Elks and Beyond -- Jordan White's Traveling, Skiing and Outdoor Adventures

Traveling, Ski Mountaineering and Climbing in Colorado and…

Grays and Torreys

Well i would love to show you all a whole bunch of pictures from today, but as luck would have it I lost my Camera on the ski down from grays.

I drove up to the Stevens Gulch Trailhead last night and slept in my car for a few hours and finally got up around 5:15 am. After getting ready, and eating some food i was skinning up the steven gulch road by about 5:45 am. I made good time up the road, and after reaching the trailhead i took the winter shortcut which goes diagonally up towards kelso mountain and saves some switchbacks. I skinned up towards Torreys hoping to get a look at the Dead Dog Couloir.

I didn‘t really get an early enough start up the couloir, but mother nature was nice to me and had some clouds blocking the rising sun, which kept the snow from getting to soft to early. The climber‘s right side of the couloir was mostly solid spring like snow, and i chose to climb up this side to avoid post-holing and to stay under cliffs where i could avoid anything coming down the chute. After a couple hours of climbing i finally reached the saddle, and moments later the summit. Awesome…looks like i‘ll be able to ski off the summit to the couloir and down. After having someone else who was on the summit snap a couple “skiing off the top pics” (which i obviously don‘t have now) i was off, I had to do a little bit of “billy-goating” through the rocks below the summit, but i got to the drop in point for the couloir fairly quickly.

I started by doing a couple of ski cuts all the way across the couloir, and nothing more than my sluff seemed to want to give, so i was ready to go. I took it slow, skiing from safe zone to safe zone. The skier‘s right side of the couloir was windblown powder that made for absolutely amazing turns. As i reached the bottom i retrieved my hat that had fallen during the climb and then straightlined it out of the mouth of the couloir towards the trail going up Grays, with my speed carrying me to about 12,500.

At this point, i was pretty beat already, but i couldnt get away from the idea of knocking off another winter summit, as well as a possible ski descent, so i slapped the skins back on and started up the trail towards grays for another 1,800 feet of climbing, and a possible ski descent.

This is a popular route during all times of the year, and so this trail was very packed, so packed in fact that a large majority was the bullet-proof, ice-like snow that makes you feel like you are going to fall on your ass any moment. Well this snow isnt great for skinning either, so around the 12,800 mark i strapped the skis to my pack and began walking up the trail (great fun in AT boots). As tired as i was it took me almost 2 hours to top out on grays, but i made it nonetheless. The summit had snow on it so i was able to ski off the summit, and down the ridge a ways where i had to do some sidestepping on skis from snow patch to snow patch. At one point i took off my skis and walked about 20-25 ft down to a snowfield. From here i skied all the way into the valley below. After hopping up and over the small ridge that divides the valley, i skied all the way back to my car parked at Bakerville on I-70.

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