Torreys Peak Trip Report 09/11/2007

Report Type	Full
Peak(s)	Torreys Peak - 14,272 feet
Date Posted	09/11/2007
Date Climbed	09/08/2007
Author	CarolinaGirl

Torreys Peak- Kelso Ridge
Torreys Peak- Kelso Ridge (class 3 route) summit elevation: 14,267 ft elevation gain: 3,100 ft round-trip length: 6.50 miles begin time: 6:00 am summit time (for me, everyone else was earlier): 11:30 am (?) descent time: 12:00 pm (?) end time: 2:30 pm climbers: Amanda (breezytrees), Aaron (smitty), Chris (cheesehead), Cynthia (carolinagirl), Jeff (JB), Jeff (fiddlinclimber) Let me preface this trip report with a little note on my frustrations with AMS. I figured that since this was my 3rd 14er, I wouldn't be getting sick. On my 1st 14er, I got pretty sick- dizziness, nauseousness, even wanting to black out, etc... then on my 2nd 14er this was all reduced to some slight dizziness. I was feeling quite optimistic about my 3rd. Well, the day started with what I expected- being winded and having some light-headedness.. then, about halfway up the ridge, I began getting pretty dizzy, which is where I slowed down a lot. Although this slowed me down, it wasn't too bad until I was about 20 feet from the summit (after the knife-edge and rock tower, thank goodness). Here, so close to the summit, I suddenly got hit with the worst out of any of my 14er trips yet- everything got fuzzy and I had a hard time seeing and the dizziness had increased a lot! Fortunately, Jeff, Jeff, and Chris were on the summit and watching me, and when they saw what a bad time I was having they came down and helped me the rest of the way up. Thanks so much guys! It must have been pretty bad, because I remember trying to talk to them at the time, and I was slurring my words pretty badly- someone jokingly asked if I was drunk. Fortunately, after I got onto the summit, I was able to wait it out and after about 20 minutes, felt good enough to begin the descent.. and as we descended, the dizziness and everything else faded away into a headache. No more class 3's for me until next summer I suppose.. not sure why my body seems to be taking longer than others to get used to the altitude, but I can't wait until it doesn't bother me anymore.. I guess I'm just super frustrated that my 3rd time up wasn't even better than my 2nd.. Goes to show there's a lot of factors that play into something like AMS. Anyways, a quick apology to my fellow climbers for slowing down the day, and a huge thank you for your help in getting me up there safely! Ok, sorry for the spiel, and now for the trip report: The hike in was quick and easy, and before you know it, you are breaking away from the standard trail and starting up the Kelso Ridge! The first part was a mixture of some easy class 3 moves and some hiking up short, steep trails that were filled with loose dirt and rock. Here is looking back down some of what we had just done. Jeff and Aaron on their way up Kelso Ridge: I would agree with other reports in saying that this can be as hard or as easy as you want to make it. We pretty much followed the crest of the ridge the whole way up to the summit, but there are sections where you can pick out a slightly easier or more difficult route for yourself. The higher up you go, the more exposed you are. The nice thing about this climb is that everytime you look up, you can actually tell that you are getting closer and closer to the summit! Towards the top, the moves got more challenging for me, but I really enjoyed it. In my personal opinion, this route definately consists of a few 'heart-pounding' spots, but nothing too bad. A perfect way to test out your fear of exposure without getting too in over your head. The infamous knife-edge was a good/quick adrenaline-rush for me. I think most of us did the 'butt-scoot' move.. just put one leg on each side and scoot forward! I didn't get many great pics on the knife-edge, but Chris did, so here is a link to some of his pics.. (they're good!) http://web.mac.com/abbiegroves/iWeb/Climbing/Kelso%20Ridge.html Here I am, negotiating the rock tower that comes directly after the knife-edge.. after this, there's just one last hike up a steep section covered in loose rock, and you're on the summit! A beautiful view from the summit: summit shot of Jeff, me, Jeff, and Chris Aaron and Amanda went on to summit Grays Peak, and agreed to meet us on the descent at the trail junction (if you look closely, you can see where the two descent trails join back together). Jeff, Jeff, and Chris waited for me to finish summiting Torreys since they had all already summited Grays before. Here is a shot of Grays from the summit of Torreys: Here is a view back down towards Stevens Gulch, where we were quickly headed to. Here is a shot from the trail of Torreys Peak with most of Kelso's Ridge to the right of the summit... Here is a close-up of Torreys Peak (the summit being slightly to the left of the center of the photo)- if you look directly to the right of the summit, you will see the steep slope (where i got really sick) and then at the bottom of that slope, you will see the rock tower and a small area of whitish rock to the right of that- this is the knife-edge. Directly underneath the knife-edge you can see the very prominent Dead Dog Couloir. All in all, this was a great day. The weather was beautiful all day, and the company was really great. It was great spending the day with all of you! And again, I must mention that unless you already know that you don't get altitude sickness, then save this route for a later time. However, if that's not a problem for you, this is a fantastic, fun route.. a great way to test out your class 3 skills and conquer any fear of heights you may have (the exposure really isn't as bad as I was expecting.. there were only a couple of really short parts where I felt pretty exposed). I personally thought the knife-edge was much easier and less nerve-wracking than those short/steep slopes that were filled with loose rock and dirt (those sections are my nemesis!)! Again, it was great meeting all of you! Kelso Ridge was fantastic!(url) Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Torreys Peak- Kelso Ridge

