3/3/2018 Route: North Slopes Posted On: 3/3/2018, By: markf Info: Road to summer trailhead is melting out fast where it goes through the inholdings. I used skis/skins to about 12,500, then carried the skis the rest of the way to the summit. I skied the bowl between Grays and Torrey's. Lots of windpack/crust, and I ended up walking a fair bit of the way down. Some good snow, but also lots of walking back to 12,500 ft., then I skied back to the road and down the road to I-70. |
|
1/27/2018 Route: North Slopes Posted On: 1/27/2018, By: jmanner Info: Good snow for touring from I-70 to about the sign just before the Kelso turn off. If you have ski-crampons, you can probably tour to the summit without taking your skis off. Skiing out safely requires hiking about a half mile down, from 13,600', to around 13,100' or so. Hiking wise, microspikes would be very nice. |
|
1/27/2018 Route: Grays and Torreys Posted On: 1/30/2018, By: gumby3bh Info: I started from the winter trailhead a little after 9. The parking lot was full, so I left my snowshoes in the car, thinking things would be packed down. Big mistake. The road was fine, and the main trail was tolerable without them (would have been easier with them though), but when I left it to bypass the Kelso avy danger, I was sinking up to my waist and seriously hating life. Once I regained the trail past Kelso, things were fine again. I wore microspikes all day and was glad I had them. The trail along the small ridge before the switchbacks up Grays had some side-sloping snow that wouldn't be hard to slip off of, especially on the descent when tired. Some people may prefer crampons here; I saw two people on this section wearing them. When descending Torreys, the bypass from the saddle had lots of snow and didn't feel safe. I took a few steps on it and then changed my mind. I ended up climbing partway up Grays before crossing on a less steep slope and meeting back up with the switchbacks. The safest route would definitely be to go all the way back up and over Grays. I only saw three other people all day, so I'm not sure what all the cars at the trailhead were for; maybe it was the people staying in the cabins along the road. Don't make the same mistake I did. :) TL;DR - I recommend snowshoes, microspikes, and axe. Be mindful of avy danger on Kelso and the Grays bypass. |
|
12/30/2017 Route: North Slopes Posted On: 1/1/2018, By: Bean Info: Road is snowed in but thin in spots. Hard packed snow or bare ground from 70 to the summit, floatation generally not necessary. Microspikes may be useful in spots but not generally necessary. Skiable off the summit. Snowpack did not inspire confidence stability-wise. |
|
12/23/2017 Route: North Slopes Posted On: 12/23/2017, By: chaim1221 Info: I got some good poles and boots and tried to make it there. I didn't expect to be able to summit but I thought I'd at least be able to hike. A monster blizzard came in and they closed off I-70 12 miles before I got there and started redirecting traffic westward. The trail is not reachable. |
|
12/17/2017 Route: Grays and Torreys Posted On: 12/17/2017, By: AnnaG22 Info: Road should be manageable for most 4WD cars to the old mining building a few miles up the road. The route is shockingly dry. No flotation needed, and traction not technically required (I used none today, despite bringing spikes) but probably helpful. Kelso poses absolutely no threat until the next major precipitation. You could skin/ski the road and find a couple sharky lines on Torreys, but that's about it. Would not recommend the latter. |
|
12/17/2017 Route: North Slopes Posted On: 12/18/2017, By: 14mikeo Info: I parked at I70. I wish I had taken my Civic up to the first major turn off/parking. Poles were all I needed. Traction spike might have been useful in one or two spots, but that's it. Basically hard packed snow all the way to Grays. Didn't do Torreys as a passing hiker (who appeared to know what he was doing) said he didn't feel comfortable past the saddle and turned back. Don't need to tell me twice. So about 6.5 hours round trip. Terrific conditions for this time of year to do regular cold weather hiking. |
|
12/14/2017 Route: Grays and Torreys Posted On: 12/15/2017, By: Super Dave Info: Was able to drive in about 2 miles from I70 in high clearance 4WD. Parked near the old shed just below 11k, a mile from the summer trailhead. The drive was a little hairy at times, so in hindsight not sure if it was too smart driving in that far. About 2-3 inches of new snow the night before, but I was still able to stay on the trail most of the time. Very windy, so big drifts in places. I didn't use floatation or traction, but traction would have been good in a few places above 13k. Round trip was 8 hours for both peaks. GPS said 10 miles and 4k gain. |
|
