Torreys Peak

Route: Dead Dog Couloir
Posted On: 7/3/2026, By: Mitten Goat
Info: Dead Dog Couloir is in good shape for a crampon ascent. Ice axe, helmet, headlamp. The bottom is burning out, and there is one short section 1/3 way up the snow that is just rocks for about 20 feet-ish. But otherwise, it is continuous snow to the top. I did it this morning, left trailhead at 2:30AM and was on snow at 4:30AM. Two hours of climbing to reach the top of Kelso Ridge. Then I descended Kelso Ridge. Great loop. 

Route: Grays and Torreys
Posted On: 6/29/2026, By: walks_a_lot
Info: The Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) has issued a Stage 2 Fire Restrictions Order for all unincorporated areas of the county. The temporary Stage 2 Fire Restrictions are effective at Noon today (12:00pm on Monday, June 29, 2026), and will remain in effect until further notice. Weather and fuel conditions, nearby fire activity, and resource limitations have prompted the transition to Stage 2 Fire Restrictions from the Stage 1 Fire Restrictions that were issued on March 26, 2026.

The signed Stage 2 Fire Restrictions Order, with full details of restrictions, is on our website at https://www.clearcreekcounty.us/1607/Fire-Ban-Information. In short, during Stage 2 Fire Restrictions, the following is prohibited:

- No igniting, building, maintaining, attending, or using any Open Fire, including charcoal grills and barbeques, coal and wood burning stoves, and sheepherder’s stoves. (See the Fire Restrictions Order for a definition of “Open Fire.”) Propane or natural gas barbeque or liquid fuel stoves are allowed if attended at all times and in a fully enclosed, covered barbeque grill or contained within a liquid fuel stove.
- No fireworks, including sparklers.
- No smoking, except within an enclosed vehicle, trailer, or building.
- No possessing or operating motor vehicles off-roads, including off-highway vehicles (OHV), regardless of whether the OHV is classified as a motor vehicle. The only exceptions are:
- Vehicles may be parked in an area devoid of vegetation within 10 feet of a roadway or a driveway serving private property.
- Overnight parking is permitted in Forest Service-developed campgrounds and trailheads.
- All other outdoor spark- or flame-producing activities.
- No shooting, except while hunting pursuant to a valid hunting license, or target shooting within the Clear Creek County Sport Shooting Park.
- For details related to chainsaw, welding, and cutting torch use, see the Fire Restrictions Order. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 6/22/2026, By: w_mcelwee4
Info: Short patch of snow at the cutoff trail coming back down. My son was able to walk across it wearing Chucks. Otherwise perfect. 

Route: Grays and Torreys
Posted On: 6/21/2026, By: flintel
Info: Saddle from Grays to Torreys 95% clear with just a few short snow patches exclusively on the downclimb from Grays. Only area still quite snowy is the cutoff from the saddle back to the Grays trail, I appreciated poles here but they're certainly not necessary. Brought spikes and didn't use them. 

Route: Kelso Ridge
Posted On: 6/19/2026, By: The_Ramp
Info: Not much more to add to the Conditions Report from a few days ago - Kelso Ridge is in full summer conditions minus one small, trivial snow crossing just before the final Class 3 pitch to the Knife Edge. I saw some folks taking the Class 4 slabs, presumably to avoid this stretch, but I would recommend sticking with the route.

No snow on descent from Torreys to saddle. 

Route: Kelso Ridge
Posted On: 6/16/2026, By: timkoh
Info: tl;dr: Kelso is completely dry save the last 50-100 vertical feet. The knife's edge is now exposed with no snow.

Parking: I arrived at 7 am on a Tuesday and I took one of 4 spots left. By the time I was leaving at 11, half the spots were available.

Had an excellent morning out on Kelso! Was expecting a bit more snow, but no! It's dry all the way up until 14,100. I took a wrong turn and ended up needing to cross a 20 foot snow field (see photo), but others had made the same mistake and steps had already been kicked in. I realized I was too low and scrambled back up to the ridge after crossing. If I had stayed low (I watched someone else do this) I would have had to boot pack up about 50 feet of steep snow. If you stay high and true to the route you'll avoid all that trouble. The final pitch beyond the knife's edge does still have snow, but steps have been well set and I didn't feel the need to break out my spikes.

Bring an ice axe if you want to glissade! And be sure to make good time. The lower section was pretty soft by 9:30/10 and wasn't giving much traction.

Stay safe and say hi to the baby goat for me! 

Route: Grays and Torreys
Posted On: 6/10/2026, By: htbyron
Info: Trail from the saddle up to Torreys summit is clear, no snow. But getting down to the saddle from Grays peak is a challenge with the steep, rocky, snow-covered trail. And the cutoff back from the saddle to the Grays route for the descent is all snow-covered. Microspikes and poles recommended for this section. 

