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Grays - Torreys (12/31/1999)
Dan and I took off from the Springs around 5 o'clock and got
to the Bakersville exit just before 7am. We tried to drive up the
road to the trailhead, but couldn't make any progress due to my
tempermental 4 wheel drive. While backing down the road to park,
a 4Runner passed and asked if we wanted a ride to the trailhead.
Yeehaa! Of course, we accepted, saving ourselves a 3 mile uphill
hike to the trailhead.
Our two saviors were actually planning to ascend Grays and sleep on
top for New Years. Sounded pretty cool. We definitely didn't
envy their full packs, though. We said our goodbyes and good lucks
and set off up the trail at 7:30. Our plan was to check out the class
3 ridge route on Torrey's and our wimp out route was the standard class
2 ascent of Torreys, traverse to Grays, and then back down the main trail.
After about 1 hour of fighting blowing snow and wind, we decided to go
with the easier route.
The snow conditions were great, with good hard pack and relatively easy
walking conditions. We passed through the run out zone of a smallish
slab avalanche and wound our way up to the steep zone. While stopping
to rest, I looked up and saw a huge white mountain goat. It was awesome!
We started walking and another mountain goat appeared on the hill top.
Very cool, probably the high point of the trip for me. Just after
spying the goats, we decided that the icy trail warranted crampons and
axes (probably around 12,500 feet).
The walk up the main trail was fairly straightforward and we soon were
at the snowfield between the two mountains. The snow climbing was
great and going over the crest at the very top was excellent. As
soon as we stepped onto the ridge and began traversing towards Torreys,
we felt the full force of the wind. It was brutal, making the ascent
to the peak a real effort. We inched our way to the summit while
avoiding the big cornices on the right. Once on top we had an absolutely
excellent view of the Rockies. We got to the summit in just over
3 hours.
We quickly turned around and headed down the ridge, hoping to gain some
respite from the wind. No luck, the traverse from Torreys to Grays
turned out to have the worst wind yet. I was blown over three times
by wind gusts and thought that I might have to self arrest on flat ground!
On the way up to the summit of Grays we spied our fellow hikers inching
upwards. Their packs were probably taking a major effort at 13000
feet. We summitted Grays in just under 4 hours and took about a 10
minute siesta on top. We hunkered down behind the windbreak, sucked
down some water and soaked in some rays.
Our descent was fairly uneventful. The wind died down to something
reasonable and we did the endless plod to the trailhead. We went
through the zombie phase where you don't want to speak or be spoken to,
but by the time we got down to 12000 feet we were feeling much better.
I had forgotten my sunglasses, so I was walking with my eyes closed for
5 steps, blinking them open to see where I was and then continuing ad nauseum.
It actually seemed to work and my
eyes were fine the next day.
When we arrived at the trailhead 5 hours and 22 minutes later we were
dissappointed to find noone to schmooze a ride from. After rehydrating
we resigned ourselves to the 3 mile death march. Towards the end we thought
every corner had to be the last corner and were wrong for only about 10
corners. We finally got to the truck and, although we were thoroughly
spent, concluded that we had had a great day. |