Torreys Peak (14,267 feet) and Grays Peak (14,270 feet)
Via the Kelso Ridge
July 16, 2008
Trip Report
Check out Videos at the bottom

Grays and Torreys would be another set of "repeats" for me.  I had done them both back in 2002 and again back in 2003.  In 2003 I had done them by the Kelso Ridge.  But, the Kelso Ridge was super cool, and it was a CLASSIC according to Roach.  So, I could do it a third time, surely.

Scotty and I worked our way up the Steven's Gulch Road the previous night.  We didn't have any serious problems, but there were plenty of vehicles parked at the 1/4 mile point in the road, including 4x4 vehicles.  We camped just outside our car at the trailhead parking lot.

We got up early, and were started up the trail at around 5 am.  I should mention at this point that this climb was going to be a "freebie" for me.  See my La Plata Trip Report from 2007 for the definition of a "freebie."  We started off pretty fast, but you could tell that 5 days of hiking fourteeners was starting to take its toll.  As we reached the turn off for the Kelso saddle, Scotty admitted that he wasn't feeling too hot.  He said that he felt like he was having some issues with AMS; being light headed and a bit dizzy at times.  So, Scotty decided to continue up the main route, instead of risking the ridge route.  I continued up the ridge route.  If I were going to do this for third time, it was going to be a CLASSIC.  :)

I hit the Kelso saddle about an hour after leaving the trailhead.  I was feeling pretty strong and immediately tackled the class 2 and class 3 stuff.  At the beginning of the ridge route it is mostly class 2.  But, within a few hundred feet of elevation, the route starts to challenge you with some wicked class 3.  Since I had video taped the crux on the Sawtooth the day before, I was determined to do the same thing today.  Well, that made things a bit more challenging.  Negotiating these crux moves with only one hand was going to be tough.  In some cases, it just "wasn't going to happen..."  :)

For the next 500 or so feet, I was challenged by several - probably 3 or 4 - crux sections of solid class 3.  This was a rude start to the ridge route.  After that though, it tapered off to some steep, loose up-climbing.  This loose stuff was easier, but truely exhausting.

As I got about 200 feet from the top, I knew that my last two cruxes were coming up.  There was a class 4 crux first, then the knife edge.  I approached the class 4, and remembered it well.  It can be climbed multiple ways, but all direct methods require some climbing skills.  You can negotiate around it, but that wouldn't be as much fun.  My method for this was to take the dihedral straight on.  About half way up the dihedral, I traversed the slab to the right along some pretty solid foot holds.  The traverse led me right up on to the top of the crux.  No problem.  No problem one handed.  :)

After that I worked my way up over the top, and to the knife edge.  Doing the knife edge with one hand was just spooky.  But, I managed it, and found myself at the bottom of the white rock tower.  From there it was just a mild class 2 scramble to the top where Scotty was waiting for me.  I made the summit of Torreys in 1 hour 48 minutes from the saddle.

We spent almost no time on Torreys since Scotty had already been up there 15 minutes waiting for me.  We booked it towards Grays.  I was on auto pilot, and didn't stop until we hit the summit of Grays.  Scotty told me later that I was "killing him with speed" up the slopes of Grays.  We made Grays in 32 minutes.

We spent 10 minutes on Grays, then headed down.  It was a beautiful day.  We spent time on the way down talking with people coming up.  With our early start we were the first on both peaks.  So we passed plenty of people on the descent.  We got down in just under 1.5 hours.

As we were coming down, one of the guys that we chatted with had a the same model and make vehicle that we did.  We mentioned that we saw it in the parking lot the night before.  They had packed in, and camped in the basin.  He asked if we had looked at the driver's side inside tire.  We said, "no."  He told us how a porcipine had setup camp under his car, chewing on unknown components.  He tried to scare it out, and when he did, it shot quills all over the place; imbedding dozens in the tire.  When Scotty and I got back to the trailhead we made sure to take pictures and video of that one.  :)

This was another great "repeat".  In only wish that Scott had gotten a chance to experience the CLASSIC Kelso Ridge also.
Pictures (or SLIDESHOW)
Click on Picture for larger Picture

Route Information

TRAVEL TIMES
Time Est. Distance
To the Kelso Saddle
56 minutes
2 miles
To Torreys Summit
1 hour 48 minutes
1.5 miles
On Torreys
5 minutes
-
To Grays
32 minutes
0.75 miles
On Grays
11 minutes
-
To Trailhead
1 hour 23 minutes
4 miles
ROUND TRIP
4 hours 55 minutes
8.25 miles
Videos

Negotiating the Kelso Ridge Cruxes (15 clips)