Torreys Peak- Kelso Ridge (class 3 route)
summit elevation: 14,267 ft
elevation gain: 3,100 ft
round-trip length: 6.50 miles
begin time: 6:00 am
summit time (for me, everyone else was earlier): 11:30 am (?)
descent time: 12:00 pm (?)
end time: 2:30 pm
climbers: Amanda (breezytrees), Aaron (smitty), Chris (cheesehead), Cynthia (carolinagirl), Jeff (JB), Jeff (fiddlinclimber)

Let me preface this trip report with a little note on my frustrations with AMS. I figured that since this was my 3rd 14er, I wouldn't be getting sick. On my 1st 14er, I got pretty sick- dizziness, nauseousness, even wanting to black out, etc... then on my 2nd 14er this was all reduced to some slight dizziness. I was feeling quite optimistic about my 3rd. Well, the day started with what I expected- being winded and having some light-headedness.. then, about halfway up the ridge, I began getting pretty dizzy, which is where I slowed down a lot. Although this slowed me down, it wasn't too bad until I was about 20 feet from the summit (after the knife-edge and rock tower, thank goodness). Here, so close to the summit, I suddenly got hit with the worst out of any of my 14er trips yet- everything got fuzzy and I had a hard time seeing and the dizziness had increased a lot! Fortunately, Jeff, Jeff, and Chris were on the summit and watching me, and when they saw what a bad time I was having they came down and helped me the rest of the way up. Thanks so much guys! It must have been pretty bad, because I remember trying to talk to them at the time, and I was slurring my words pretty badly- someone jokingly asked if I was drunk. Fortunately, after I got onto the summit, I was able to wait it out and after about 20 minutes, felt good enough to begin the descent.. and as we descended, the dizziness and everything else faded away into a headache. No more class 3's for me until next summer I suppose.. not sure why my body seems to be taking longer than others to get used to the altitude, but I can't wait until it doesn't bother me anymore.. I guess I'm just super frustrated that my 3rd time up wasn't even better than my 2nd.. Goes to show there's a lot of factors that play into something like AMS. Anyways, a quick apology to my fellow climbers for slowing down the day, and a huge thank you for your help in getting me up there safely!

Ok, sorry for the spiel, and now for the trip report:

The hike in was quick and easy, and before you know it, you are breaking away from the standard trail and starting up the Kelso Ridge!

The first part was a mixture of some easy class 3 moves and some hiking up short, steep trails that were filled with loose dirt and rock.

Here is looking back down some of what we had just done.

Jeff and Aaron on their way up Kelso Ridge:

I would agree with other reports in saying that this can be as hard or as easy as you want to make it. We pretty much followed the crest of the ridge the whole way up to the summit, but there are sections where you can pick out a slightly easier or more difficult route for yourself. The higher up you go, the more exposed you are. The nice thing about this climb is that everytime you look up, you can actually tell that you are getting closer and closer to the summit!