Route: Kelso Ridge
Posted On: 5/25/2026, By: daway8
Info: Excellent spring conditions for Kelso Ridge - about 50/50 dry vs snow covered. Lots of steps already kicked in so I didn't even bother to put microspikes on until 13k. Didn't pull out my ice axe until the final little stint between the Knife Edge and the summit. The Knife Edge itself is currently a trivial snow sidewalk.

You could probably manage the route without any special gear if you're really confident in your footing but for the next week or two it might not be a bad idea to bring traction and an axe, especially since you can use said axe for some fun glissading, although by 9am the snow was already getting a bit too soft for optimal glissading on the way down Grays. Fun meeting Michael and Hunter, among others, along the way. Uploading pics. 

Route: Dead Dog Couloir
Posted On: 5/23/2026, By: Tnesper
Info: Climed Dead Dog today. Based on videos I saw on Facebook from 5/21, there was a slide in it likely on 5/22. Bottom is all avy debris that lessens as you go. Conditions off the debris were great and likely to hold and improve. Very high winds on the summit today. Well corniced on the saddle. We put a boot pack in the face of Grays which was wind loaded and gave us mild concern to cross. There were a few spots where we felt a weak bottom layer but it was overall fine. I don't think Dead Dog would have been a great ski today, but in a day or two as they avy debris melts out it'll get better. 

Route: Dead Dog Couloir
Posted On: 5/15/2026, By: Nathan Hoobler
Info: Perfect climbing conditions on Dead Dog. Fantastic snow. Quite a bit of avy debris, but that doesn’t get in the way of climbing. We started seeing falling rocks at 6:30 am so start early. 

Route: Dead Dog Couloir
Posted On: 5/11/2026, By: swilson753
Info: Booted Dead Dog, hiked down the standard trail. Dead Dog is in great shape for climbing, but pretty chopped up for skiing. There's a solid booter all the way up. Most of the couloir was firm, but the top 200 or so feet to the Kelso Ridge exit was soft with wind drifted powder. We saw some small rocks dropping on our way up. I'd expect more rockfall and changing conditions with this week's heat. 

Route: Kelso Ridge
Posted On: 5/11/2026, By: Anima
Info: Still lots of snow on Kelso Ridge, but pretty dry / muddy up to the turn off. Followed a set of boot prints that looked like they had crampons on, but I never put any traction on (started at 7:15 am so the snow was softening by the time I got on the ridge.) Traversed over to Grays. The standard trail on Grays is pretty much snow covered all the way from the Kelso Ridge turn off to the summit. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 5/10/2026, By: Jschramm87
Info: Started just after 3a at Loveland pass. Snow is pretty continuous once you get away from the parking area. Microspikes weren’t necessary until I started ascending Grizzly. I avoided anything steep/sketchy up until that point. There are some pretty steep snowy sections there where traction helped out. There are some workarounds to climbers Right to stay on more rock if you prefer. I left microspikes on until I came back over Grizzly and Cupid later in the morning. Snow was firm, but softened up very fast once the sun came up. I took the ridge as far as I could once I left Grizzly headed for Torreys. There was a deep boot track I was following, but the ridge was a little thin in spots. I stayed tight to a ski track down the East face of Grizzly (soooo lucky) to the saddle. If I deviated, I sank pretty quickly. Even early in the am.
Route up Torreys was pretty tiring. No track to follow but I never sank deeper than my shins. A lot of rock is exposed, but much of it is loose. I found the snow to be easier for travel in most sections but that was pretty early in the day. More shin deep post holing for the last push to the summit.
Return is a bear. Start EARLY for this one if you’re traveling on snow. 

Route: Dead Dog Couloir
Posted On: 5/10/2026, By: Danger_D
Info: Road clear to upper trailhead. Possible to a-frame with trailrunners on the summer trail all the way to the summit, though you can start to skin right after Kelso Ridge turnoff. One small section right as you gain the saddle that was hard enough to warrent some microspikes or hard boots.

We dropped in to dead dog from the summit at 10:15 ish and snow had softened nicely. Top section to the emperor/DD split was sketchier than other years. DD itself was filled with big chunky blocks and avy debris. It had softened up a lot, but it was still some very difficult survival skiing. Coverage was still pretty good, so hopefully some freeze/thaw or new snow will iron out a really bumpy descent.

After the apron the snow was discontinuous to the main gully so we just booted down the summer trail

We also got reports that Lost Rat skied really well, but the top was melted enough to make it hard/dumb to drop in 

Route: Kelso Ridge
Posted On: 5/4/2026, By: jordo
Info: Summited Torreys via Kelso Ridge. Road to trailhead was mostly dry with a few icy sections. Lots of deep, wet snow on the ridge after recent storms, but it was melting fast in the sun. I managed with microspikes, my buddy used crampons. After about 1000 the melting slush on top of rock slabs was a little spicier than expected, if we had brought axes we would’ve used them. On the summit & the way down we ran into a number of folks skiing the couloirs off of Torreys, which looked good but as of early afternoon were starting to look a little patchy near the bottom. Started at 0730, summited 1330, back to the car by 1630.