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I had skied Torreys before (tuning fork) and climbed them both in the summer, but I had to get revenge on the Dead Dog. Probably one of my first 14er ski attempts was a few years ago climbing up the couloir about 2/3's of the way and having to bail because it was getting too late. I couldn't find anyone to go with so I headed out myself. Rallied the '93 Accord up the road and got to the trailhead just after 7. (about 2 hours later then I wanted to be there but Jamo and IPA's the night before discouraged the planed 4am wakeup.)
dead dog didn't look great but not too bad... it looked like the top would be worth it
I tried hiking off the headache and making up for the late start with a decent pace. About two hours later I got to the summit of Torreys. It was a good decision to hit up Torreys first cause everyone else was on Grays and I had the summit to myself for a good half hour.
some good lines still to be had on Mt. Edwards
if all went well my next line on grays was looking creamy...
...but first this
I dropped in off the top with a few aggressive turns over skiers right of the couloir. Although I was planning on it being pretty soft, it still surprised me and I sunk deeper than I thought. I paused and let a bunch of heavy slough slide out of the way. I got to the top of the chute and saw a climber on his way up. I made myself noticed and once he was clear I started making some slushy turns. It was kinda fun (and tough) to try to ski and manage the sough in the steeper top section. I paused halfway, talked briefly to the climber and continued down as the snow turned into runnels. I skied out and met back up with the Grays trail and started hiking again.
see the climber
good stuff
I think the caffeine from the morning wore off by this point and the alcohol still in my system was making itself noticed again. Regardless I slowly hiked on (with all the other people this time) and got to the top of Grays with a boy scout group from Minnesota, and ran into the climber from the Dead Dog. I was one of the only skiers out that day so I was quite the entertainment for some. I skied off the summit and nuked some awesome corn turns down to the basin as fast as I could. It was definitely on my top 5 list for great corn runs.
hanging out... top o Grays
Evans and Bierstadt looking pretty white
my line on the left
I chilled where the snow ended for a few, changed boots, and headed back. Got to the car around 1:30 for a round trip of about 6 hours. Headed home, took a 45 minute nap and went to work. Overall it was a good trip with two great skis, and a couple more checkmarks on my long list of things to do.
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
But that‘s why I don‘t hit the sauce anymore. Way to get it done though. Wish I wasn‘t working.
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