Torreys Peak & Grays Peak, CO
This trip came the day after one of the worst climbing experiences of my life. To
understand the context of this trip, read
the previous day's trip report first.
Saturday, August 28 The previous day's events actually led to my getting a lot of sleep. Despite the hotel room not having an alarm clock, I woke up on my own at 5:00am. The first thing I did was to go to the window and look for clouds. If it was at all cloudy like yesterday, I was not going to risk it - I would just drive home after breakfast. Much to my surprise, the sky was completely clear. Stars everywhere. My quads were still very sore but I felt somewhat energetic and decided that I would give Grays & Torreys a shot. After a quick breakfast at the hotel I got on the road at 5:15 (I can operate very quickly in the mornings when I'm not waiting on someone else). The drive to the Grays Peak trailhead took 90 minutes from Leadville and I was hiking by 7:00. The sky was completely clear - much like Thursday's weather that made me drive up early for this trip in the first place. Reading about Grays & Torreys online and in guide books gave me the impression that they are overcrowded, really easy, and not particularly interesting via their standard routes. However, the Kelso Ridge route on Torreys gives a nice technical alternative with several class three sections and an optional class four traverse. Because it is more of a climb than a hike, I opted to leave my trekking poles in the truck. The initial 1,500' of gain is on the normal Grays trail, which was infested with people. It is an easy trail but the state of my legs made it tough going. I was very slow and my legs complained a lot. Once I got off the main route and onto the ridge, there were only a few people here and there (still more than I have seen on most other 14er trips, though). The trail is sketchy, with numerous false trails and optional bypasses, etc. It's basically an exercise in making you way up through towers of good rock for 1,500'. The class three scrambles were fun, and at the top I elected to go over the top of the class four knife edge which was a good adrenaline source. Maybe it is a good trainer route for Capitol, who knows. As soon as I got off the knife edge, I was essentially at the summit. This was made apparent by the presence of no less than 20 people, and a view of at least 15 more working their way up the slope from the Grays/Torreys saddle. It was a total zoo up there. I tried to get a picture of the crowd but I actually couldn't get them all in frame. Despite my distaste for the crowd, I spent over an hour on the summit resting and eating. The Kelso ridge was made infinitely harder by my exhausted state from the previous day. I was feeling very worked at the top. Travel time from truck to summit was almost four hours (longer than the trip up Elbert, which had 1,000' more gain). However, the weather was perfect and I had all the time in the world to take so I did. After talking with some other climbers and enjoying the excellent view, I made my way down to the saddle and up the other side to Grays. The travel time from summit to summit was just under 45 minutes. Most people climb Grays first and then Torreys, so by the time I got over to Grays, the bulk of the people had already left and there was only a small crowd of 12 people there. Someone had brought their giant Irish wolf hound up. It ate my apple core for me. Grays is just such a lame mountain. It lacks the fun technical options of Torreys. The only thing it has going for it is a lot of peak-bagging cred. It is a double county highpoint, a fourteener, a national forest highpoint, and one of the most prominent peaks in Colorado. And I'm a sucker for all that stuff. After another hour spent enjoying the sun at the summit of Grays, I decided to head down to the Grays/Edwards saddle. The switchbacks on the main Grays trail take you right to it, so this was easy. However, by the time I got there, the exhaustion in my legs was really starting to manifest itself in the form of numerous ankle rolls and stumbles. I decided that the additional 500' of gain and 2 miles of hiking just to bag Edwards wasn't worth the increased liklihood of an ankle or knee injury so I scrubbed my attempt. I just followed the main Grays trail back to the truck, arriving at 3:00pm. On the way down, I was hiking with two women from northern Colorado who, when I mentioned that I was a nuclear physicist, said, "hmm, very controversial." I'm not sure what that means. But I'll be sure to tell my boss. To my amazement, there were still people arriving at the trailhead and just beginning their hikes. I guess on a day like this with such perfect weather, all you need is daylight. If that. It was also a full moon (see below). I had made extra effort to eat and drink frequently during this hike and I also took a pain reliever at the summit of Torreys, and it paid off. Aside from my legs, I was feeling great when I got back to my car. Much to my delight, I was not at all nauseos and was able to eat all I wanted. Originally, I had planned to climb Evans & Bierstadt on Sunday, but at this point I felt that I had gotten plenty of excitement in for the weekend and could probably use a day of rest. After a short lunch in Silverthorne, I headed home. I was treated to a fantastic sunset around Alamosa and a lightning storm just east of the Culebra group that I stopped to photograph. The photos didn't come out because the full moon was only about 10 degrees away in the sky and it illuminated the clouds too much to do long exposures. Written by Mouser Williams on
2004.08.29
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