Sunshine Peak

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. 

Route: Northwest Face
Posted On: 8/15/2022, By: ptylman3
Info: Scree and gully were loose and fairly wet from the rain the night before. I found a Columbia jacket above the gully approaching the NW ridge which I brought down. Let me know if it's yours and I can coordinate getting it back to you. 

Route: Via Redcloud Peak
Posted On: 8/7/2022, By: dr_j
Info: Straightforward trail from Redcloud to Sunshine. The final ascent to the summit was stable compared to the scree going up to Redcloud. Summer conditions. The entire route was free of litter and poop bags, good job, let's keep it that way. 

Route: Northwest Face
Posted On: 6/8/2022, By: Veory
Info: Gully is now free of snow, but very loose. A few snow crossings on the way to the gully that are easy to cross, but occasionally obscure the trail. 

Route: Northwest Face
Posted On: 6/9/2022, By: Been_Jammin
Info: Facts: 98%+ summer conditions Opinion: The gully you need to climb to get to the ridge is spicy 

Route: Via Redcloud Peak
Posted On: 6/5/2022, By: ballardwf04
Info: Beautiful summer conditions. There's a small patch of snow on the final summit push to Sunshine, but is easily avoidable. Happy to be done with the Grizzly Gulch 14ers- that road gets me every time. Have fun adventuring! 

Route: Via Redcloud Peak
Posted On: 5/19/2022, By: fmv093042
Info: Ridgeline from Redcloud too/from Sunshine is perfectly clear! My plan was to descend the Northwest Face of Sunshine Peak back to the Silver Creek/Grizzly Gulch Trailhead. However, when I approached the Gully recommended for the descent, there was a decent amount of snow and ice. So I chose to head back up Redcloud and descent that way. It was a warm and windy day, snow is melting QUCIKLY! Good chance Northwest face is ready to go soon! 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 5/10/2022, By: Gumby420
Info: Great weather and conditions. No traction or flotation necessary. Snow is melting quickly. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 5/1/2022, By: CO_Wolfe
Info: Stellar weather and snow conditions on Saturday. Dry and steep up to above the talus crossings. Snow is drifted in patches near treeline. Then there is a large snow field to cross to reach the "flat area" around 12,500ft. Above that is half dry, half shallow snow. Snow is avoidable if you prefer loose rock, but the snow stayed firm most of the day. We skied the NE basin from the summit - consistent, predictable snow even in the early afternoon.