Camping on Redclouds Summit

June 16th, 2024

Ian -- @roughlysomewhere

Zofia -- @zofiaslens

Chase -- @chase_t_le

I've been looking forward to the experience of sleeping on a 14er summit -- the main pursuit being able to experience the best of two golden hours in a row, as well as visualize what Camp 3 on Denali might sleep like. Thankfully I have some ultralight backpacking experience, reducing the uphill slog factor by maybe 10-15%. Redcloud and Sunshine were next up on my partner Zofia's list, being only eighteen 14ers into her journey. I'm embracing the repeats, and taking the opportunities as they come to find new routes or spins on the adventure. This time it was trying to sleep on a summit. My faded memory and the 360 pano of the summit here on 14ers.com made me think Redcloud might be a viable candidate for a two person tent.

We started out from Durango at 11:30am after a leisurely morning, stopped by City Market on the way out of town, and headed for Cinnamon Pass. The drive took a bit longer than I remember, Chase in his Chevy 4x4 with myself and Zofia in my 4x4 Tacoma. Chase was intent on hiking up with us to then jog down back to his truck at the trailhead, while Zofia and I were packing in sleeping gear. We aired down to ~23-25psi just before the alpine loop became a chore, and took our sweet time getting up and over. We arrived at the Silver Creek TH at a timely 4:00pm and got right to work packing. Time moved quickly, and we only managed to start our hike by 4:53, a bit behind my ideal schedule.

The start was toasty, but all of us were able to stay consistent without a break for the first 90 minutes. Chase split off after 2.5 miles, intent on squeezing in Sunshine before it got dark, with the plan to convene on Redcloud for golden hour. Zofia and I planning to his Sunlight in the morning. Overall, it took Zofia and I just under 3 hours to cover the 3,700' of gain up to the Redcloud summit just before 8pm.

I got right to work on setting up the tent, while I handed Zofia her Canon that I hauled up for some high quality shots. Our two person freestanding Big Agnes tent fit snugly amongst the rocks, after a bit of cleaning. We spent golden hour snapping photos and video, and basking in the glow of the view. I'll let the pictures below speak for themselves here.

The night went pleasant enough. I chose an evening with 0% chance of precip on NOAA, butttt the possibility of 20-25mph wind gusts. While we were lucky early on, the wind battered our tent just enough in the wee hours of the night to keep us more stimulated than we would've liked. We were able to play on our phones a bit, so we only attempted to sleep from 11pm to 5:15am, when my alarm was set to catch the sunrise. But I think we both actually slept maybe 90 minutes, although the rest of the time I must admit I felt relaxed and in that weird half sleep state. No headaches for either of us, although we did pretty well with our hydration and food intake. I packed a leftover pizza while Zofia had a salmon salad of all things ha. I carried and drank 3.5 liters from 5pm sunday night to about 12:30p monday afternoon. We also ended up sleeping pretty warm, I had no problem in my 20 degree quilt, and Zofia needed to delayer at around 2am. The experience was honestly a bit better than expected as far as restfulness and comfort went.

In the morning, we caught sunrise from the tent, and layed in the sunlight and warmth that was streaming onto our skin until about 7am when we started our traverse to Sunshine and back, which went as smooth as could be. The lack of pack weight felt marvelous. We then enjoyed a leisurely descent, landing us back at the TH around 12:30, where we drove to Cooper Creek trailhead, met up with Chase, and partied with a nap, brews, food, and views of Redcloud and Sundog. Enjoy the photos below, the real point of posting this trip report.