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My first trip report on 14ers.com, hope you enjoy.
I had been keeping an eye on the trip reports coming in, so I knew there would be some snow up on Grays Peak.
I was excited about getting up on my first 14er for the year and trying to climb in the snow.
I brought all gear I thought I might need: waterproof boots, gaiters, yak traks, snowshoes, and trekking poles.
Liz and Josie at the trailhead
We left town at 4:30 am and were hiking at 7:00 am. The road up to the trailhead was clear and my 4wd truck had no issues
at all getting up to the parking area. The sky was clear and there was no wind as we started hiking. Pretty soon, we ran into
our first navigational issue. I had climbed Grays a couple of times in the summer and I remembered the trail heading straight where
today it was buried in snow with no tracks whatsoever. However, there were lots of tracks heading up to the right, so we decided
to follow the tracks up and hope they led back to the main trail. We ran into the scrub oak bushes pretty quick and decided to head back down to find the main trail. No such luck, so we climbed the same "trail" again and eventually found the main trail up Grays further up the valley. There was a lot of snow in the bushes, and lots of postholes to watch out for as we hiked.
Dee with Grays Peak in the background
Approaching
Once we hit the main trail again, the hiking became much easier. The snow seemed pretty fresh and soft. We did not encounter many icy spots under the snow and kept hiking. We were having a great time heading up in the snow. As we rounded a corner, Grays and Torreys both came into view. We could see the top of Grays and the switchbacks heading up. We could also see the clouds rolling in and out over the tops of the peaks, and some dark gray storm clouds in the distance. As we got closer to Grays, the clouds completely covered the top and starting moving down towards us. Josie decided to call it a day and headed back down the valley. Liz and I strapped on our yak traks and microspikes and continued to hike up towards Grays. With the visibility fallling, we missed the main trail up Grays and instead wound up hiking on the trail towards the Grays-Torreys saddle. I would guess there was 3-6 inches of freshly fallen snow on that section of trial. By the time we reached the saddle, visibility was horrible and it was snowing harder. We also heard what we thought was thunder in the distance. We knew there was a trail heading up Grays from the saddle, but there were no tracks at all. With the poor visibility and not knowing how deep the snow might be (of if there was a cornice we could fall off of), we decided to head back down.
The "view" across towards the saddle and Torreys
Of course, in typical 14er fashion, as we descended the cloud cover began to lift and the sun even came out.
The snow down below was melting and it became a slushy post-holing nightmare to get back to the truck.
The same thing happened with the trail - we were clearly on the main trail for quite some time, then it just disappeared and we followed
all the tracks back into the bushes. With every third or fourth step we fell into the snow. I had to dig out Liz at one point when she post-holed into the snow and got her leg stuck.
Liz heading down from the saddle
Even though we did not summit, it was a fun hike up in the snow. I'm looking forward to trying another one next weekend
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
Great trip report Dee!! Despite not getting to summit, it does indeed sound like you girls had a good day! I‘m heading up the Lost Rat in a couple weeks, so I‘m excited to see there‘s still lots of snow up there! (And I‘ll remember to bring snow shoes!)
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