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Having enjoyed Blanca Peak so much two weeks before, Leah and I decided to make a trip up to Denver (my first time to visit) to climb Grays and Torreys Peak (I later rescinded my climb of Torreys due to an unclean conscience about claiming ridge traverses as ascents of peaks). After arriving in Georgetown at 1:00 a.m., it was raining pretty well, and we decided to get a motel. We found a surprisingly low rate in a Swiss-style cabin and opted not to camp. The next morning we awoke to snow falling outside and were unsure about our prospects for peak-bagging. Undaunted, we drove up to Stephens Gulch trailhead. Not being familiar with Colorado mountain weather, the snow in June was somewhat surprising. It ended up melting rather quickly, in any event. That's me on the right - returning from the day's climb.
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The trail was very smooth and had a comfortable grade. Following the switchbacks along, the trail soon became straight and even more level. We ended up near Kelso Ridge in a very short time, when the trail starts on a steeper incline to the North Slope of Grays Peak. On the left is a picture looking back down into the basin, with some of the remaining snow still visible). From here, the summit looked a long way up, and the trains of climbers looked similar to an ant farm. the trail narrowed and we slowly got closer to the switchbacks lining the Slope. Somewhat of a disappointment, there weren't any alpine lakes like we saw climbing Blanca Peak. The abundance of green vegetation contrasted with fresh snow somehow made up for it though.
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| The going got a little slow once we reached the switchbacks, and we encounted some more snowfields as we did on our last climb (Leah is on the right, taking a break on the way up the switchbacks). The eight miles round trip was quite a bit easier than I expected it to be, even though it was taking a long time. To date, I still haven't seen as integrated a trail up a Fourteener as on Grays Peak. Soon we were near the summit, with our fears about the weather behind us. Upon reaching the summit, it was quite cold and windy. There was a good rock shelter to sit in, which was nice, except that it was pretty crowded. After evaluating the weather during a short break on Grays' summit, we decided we were ready to take on Torreys.
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The choice of which trail to take Torreys was a little confusing. There must be at least ten different trails leading from Grays to the saddle, all creating a lot of erosion. On the right is a picture on Torreys Peak from the summit of Grays peak. The trail up Torreys from the saddle was eroded a lot as well. This was more difficult than the hike up Grays, but was relatively short. The trickiest part of the whole day was finding the right place to cut back down to rejoin the trail up Grays. After crossing a steep snowfield, we opted to climb about a third of the way back up Grays, not able to find a more reasonable return route. Overall, the day was quite enjoyable, and really reinforced my interest to climb Fourteeners.
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