I (Brian) just got back from a trip into the San Juan Mountains to climb Sunshine Peak in support of Project 54, mentioned in a previous post.
Our efforts began early Saturday morning with several miles of hiking along a long valley that gradually climbed to the back of Mt Red Cloud. The view below looks back toward our campground from a bit more than midway up the valley. We were about to pass the treeline.
Here we are a little farther along and above the treeline. We left camp at 6:00am (or close to it) so I'm guessing this photo was taken around 7-7:30. As you can see, the sun had not yet cleared the mountains from our perspective. It was much colder there in the San Juans than here in Fort Collins. At night the temperature dipped to freezing (or very nearly), but by the time of this photo I imagine it was in the upper forties or low fifties. I had a good sweat going, so I didn't mind it too much when the water hose from my backpack drained unexpectedly and saturated my side. But, the air was dry and so was my shirt before too long.
Along our way to the top of Sunshine the team traversed Mt. Red Cloud, another 14er. Here we are nearing the summit of Red Cloud.
Group photo on Red Cloud. Left to right you see Eric, John, myself, Sam (way back), Davis, Julie (up front), Alissa, and Toby the dog. Doug also made the trip, but he was left in camp to get much needed
rest; he had not slept the night before and was not in shape to hike the
day.
This shot looks down into the basin shared by the two 14ers. I took the photo from the saddle between them. In the distance you can see some trees. There, the basin forms a "T" with the long valley we climbed at the start of the day. Our campsite is out of sight to the left, behind the mountain, and the route up Red Cloud passes behind the slope to the right. We would hike this basin on the way out. And, later that day, from this vantage point, hikers might witness our team in its hour of despair, and recoil in horror! JK
A gratuitous shot atop the ridge.
Here we are victorious, having reached our goal, the summit of Mt Sunshine. I believe it was sometime around 12pm. The peak of Red Cloud can be seen in the background. You may have noticed that we were then short two teammates. Sam got altitude sickness between the summits and could not continue. Eric escorted him down the mountain. Sam was fine after descending the mountain and did manage to get a 14er under his belt. After all, he had a well rounded mountaineering experience, and I think that's the best you can say for it. Many thanks to Eric!
We reached an unexpected bluff on the way down the backside of Sunshine. It was decided that we should go down one by one, for our safety, in case of falling rocks. Here, John goes ahead of the team.
This is a view from the bottom of the steep ravine we descended. The landscape consisted of nothing but fields of rock for the next mile or more.
We finally reached the stream bed and followed it back to camp. This photo looks back up the basin we had just descended. It the distance, to the right, you can see the bluffs and the steep ravine we came through. Grass and shrubs had returned by this altitude, but we had not yet reached the treeline, or met the incoming trail. There were several miles of hiking left to go.
All in all, the hike took about 8hours. It was a great time.
