Grays Peak

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 6/16/2021, By: mlunger12
Info: Went up Grays from Bakerville. Road to normal trailhead is in perfect condition. The Clear Creek Sheriff has posted No Parking signs all along Stevens Gulch Road. This could be a major issue once we hit weekend peak visitation, so I'd encourage getting up there early if you drive to the main trailhead. Trail from the trailhead is mostly in summer conditions. Some easily avoidable snow on the shoulder and two small snowfields higher up the face. Wonderful day. 

Route: Lost Rat Couloir
Posted On: 6/6/2021, By: Aphelion
Info: Couloir was still solid enough to climb. However, the freeze is weak and it warms up quickly, so top out early. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 6/4/2021, By: Hankceedar
Info: Windy at summit. Bulletproof skiing for the 1st 100 feet dropping off the summit. Money skiing after that down the south slopes route all the way into the basin. Mostly hiking only skinned about 300 vert up to the ridge. Postholing down low as early as 9 30 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 6/3/2021, By: bsargeant1
Info: Started from the trailhead around 7:30am. Hard-packed snow starting along the lower stretches of trail through the trees and the willows. Mostly dry before the turnoff for Kelso Ridge. After the Kelso turnoff it's snow all the way to the summit. Easy to follow "trench" heading up mountain. Most folks heading to Grays opted to traverse to the saddle below Torreys and then went up from there. We decided to head left at the summer junction and hike the ridge between Grays and Edwards. Used microspikes and trekking poles for the upper stretches of the ascent. Snow was softer coming down around 11:00am which made for nice plunge stepping. Minor postholing in the lower sections on the descent. 

Route: Grays and Torreys
Posted On: 6/3/2021, By: RabidTapir
Info: Took my sedan about a mile up the Stevens Gulch Road to Grays Trail Head, so had to walk an extra 2 miles. I think it would have been somewhat reasonable to have driven another mile and if I didn't care about my car at all it could have made almost to the trailhead. I personally would only suggest driving the mile up if you don't have 4WD though. I didn't use any gear, just had trail runners on. Trekking poles would have made me feel more safe at some points though. If you have microspikes or crampons I would also suggest using them. Overall good conditions and not too bad of a hike. 

Route: Lost Rat Couloir
Posted On: 5/15/2021, By: PeakSixTD
Info: Took lost rat today and traversed the ridge over to Mt. Edwards. I parked at the bottom of the highway due to the previous CR. Any medium clearance SUV can easily drive to a small parking area one mile up the road. Any further would be pretty risky. Snow conditions were the most varied I had ever seen. Bullet proof, wet slush, unconsolidated powder, it's all there. The lower part of the couloir was so slushy and unconsolidated that I considered down climbing and taking an adjacent gully up to Edwards. Fortunately I hit some great quality snow about half way up the couloir that totally changed the game. The rest of the way was absolutely bomber. Plenty of rockfall observed as well as roller balls. I was on the couloir by 730. Start early guys! 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 5/9/2021, By: mcgrawt9
Info: Fun ski conditions today. Clouds rolled in and kept it from getting too soft. DO NOT DRIVE to the end of the road. We tried to help dig out a Ford f150 but it was buried pretty good. Road can be skinned from 70 about...65-70% of the time. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 3/30/2021, By: tjagger
Info: I used snowshoes from I-70 to the summer trailhead, but they were not needed. From the summer trailhead I followed ski tracks to 12,400' from there I tried to follow old paths, but basically used snow shoes to the summit. I had one problem with snow shoes in that it was difficult to get to the ridge around 12,900' from 12,700'. From there I took a direct line to the CDT (old winter trail) to the summit. On the return at 13,000' I use snow shoes to go down into the valley below Torres and did a 1/4 mile traverse to the trail at about 12,600' rejoining my path down. Except for the strong winds in the valley the weather was fine. I did not use my snowshoes down the road to I-70. https://caltopo.com/m/SCQK 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 3/7/2021, By: shapovalovm
Info: Had to park near I-70 as the road is very slippery. The only vehicles that I say past the I-70 parking was a Wrangler and snowmobiles. A lot of spots where cars got stuck (me included). Wanted to take a drainage to avoid Kelso, but started postholing and returned to the trail. Took a detour at about 11700 instead. Postholed on that detour a couple dozen times, but on the way back it was better packed. The trail is almost completely covered with snow, sometimes not packed, maybe ankle deep. I did not use snowshoes, but I think they could be useful from the summer TH to maybe 13000 of Grays. Used spikes on the way down. Grays to Torreys traverse is solid, but coming down from Torreys I had to climb 200' above the saddle and traverse to Grays switchbacks as the saddle had cornices that I did not like. 

Route: Grays and Torreys
Posted On: 3/7/2021, By: supranihilest
Info: The road from I-70 is packed, and there's a trench all the way up Grays. As usual the trail directly to the Grays/Torreys saddle is full of sketchy snow, so it would be prudent to stay higher above it on the trails that traverse Grays' north slopes. There's a trench up and down the standard route on Torreys as well. Flotation currently is not needed, though there's probably some postholing in the willows in Stevens Gulch. Traction and an ice axe aren't necessary either, but may be useful depending on comfort on snow. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 3/4/2021, By: AndrewS
Info: A snowcat and snowmobiles have packed the snow on the road up to the summer trailhead. Drainage from the bridge to the sign was solid and probably walkable with only spikes; I was on skis. The only rough part was the ridge crossing (Photo 8 in route description). Did it in ski boots, but some kind of traction would make it easier. Used micro spikes from the ridge upward. 

Route: Grays and Torreys
Posted On: 2/1/2021, By: dwoodward13
Info: Route is in excellent condition. Booted up the road. Bathroom is open and well stocked with TP. Put on spikes here and used them the rest of the day. Didn't bring snowshoes and never would have wanted them. Route is very well packed down. The Kelso avy trap has previously slid directly over the summer route (and the route people were packing in today). There is a portion that had not slid, and still looked pretty loaded with the trail going directly across, so we bypassed that section lower down. Minor postholing here but not a big deal. Rest of the way up Grays and then over to Torreys was straightforward. I'd probably want an ax for the Torreys shortcut back to the main trail. Hard packed snow with a poor runout. Saw several people looking extremely uncomfortable with this (crawling on all fours, ect). We didn't use our axes, but in hindsight we should have taken the 30 sec to get them out. All in all, about as good of conditions as you are gonna get for these two right now! 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 1/30/2021, By: Unknown
Info: Dog needed a walk and I needed to try out a new camera phone. Used spikes/poles, would've wanted crampons & axe for torreys. Night hike after work once again. Kelso ridge is looking fun. Another guy got his truck stuck further than the bmw this time, just past the abandoned red building. 13.5mi 4,460' 6-6.5hr tt, i felt like shit today 

Route: Lost Rat Couloir
Posted On: 1/12/2021, By: Randy1983
Info: Tried for Lost Rat. I know, early season n all that. But yeah, wasn't in as to be expected. Took part of the north slopes up to the east ridge to scope it out before the clouds came in. Kinda bummed at the snow pack so far this year. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 1/3/2021, By: FredX
Info: Hit Grays today from the winter TH at the I-70 Bakerville exit. Carried snowshoes, but never put them on. The only significant postholing was a wide detour around the bottom of the Kelso avy path; otherwise, just microspikes worked fine. Quite cold, and absurdly windy -- it's a winter 14er! Snowfield between Grays & Torreys is not filled in yet, which offers a convenient avy-safe option to bag both peaks, if only today didn't have wind that body-slammed us regularly. :-)