Gary's Colorado Trip Reports: SUNSHINE PEAK 7/29/84

Gary's Colorado Trip Reports

Following are trip reports for the fourteeners in the order in which I climbed them.
If you read them in sequence, they form a novellette.
Each trip report lists basic statistics.
The elevations and rankings are taken from Edrinn's 1986 "Colorado Fourteeners".
Rank is the order by height (1-54) of Colorado fourteeners.
Difficulty is Gary's ranking of fourteeners :
one star (*) is easiest, five stars (*****) is most difficult.
These are subjective and based on personal experience.
Many of the trails/routes have been improved (or deteriorated) since I last saw them.

Friday, March 24, 2006

SUNSHINE PEAK 7/29/84

SUNSHINE PEAK 14,001'

Mountain........Sunshine Peak
Elevation.........14,001
Rank...............54th
Range..............San Juan
Trail length......5 miles (1.5 from Redcloud, 3.5 down)
Elevation drop.3,600'
Difficulty..........*
Comments........Pleasant hike from Redcloud

TRIP REPORT

7/29/84

After a long lunch break on Redcloud Peak, we hiked the ridge to Sunshine, with an impressive view of Uncompahgre and Wetterhorn behind us and Handies in front. We took another break at Sunshine's summit, then took a shortcut down (we started down before reaching the low point in the saddle where descent is recommended). There were a few cliffs to negotiate around & down, with some loose rock, but nothing too dangerous as long as we stayed out of each other's way.
From the bottom of the cliffs we followed a small creek back to the main trail, then took the trail back to the car and returned to Lake City.