Towards the top, the moves got more challenging for me, but I really enjoyed it. In my personal opinion, this route definately consists of a few 'heart-pounding' spots, but nothing too bad. A perfect way to test out your fear of exposure without getting too in over your head. The infamous knife-edge was a good/quick adrenaline-rush for me. I think most of us did the 'butt-scoot' move.. just put one leg on each side and scoot forward!

I didn't get many great pics on the knife-edge, but Chris did, so here is a link to some of his pics.. (they're good!)

http://web.mac.com/abbiegroves/iWeb/Climbing/Kelso%20Ridge.html

Here I am, negotiating the rock tower that comes directly after the knife-edge.. after this, there's just one last hike up a steep section covered in loose rock, and you're on the summit!

A beautiful view from the summit:

summit shot of Jeff, me, Jeff, and Chris

Aaron and Amanda went on to summit Grays Peak, and agreed to meet us on the descent at the trail junction (if you look closely, you can see where the two descent trails join back together). Jeff, Jeff, and Chris waited for me to finish summiting Torreys since they had all already summited Grays before. Here is a shot of Grays from the summit of Torreys:

Here is a view back down towards Stevens Gulch, where we were quickly headed to.

Here is a shot from the trail of Torreys Peak with most of Kelso's Ridge to the right of the summit...

Here is a close-up of Torreys Peak (the summit being slightly to the left of the center of the photo)- if you look directly to the right of the summit, you will see the steep slope (where i got really sick) and then at the bottom of that slope, you will see the rock tower and a small area of whitish rock to the right of that- this is the knife-edge. Directly underneath the knife-edge you can see the very prominent Dead Dog Couloir.

All in all, this was a great day. The weather was beautiful all day, and the company was really great. It was great spending the day with all of you! And again, I must mention that unless you already know that you don't get altitude sickness, then save this route for a later time. However, if that's not a problem for you, this is a fantastic, fun route.. a great way to test out your class 3 skills and conquer any fear of heights you may have

(the exposure really isn't as bad as I was expecting.. there were only a couple of really short parts where I felt pretty exposed). I personally thought the knife-edge was much easier and less nerve-wracking than those short/steep slopes that were filled with loose rock and dirt (those sections are my nemesis!)! Again, it was great meeting all of you! Kelso Ridge was fantastic!(url)

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

CarolinaGirl	and here's the link.. 9/12/2007 3:49am http://flickr.com/photos/mark_cushman/1348970996/
CarolinaGirl	oops! one last pic, 11/30/2010 5:28pm this is actually my favorite one! Cushman posted this link in the forum, but i thought i'd post it here too.. he took this picture of Chris, myself, and Jeff on the knife-edge.. you have to look closely to find us! we're pretty tiny! Thanks Cushman for a great photo!
ajkagy	nice report 11/30/2010 5:28pm one of my fav routes and nice to get away from the crowds. The AMS thing has got to be frustrating, but good job working through it. Did you just move to boulder this fall? That might be a factor in the AMS, but you've done 3 14ers now.
CarolinaGirl	i've only 11/30/2010 5:28pm been here a little longer than a month after a couple decades at sea level.. but amanda made a suggestion that my iron-deficiency anemia might play a role.. i looked it up and apparently its common that it will increase the effects of altitude, so we'll see how the next one goes after some supplements:) and i love boulder by the way!
Yog	Nice job! 11/30/2010 5:28pm Going to have to do a tri-peat of Torreys for this ridge. I've always been interested in it, maybe with some snow! :D BTW, I have way too much iron in my blood...so I'll swap ya! Nice job on the report and photos, and congrats :)
coloradogirl65	Nice job! 11/30/2010 5:28pm I just saw this, looks like you guys had a great day! Hopefully the AMS will get better before next year - maybe you could do some snowshoe trips at lower elevations this winter? That might help you get slowly acclimated. I'm doing Bierstadt Sunday - I guess Elbert has lots of drifts on the trail and I'm not quite ready for snow! (I know, I'm a wimp :lol: )
CarolinaGirl	more pics.. 2/5/2011 12:22am ok, i apparently dont' know how to hyperlink in the report.. but in case you skipped over this, i wanna post a link to chris's pictures again, because they're better than mine :) http://web.mac.com/abbiegroves/iWeb/Climbing/Kelso%20Ridge.html

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