Torreys Peak

Route: Kelso Ridge
Posted On: 6/8/2025, By: Bpip18
Info: At about 13,000 feet and above, most of the ridge is still snow covered and requires several steep snow crossings, kicking steps, using ice axe. There is a huge cornice on the left side of the ridge, so be careful when traversing the ridge you are not too far over. Start early. Terrible post holing on the way down and snow was starting to soften and become dangerous just before summiting at 10 to 1030am. Will probably still need atleast two weeks with no new snow for summer conditions The knife edge is dry and has snow on either side, actually reducing exposure. You can get within .1 mile of the summer trailhead. Starting hiking at 5am, back to car at 1pm. 

Route: Dead Dog Couloir
Posted On: 5/22/2025, By: philippseitz2
Info: Started at around 830 AM. Parked at the Stevens Gulch cutoff. Walked a little less than a mile on the road before transitioning to skins, and then skinned all the way to the top of Torreys. Dropped Dead dog at around 12:30 or so. Snow was stable but really heavy due to it softening from the sun and then cooling again with clouds moving in, wish I would have woken up 2 hours earlier. Was able to ski back to where we had transitioned earlier in the day 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 5/17/2025, By: notidealbutfine
Info: Started at Loveland Pass at 4am. First to the TH, first on the summit. Brought snowshoes, but only used them on my way back while climbing back up Grizzly Peak. Otherwise, I stuck with micro spikes and mountaineering boots all day. Horribly cold and whipping winds made for a pretty unpleasant day. 9.89 miles / 5,725' gain / 7 hours, 42 minutes 

Route: Emperor Couloir
Posted On: 5/9/2025, By: skiandbike
Info: Busy day on Torreys. Good overnight freeze. Some dirt sections to navigate by the road junction. First two water crossings were melted out by the afternoon, not sure if the new snow will have those skiable again for the weekend. Booted up the main line and then took the left branch at the grey rock band to the top. Thin at the choke. Skiable from the summit and dropped in to the skiers left line to get to what looked like better snow. Lower section was forming some bumps from all the riders. Debated between this and Skywalker for May the 4th. Glad we got out to this one. 

Route: NW Face/Tuning Fork
Posted On: 5/2/2025, By: kendricb
Info: Drivable to Grizzly Gulch junction with care. South slopes route has intermittent snow drifts on the road after that until roughly the second avalanche path on Kelso at 10,800' so after the new snow melts, expect some skis on/off. Beyond that, it was continuous snow for skinning, but the whole Stevens Gulch snowpack feels shallower than what I remember from prior years. Skinning to the summit of Torreys would be easier going wide left towards the west ridge to avoid the thin, rocky south aspect of the summer route. Tuning Fork skied great in the new snow and was connected from the ridge into the skiers right branch through tight, rocky areas. There were loose dry point release across the east faces and a wind slab that entrained loose dry on skiers right branch. Grizzly Gulch is melting out with several bare patches that could be stepped over today. The creek crossing were covered but some are thin. 

Route: Emperor Couloir
Posted On: 4/23/2025, By: Danger_D
Info: Pretty variable conditions. We skinned up the summer trail and the road is 98% skiable, but patches are melting out. It will be a bit until you can safely drive it. Ski crampons helpful in spots, but not strictly necessary for skis (split boarders should probably have some). Lost Rat looked pretty damn thin (see pics). Dead dog apparently skied pretty good from a party we chatted with. Ridge from saddle to Torrey’s is doable on skins but sharky. Emperor is skiable from the summit, but it’s pretty thin. The skiers right branch looked good, but the choke at the bottom isn’t huge. We went on the skiers left branch and there are some windslabs at the very top that were a little spooky, but we didn’t see anything react. Snow in general wasn’t great with patches of powder mixed with breakable crust and occasional hard slab. Very tiring conditions to ski, but hopefully baking for a few more days will cause everything to corn out. There is a nice sled track on the road to ski back. All 3 creek crossings were covered, but the lower two are melting very fast 

Route: NW Face/Tuning Fork
Posted On: 4/18/2025, By: andlours
Info: Felt very wintery in the climbers right side of the couloir. Lots of sugar snow and wind crust. Snow ends about 200’ before the ridge line. Maybe this storm will fill it in? If you climbed the emporer yesterday, let me know. I have a few cool photos of your party. 