12/10/2017 Route: Grays and Torreys Posted On: 12/10/2017, By: dwoodward13 Info: Parked at the I-70 lot. Took about an hour to hike up to the 4wd TH. Beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky and almost no wind. The trail to the summit of Grays is 95% well packed/traveled. A few spots of 5-8" unpacked snow, but nothing to be concerned about. I put on spikes around 12,500' and kept them on until back at the TH. Snowshoes are not needed. Traverse to Torreys was straight forward. Be aware that some cornices have formed near the saddle, so don't stray too far in that direction should one happen to break off. Not as well of a defined boot pack on the traverse, but there should be several sets of prints now since the last storm. 5-8" of snow in spots from saddle up to Torreys summit. Get out there and get it! Only saw 3 people all day! |
|
12/3/2017 Route: Grays and Torreys Posted On: 12/3/2017, By: johnabowes Info: The road to the summer trailhead is totally manageable in a high clearance 4WD with chains. I made it up in a Jeep Wrangler with 35's and chains. I departed from the summer trailhead at about 0330, summitted Grays at 0645 and Torreys by 0800, and I made it back to the summer trailhead by 1030. I could have done it faster, but we had a first timer in our party. The snow was well packed and very icy, but my YakTrak Diamonds were sufficient. I brought snow shoes but never needed them because the snow was so hard from refreeze. The snow on the western face of Grays and any ridges was rather slick, so I'd recommend trekking poles or an ice axe, as mine came in handy. The entire south face of Torreys is almost snow free, so it was an easy summit from the saddle. All around great climb, hopefully the conditions persist through this little snow storm tonight. |
|
12/2/2017 Route: Grays and Torreys Posted On: 12/2/2017, By: cdonnelly0626 Info: Given the time of year, the whole route is still in pretty awesomely hikable condition and basically felt like a summer hike (with spikes and poles and a bit more chill in the air) because the whole trail was packed down, right to the top of Gray's. Snow on the saddle between Gray's and Torreys and around the rocks heading up Torreys but totally manageable. It was windy today at the top and along the saddle as I assume it always is, but not absurd. I think tomorrow will be windier and then true winter will return next week, so take my report with a grain of salt. I did not see anybody try to drive up past the winter closure, so there's definitely some extra mileage to plan for |
|
12/2/2017 Route: North Slopes Posted On: 12/4/2017, By: andrewpbrett Info: We got to the winter trailhead around 4am and made a very short-lived and adrenaline-inducing attempt at driving up the road to the summer trailhead - not recommended unless you've got some serious chains or studs! The road was slick and even walking on it was pretty treacherous, so we put microspikes on right away. The trail was easy to follow the whole way up, well packed with snow and even bare in patches. We had microspikes but no snowshoes or poles, which was fine. The wind was pretty fierce after you got above treeline. We stayed on the main route that goes right under Kelso - there wasn't enough snow to look like there was any avalanche danger but that might change soon. We got to the top of Grays around 8:30 or 9 and decided to save Torreys for another day and head back the same way on the East slope of Grays. Encountered a few other hikers on the way down who had camped out and one who was pulling a tent on a sled. |
|
11/26/2017 Route: North Slopes Posted On: 11/26/2017, By: rgarriott Info: The trail was covered with around 6 inches of snow, but it's packed down. Microspikes were needed on the last mile to the summit. Most people parked at the winter trailhead because the 4WD road is very slick. A couple of cars did make it about half way up the 4WD road. I left the winter trailhead at 2:30a and summited at 6:15a. |
|
11/18/2017 Route: North Slopes Posted On: 11/20/2017, By: Buddyboy27 Info: Road from Winter Trailhead to Summer Trailhead covered in 6-8 inches of snow from last Fridays storm. I was able to skin from Winter Trailhead to the switchback traverses on Grays where snow was hard/icy from recent wind events. Multiple gullies on grays and the saddle are ski-able without sharks. Cold and Windy up top... |
|
11/5/2017 Route: Grays and Torreys Posted On: 11/5/2017, By: johnabowes Info: Bottom line up front: Don't go to the summer trail head, the road is not in good condition. I went up to the summer trailhead at about 1930 on 4 Nov, made it up in a high clearance 4WD vehicle with snow tires, and only used 4WD low once. I woke up at about 2200 to heavy snowfall and decided to bail out on the climb. I'm lucky that I made that decision because I barely made it down the road, slipping into the ditch on the side of the road multiple times even in 4WD low. I managed to crawl my way out after about an hour. I definitely DO NOT recommend driving up to the summer trailhead unless you have one hell of a snow machine. As for the conditions of the trail, I explored for about 30 minutes before departing and it seems to be in decent condition. However, I would recommend microspikes at the very least. |
