Redcloud
Peak (14,037 ft.)
Sunshine
Peak (14,006 ft.)
Handies
Peak (14,053 ft.)
14
September, 2012: Suzanne and I drove up from New Mexico on Friday,
the 14th, while Trisha drove down from Greeley. We met at
the junction of CO 149 and (Hinsdale) County Rd. 30, just south of
Lake City. Trisha brought her camper, and we found a place to park it
just above the old townsite if Sherman, where CR4 becomes steeper and
rougher, as it heads northwest into the valley between our Saturday
target peaks (on the east) and Handies (on the west). We managed to
get there while there was still some daylight left, so we had time to
set up our camp, cook up a nearly home-made hot dinner, and settle in
for a good night's sleep. We set the alarm for 4:30 MDT.
15
September, 2012: In the pre-dawn dark, we made some simple breakfast
and Trisha and I prepared our daypacks. Cimarron would hike with us,
while Lotto and Suzanne relaxed at camp, perhaps venturing into Lake
City for some shopping and lunch.
It
was actually after 6 am when the three of us finally climbed into the
truck and headed off up the road to the Silver Creek/Grizzly Gulch
trailhead. I had thought it was only about two more miles to the TH;
we found that it was more like four. We also saw clearly that we
could not have gotten the camper to the actual trailhead, as we had
originally planned. The road quickly gets not only rough, but steep
and narrow in places. At the TH, the road is actually wide and
smooth, but in between it's too rough for pulling a trailer.
After
taking in the notice on the outhouse door to the effect that there
had been a bear encounter (somewhere) in the area (somewhat)
recently, we quickly threw on our packs and hit the trail at 6:50
MDT, just before sunrise. The well-worn trail follows Silver Creek
(with the creek on climber's right), first northeast, then east, and
then southeast as it circles around the north side of Redcloud. We
passed the more obscure turn-off the the trail which heads south in
between Redcloud and 13er Sundog without seeing it, but we hoped to
take that trail down in the afternoon, after climbing Sundog.
An
hour or so into the climb, we came out above timberline, and started
climbing into the huge basin below Redcloud's northeast ridge. The
trail was still totally clear, and we had great views of the gentle
(for the San Juans) peaks on the other side of the basin as the sun
finally shone over the ridge and onto us.
The
trail first heads directly up the ridge toward the false summit. But
about ⅓ (?) of the way up it takes a
large detour to climber's right, switchbacking out across the north
face for a ways. This is definitely a better route than shorter, but
steeper and looser, path continuing on the ridge crest. Signs at both
ends of this switchback detour show that it is a recent improvement
(by CFI) over what was the original route. When the trail comes back
to the ridge crest, the false summit is just a short distance away,
although it continues to be steep almost to the top.
As
with most false summits, the view of the remaining climb to the true
summit can seem a bit intimidating, but, in truth, it only involves a
climb of just over 100 vertical feet. Accordingly, we blew right past
it to get to the top. We got there just after noon MDT. Then, we
finally rested and spent nearly half an hour eating, taking pictures,
and drinking in the amazing all-around view.
We
had the summit to ourselves until just before we were ready to leave.
Then Chuck and Dave, two veteran hikers roughly in my age range,
strolled up. They told us that they had both climbed Redcloud before
(Chuck four times!), but were preparing to make the traverse to
Sunshine for the first time. We traded some picture-taking, and
departed, expecting to see them again on Sunshine's summit.
The
ridge between the two peaks is about a mile and a quarter long, and
sports several gently sloped ridge points. The well-worn trail,
however, only flirts with the actual ridge crest, staying mostly on
the south side. This placement affords nice, ever-morphing views of
both “Sundog,” the ranked 13er across the valley, and Sunshine as
it is approached. Others have reported ridge run times as low as half
an hour for this traverse, but it took us an hour and a quarter.
All
along the way, the views continued to be fantastic. As we approached
the low point, which is much closer to Sunshine, the views of things
not so far away also opened up. We discovered that it was possible to
see several points along the approach road (which circles under
Sunshine's south and west sides) from where we were. We could see
even more of the road from the summit when we reached it just after 2
MDT. And that meant that, contrary to my initial impression, that the
summit could be seen from all those points on the road, despite
looking up from near the bottom of a valley!
On
the final leg of the climb to Sunshine, after the low point, the nice
single trail broke down into a wild maze of braided climber's trails.
The slope is gently curved all around, so there is no one obvious
best way to the top. That, plus the rough nature of the rock, means
that it's just operator's choice, and many different operators have
made many different choices over the years, none any better or worse
than any other. They all lead to the summit, however.
Unlike
Redcloud's summit, Sunshine's features a good-sized stone windbreak,
plus a pancake-stack cairn roughly three feet high nearby (see
photos). We also found an intact register tube with register within,
although it was totally filled, and no one had changed it out! I have
gotten out of the habit of always carrying a new register as I once
did, so the only remedy we could work was to tear a page out of my
small notebook and add it to the existing register. Hopefully,
someone will change it properly soon. Sitting there, I turned to
Trisha and noted that it was hard to believe that this was really my
penultimate fourteener.
