Grays Peak

Route: Grays and Torreys
Posted On: 3/17/2020, By: angry
Info: Booted from road to summit. Did not use traction or flotation. Snow was supportive and if I did punch through it was never more than 6 inches. Side note, know the route. Looks like people have been blindly following a skin track to the bottom of dead dog. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 3/1/2020, By: Ryan1979
Info: Parked at the road near I70 and started hiking from there at 4:45am. The 3 miles of the road to the summer TH are well packed and we made good time. At the bridge I put on snowshoes and wore them until the Kelso Ridge turn off. From there, micro spikes were fine to the summit. On the descent, I was too lazy to put my snowshoes back on and post holed many many times from Kelso Ridge turn off back to the bridge. I would recommend flotation for this part of the hike. Overall conditions were better than expected! 

Route: â€œCupid”/Grizzly/Torreys/Grays from Loveland Pass
Posted On: 2/29/2020, By: HikesInGeologicTime
Info: We did a shuttle route by ascending from Loveland Pass and descending by the standard (N. Slopes) route. Wind was worst at Pt. 12,915 at sunrise, when it made a solid effort at pushing me over; while it was on and off until we started down from Grays, relatively warm temps and blue skies made for overall ideal conditions in which to pick up four snowflakes in one day. We did fine with microspikes until we swung east from the summer trail to avoid Kelso's potential avy danger zone (which didn't seem likely to slide when we were examining it, but better safe than sorry), then postholed halfway through the willow field before giving up and putting on snowshoes. We could've swapped back once we reached the summer trailhead as the road was packed down with snowmobile tracks, but we'd been hiking for ~12 hours at that point and were really excited about getting back to the car parked at Bakerville, because that would mean being that much closer to buying a gallon of ice cream and eating it for dinner (okay, maybe that was just me). 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 2/21/2020, By: RWSchaffer
Info: All vehicles park at the interstate exit. Good trench leads to the summer trailhead; no traction or floatation required to here, though many people have skied it recently. The summer trailhead is a good place to put on floatation if not already on skis. Trench from here is routed well below the summer trail, hopefully safe from avalanches off of Kelso Mountain. Unfortunately, trench is also shallow because it crosses fairly supportive wind slab, so it is easily obliterated by blowing snow. Once on Grays northeast ridge, I swapped snowshoes for spikes which I kept on until I needed snowshoes again on the descent. Traction was useful on areas of older windslab which is sometimes very sun polished. The entire traverse from Grays to Torreys can be done on the path. Photo 1 shows the Grays side from Torreys and Photo 2 shows the Torreys side from Grays. Torreys has some major cornices (Photo 3); don't get too close to the edge. Fresh snow has not adhered particularly well to older slab where it is sun polished. Recent breezes have transported several inches of snow onto the snowfield below the Grays-Torreys saddle. In retrospect, my decision to traverse that snowfield on the descent from Torreys, roughly following Torreys south slopes route, may have involved significant avalanche danger. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 12/28/2019, By: ulvetano
Info: Put in a trench to 13,500 today, but called it quits with the sun setting. Reminder to hike the winter route and not the standard summer route below Kelso. The summer path is way too well worn! Everything up there is skiing very thin. Lots of sharks. 

Route: Grays and Torreys
Posted On: 11/19/2019, By: Unknown
Info: Snow from lower TH to summit, some dry trail in between. I just left traction on the whole way, poles helped in the 20+mph winds. Don't know how things will be after some more snow. 14.3mi 4,856' gain 7 hours 

Route: Grays and Torreys
Posted On: 11/16/2019, By: NShelson
Info: Attempted to drive up the Baskerville rd to Stevens Gulch last night. Conditions after .5 miles were steep and slick at 10pm. I turned around and parked at the interstate. At 5:30 I hiked up the 3 miles and found conditions on the road to better the higher I went. An F150 with all seasons made it to the TH, and a Suburu Outback made it to Grizzly Gulch fork. I hiked into the Stevens Gulch to the Kelso's Ridge fork at 12,000 and evaluated conditions on Grays, Torreys standard, and Kelso's. Conditions on the North slopes of Grays are mostly dry, wind blown. The ridge leading up to Torrey's summit from the col has some snow. Kelso's Ridge route is mostly dry for the first half, and above 13,000 there seems to be some snow. At 14,000, before the knife edge, the slopes commonly used to traverse (class 2) and the headwall leading to the knife edge (class 3) have significant snow. I originally planned to hike Kelso's Ridge solo today, but the gales were to strong for personal comfort. There was a half dozen or so hikers planning to climb Grays and Torreys. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 10/22/2019, By: mwright
Info: Most of G1 trail is covered in snow. Sometimes up to 12" deep! Doable, but uncomfortable in hiking boots. Haven't used snow shoes before but I imagine they would be helpful. Exposed ridge had very strong winds (30-40mph) and we decided to turn back due to worries about visibility. 

Route: Grays and Torreys
Posted On: 10/14/2019, By: jayclare
Info: Approach trail is mostly clean, some packed and wet snow from last week's storm. Starting the ascent, there was some slippery snow on the ridges. Would definitely recommend microspikes. Significant wind (~40mph) on the exposed ridges, the saddle and the scramble up to Torreys especially. Also, some knee deep snow drifts on the scramble to Torreys. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 9/22/2019, By: cvelado
Info: Left at 6:15. Strong winds on approach, ridges, and summits. Cold as well. Was told by another hiker that temp on summit was 17 degrees around 8am. Water froze on hike up. Skies were clear but winds and cold left time on the summit to minimum. Several hikers turned around or didn't go for both peaks. Forecast looks comparable on the coming days. 

Route: Grays and Torreys
Posted On: 9/21/2019, By: RickyDavis
Info: Had a 6am start from about .5 miles down the road from the trailhead. Lot's of hikers on the road and trail when we started. No issues heading up Grays, but the saddle between Grays and Torreys as well as the whole ascent up Torreys we were blasted by heavy winds. Spent no more than 30 seconds on the summit of Torreys to get out of the wind as soon as possible. 

Route: Grays and Torreys
Posted On: 9/18/2019, By: moontower
Info: No snow or ice encountered anywhere on the trail. Windy in some spots but not unbearable. Beautiful day with light clouds. Arrived at 5:45am to a mostly empty lot. Hit the trail at 6:00, back to car at 11:10 to find there were still a couple parking spots left. Road up is very rough. Saw a beat up toyota minivan in the parking lot but I was very thankful to have a high clearance 4wd vehicle. 

Route: Grays and Torreys
Posted On: 9/10/2019, By: anino
Info: Cold (with some ice around the summit) and very windy. 

Route: Grays and Torreys
Posted On: 9/8/2019, By: 123tqb
Info: Slightly wet and slippery towards the top of Gray's Peak, but perfectly dry and solid other than that. 

Route: South Ridge from Ruby Mountain
Posted On: 8/27/2019, By: supranihilest
Info: Grays' south ridge is incredibly loose, but the scrambling at Class 3 or 3+ is fairly easy. A fall would be very bad, though. The route takes a series of loose gullies and ledges and rarely, if ever, is on the ridge crest.