trail. Avalanche debris was significant and in the dark, a long and difficult detour ensued. Likely would have been avoided in daylight, but I would like to hear from others who have been here since the obvious big avalanche a couple years back. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 7/5/2021, By: Dignus
Info: Like most other trails Sunshine's East Ridge is 100% melted out. As the route description states the trail is rather faint but if you're observant you'll always find it. The one part that threw me off for more than a minute was crossing the first talus field. You need to duck around a tree and continue in a straight line and not turn left and go up what appears to be a trail (maybe that's more obvious when it's not 2:00am). Several steep dirt slopes make this a type 2 fun trail. After gaining the ridge it's pretty easy to navigate even in the dark. I'm not sure how easy it is to find the route down from ridge if you choose to descend the same way as I didn't see many cairns (but again it was still dark), and the loose dirt slope would probably not be fun to go down. I descended via Redcloud's standard and went over to Handies as well, both of which are fully melted out.
https://youtu.be/QAiVM5aVMRM