Route: Emperor Couloir
Posted On: 3/31/2025, By: aksean22
Info: Good conditions skiing the Emperor yesterday. Parked at the I70 turnoff - no cars are driving up the 4WD road anytime soon - and followed snowmachine tracks all the way to the base of the line. Most of the couloir is holding 6-12" of fresh snow on top of a hardpacked layer that made for easy booting. We used ascent plates for the first 1200' or so, not mandatory but helpful. Some deep wind drifting near to top of the couloir to be careful of. Hit a few rocks on the summit ridge but kept the skis on from summit-car. Tuning Fork, Dead Dog, and the face of Grays all looked very filled in. Get it while it's good! 

Route: Kelso Ridge
Posted On: 2/27/2025, By: mackgriffin
Info: Snowshoes pretty much necessary past summer trailhead. There is a TON of snow on approach and the ridge itself. Ditched snowshoes at the cairns before breaking right to the Kelso saddle. I made it to around 12,700 before deciding to turn back. The large amounts of loose snow in the technical and exposed parts made it really sketchy. Down climbing the ridge is not fun. 

Route: Chihuahua Gulch
Posted On: 2/10/2025, By: GreatGlissader
Info: This is a great winter route for Torreys. After doing the route I found it in the Roach 14ers book with this name. Took the direct ridge from the gulch. Lots of trail breaking and willows from the Peru Creek road to the ridge. Wore snowshoes on the snowy side of the ridge to about 12,800ft which was great, then mostly rocks to the summit. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 1/17/2025, By: Veory
Info: Cold day! Section returning to Grizzly from the saddle was the only part I wish I had flotation. Unfortunately the mini couloir on the west side of Torreys is too soft to really glissade. The remainder of the route was mostly straightforward, but the return seemed to go on for a long time. Bailed on adding Grays because some clouds came in really quick around 1000 when forecast had a storm coming in at 2, we were worried it came in early, snagged Torreys and turned around. By the time we were back on grizzly it was blue skies again but isn't that just the way. 

Route: Kelso Ridge
Posted On: 11/3/2024, By: MattMenchaca
Info: Getting to Kelso from the standard class 1 route isn't bad. Once on kelso however, the snow was pretty crazy in some spots. There was also ice on some of the more technical parts of the route. On the upper parts of kelso and the final approach on torreys there was between 6-2ft of snow. Crampons definitely needed once on the ridge, even if they make the scramble more difficult. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 11/3/2024, By: jjjullesss
Info: Departure from Loveland Pass under a blue sky. It's a nice hike, not very technical, but with a strong freezing wind and blown snow up to 3 feet deep in places. But most of the time, we're on grass, dry rocks or snow up to 5 inches deep. The snow is very cold, and we don't encounter any ice. Microspikes can bring comfort but are not mandatory (I didn't use mine). It's worth noting that the snow started to melt below 13,000ft in the afternoon, so we'll probably find ice in the next few days. The route is well marked up to Grizzly Peak. Also between Torreys and Grays, where it's a bit like a highway. Between Grizzly and Torreys, there are only 1 or 2 footprints, but the route is obvious. Data: 6h30 - 12.5 miles - 8,200ft ascent https://www.strava.com/activities/12808558561 

Route: Kelso Ridge
Posted On: 10/22/2024, By: daway8
Info: Did Grays and Torreys via Kelso Ridge. Averaged about 2 inches of snow from trailhead to summits though many stretches of bare ground and occasional low spots with a foot or two drifted into them. Every once in a while found a knee deep pocket on the ridge. No avy danger yet from Kelso Mountain, or really much of anywhere so far. Saw some old tracks in places on Kelso Ridge but none on the scramble portions or the knife edge so I got the pleasure of breaking those in, which made it much more interesting. Booted the first half up then finally put on microspikes. Had an ice axe on the pack as a precaution but never pulled it off the pack. No need for snowshoes yet and crampons wouldn't really be worth much - snow was powdery even before the sun hit. Overall, fantastic warm-up for the upcoming winter! 

Route: Kelso Ridge
Posted On: 10/15/2024, By: Lucky Day
Info: Road to parking lot has a few ruts as usual, but still saw 2wd cars at the TH. Kelso ridge in good shape, and dry. It was really windy! Saw some goats lower on Grays.