As
expected, Chuck and Dan came out onto the summit not long afterward.
We did another round of mutual picture-taking, and then got to
discussing descent routes. They were determined to take the shorter
route off the northwest face, down through the valley under Sundog,
but we had pretty much already made up our minds that we would take
the no-guesswork option of retracing our steps. An additional factor
in this decision was the unexpected fact that Cimarron was showing
signs of fatigue and paw tenderness, and we knew the short route
would be rougher, probably trailless in places. It's been so long
since we did a peak that we could take her on that even she had
gotten somewhat out of climbing shape, too!
So,
after another half-hour-plus of summit sitting, we turned around for
the long walk down. We stopped numerous times but didn't regret our
route choice. We re-summitted Redcloud just after 4 MDT, and
descended the basin to timberline in considerably less time than it
had taken us to ascend it. In fact, in spite of our relative
weariness, we made the return trip in fully two hours less than our
outward bound leg, arriving back at the truck about 6:45 MDT. Half an
hour later, we bounced back to the campsite, where Suzanne was
already well into preparing us a great spaghetti dinner!
After
dinner, we updated our 14ers t-shirts, first for the climb of Capitol
Peak the month before, and then for our two new peaks. That left me
with just one open circle on my shirt, and Trisha with just two on
hers. The end was truly in sight. We cleaned up from dinner, set the
alarm for 4:30 again (with implicit self-granted permission to snooze
an extra fifteen minutes or so, if necessary...) and called it a day.
16
September, 2012: Sure enough, we didn't exactly rocket out of bed at
the first alarm. But we were still up, dressed, fed, packed and
loaded with our gear in the truck before sunrise. This time, the crew
of three was me, Trisha, and Suzanne. We judged Cimarron too worn out
to do another climb (a real first), and Suzanne was going to try to
make it to the summit of my finisher with me.
We
took the truck again, for its clearance. We went past the SC/GG
trailhead this time, and tackled the even rougher section of road
which curves left around the north side of Handies. After much
bouncing and jostling, about a quarter to eight, it brought us to the
high (11,XXX ft.) trailhead in American Basin.
Unfortunately,
within an hour, Suzanne was showing distinct signs of altitude
sickness. We agonized for 20 or 30 minutes about what to do while she
rested. Finally, and with real mixed emotions on my part, Trisha and
I went on while Suzanne promised to make her way, carefully and
slowly, back down to the truck. She just couldn't go on, but she
still wanted to make sure that both of us got our summit. As we
learned later, she did indeed feel better after descending a bit, so
it was the right decision. I just felt bad about having to leave her.
Several people coming up the mountain gave us welcome updates on her,
all reporting that she seemed fine if tired.
The
two of us then hurried along, trying to get up and back down as
quickly as we could. The recently improved trail made that fairly
easy. We had to remember to turn around every once in a while to take
in the gorgeous view of American Basin and Sloan Lake (12,900 ft.),
plus the equally amazing long distance views that opened up as we
approached the summit.
After
passing the lake and finally reaching the southeast ridge, we were
able to look over into the basin on the east side of Handies. The
awesome realization here was that, due to a sharp turn in the
drainage below, this basin is totally invisible from the approach
road in the valley below, despite the fact that the road wraps nearly
three-fourths of the way around the summit!
On
the final approach to the summit, I also found some reason to
question the recent down-grading of this route from Class 2 to Class
1, after CFI's recent improvements. That final approach, while clear,
still consists of a walk over a hard-packed, rather steep, surface,
with lots of loose dist, grit, sand, and pebbles to act as solid
lubricant. This could be difficult and, worse, dangerous, for an
inexperienced climber expecting an easy hike.
We
got to the summit a few minutes after noon MDT, less than two hours
after leaving Suzanne. Word had made it up the mountain grapevine
that I was approaching for my finish, and we were instant celebrities
with the twenty or so climbers already on top. Quite a few of these
were people were climbing their very first fourteener, and Trisha and
I were sort of instant celebrities.
In
a total surprise to me, my darling daughter had brought real
champagne, with snap-together plastic wine glasses, to the summit. We
shared a toast, and one of the other climbers, an accomplished
photographer named Christine Biella, took some great pictures of us.
I gave her my email address and she promised to send the photos to me
later, which she did indeed do. It was quite a party on the summit,
with over 20 people there enjoying the top-notch weather.
We
both were feeling more energetic than we had the day before.
Apparently, one day climbing (together with the Capitol climb six
weeks earlier) was enough to shake off our “winter”
out-of-shapeness and start getting us back into good shape. We put
this theory to the test by going for the best time possible getting
down, because we felt it was only right to get back to Suzanne as
quickly as we could. As it turned out, we burned up the trail, and
made it from summit to trailhead in 90 minutes—without falling or
destroying our knees.
The
Redcloud summit video is at:
and
the Handies video is at:
and
my photos are at:
Long
life and many peaks!
