Curious about Gunn peak

I hope you make it, and in good conditions. I waited for some time for it. I shouldd say that while the cliff is passable it is(was)the crux of the trip.  Just a short steep boot with lots of veggie belays. Was just a bit of a wallow fest both times. Dog required some aid.

Not sure if anyone else has, but i used to really want to try to do a wild sky high route across the merchants, From beckler to index. 

Man! I've seen this several times too and sketched out a route on caltopo; sounds similar enough to the route described by alecapone. Stoked to know it is doable. 

 
I found a photo of the basin I took in spring of 84.  I'm not certain where Ale's pillow gully lies, maybe lookers left out of view a little?  Anyhow I find it interesting how much the dog hair in the cliff band appears to have grown between my photo and his.  There must have been a lot less avalanche activity over the intervening years.

Great Photo Bruce! I love seeing some old slide film beta photos. Thanks for digging this out!

Super cool to see that old photo!  I really should have been trying to get out there during the last cold storm event - sadly I think that basin may be out for the season this year.

Your observations about the dog-hair density makes me think that it would be neat to use remote sensing to track growth density and age in avy paths over time as a climate change marker.

arb wrote: I really should have been trying to get out there during the last cold storm event - sadly I think that basin may be out for the season this year.
 

Or not...especially if you're willing to hoof a chunk of the road in lieu of skiing it. The basin and above are at 3000' + and will be under snow for some time yet.  We could easily get another shot of low snow this year as well. Slide hazard is apt to be a bigger limiting factor for that trip than coverage.

But while you're map tripping, hop a couple of drainages north and consider the easterly and northeasterly aspects of Spire Mountain (seen here with a long lens and severe crop from the top of Seventh Heaven at Stevens).  Hippy turns for days.
 
The shortest access would be up from the NF Sky from slightly below Troublesome CG, but the road situation currently complicates that a bit. I did about half of that one day on a whim and as far as I went it was easy going in relatively open forest.  Alternate accesses would be up Howard Creek, up what's left if anything of the old Iron Mountain road, or from the Beckler side from the Boulder Lake vicinity or San Juan Hill where there is road within a couple hundred feet of the ridge line.That country looks really attractive in all seasons, and I doubt that people often get in there.