Kelso Mountain

Route: North face
Posted On: 6/2/2025, By: jmanner
Info: Skied Kelso today, getting across the creek is interesting… We toured to 12,400’ booted to 12,900’ and then toured to the summit. We skied from the summit to 10,800’ then the short walk to creek fun. 

Route: North Gully
Posted On: 6/1/2025, By: ProtonWitch
Info: Gully still continuous top to bottom but definitely thinning in spots. 

Route: North Gully
Posted On: 5/27/2025, By: Danger_D
Info: Skied the North Gully from the summit. Snow starts just after the creek crossing, and the Avy debris makes a good bridge. Skinned the first half of gully then booted the rest. Lots of snow at summit, so it should stick around for a while. Dropped in for a grade-A corn harvest at 10:30, but rollerballs were already kicking off so don’t wait too long. Skied to within 15 feet of creek 

Route: South slopes
Posted On: 5/5/2025, By: ColoNativeGal
Info: Parked at the Grizzly/Stephens Gulch turn off. You can't make it further up the road without chains or snow machine. Carried snowshoes and spikes, but didn't use them. Although I do think SS might be needed depending on what time you come out in the afternoon through the willow section. We post holed a little around 11:45am. Although I imagine this all will be different after this next storm this week. We took a more direct route up the side, instead of looping around closer to the Kelso Ridge turn off. Snow conditions were great. Saw some goats. Saw evidence of several slides on Torreys. 

Route: South slopes
Posted On: 5/1/2025, By: 14er101
Info: Pics of Grays and Torreys attached Skinned up road w/ fresh snow storm. Climbed ridge to summit. Was able to ski 95% of the route back to the car. Would probably want either ski's or snowshoes for the postholing Snow melting rapidly, saw some loose wets on the way down, had to take ski's off a few sections on the road. 

Route: South slopes
Posted On: 12/25/2024, By: _coloradical
Info: Note: These conditions have already changed with the snow on 12/25. The road was packed in nicely for the first 1.5 miles; from there it was ski tracks to the summer trailhead. From the bridge, you could spot a well traveled trail. We followed the trail and found evidence of a small avalanche on the east face of Kelso (see photo). We stayed below the standard route and aimed for the south slopes of Kelso that had patches of snow but were windswept. Near the summit, two additional sections needed care to cross. They were short but some cornices were forming before the final summit. On the descent, we noticed all of our tracks had disappeared from the incoming snow. Id recommend packing snowshoes after this most recent snow, and monitor avalanche conditions with the east face of Kelso. Last thing to note I found a watch near the summer TH. If you may have lost it, please shoot me a DM and Ill do my best to get it to you. 

Route: South slopes
Posted On: 9/30/2024, By: MaryinColorado
Info: Dry, dry, and - you guessed it - dry! The class 3 section down to the saddle with Kelso Ridge is also dry. The peak is also severely lacking in mountain goats. Plenty of evidence of their existence, but I guess they weren't feeling social. 

Route: South slopes
Posted On: 6/18/2024, By: jaba9631
Info: Hiked this 6/16, was mostly clear of snow. We took the suggested east side descent up, very loose and steep but doable and reduced the mileage to less than 5 miles. A few patches of snow on the actual grays/torreys trail but clear once off trail all the way to the summit. 

Route: North Gulley
Posted On: 5/11/2024, By: Geckser
Info: Arthurspiderman and I skied an afternoon Kelso Peak today with very pleasant conditions. We started from Bakersville at 11:00 under somewhat sunny skies. The road is drivable up to the turn off with 319 where ~4 cars had pulled off. We were spooked by warnings of the nasty road and instead booted from the bottom. We wore runners for the entire ascent, turned off 321 at the base of the gulley which we followed to 11,000 before turning off to the Northeast ridge and following that to the summit. We were able to stay on 95% dry ground for this portion of the ascent and it made for fairly quick work. We were lucky that clouds came in at this turnoff, better preserving the snow. The ski descent was great, everything was filled in and felt stable. No significant sluffing or cracking on the ascent or descent. A super fun little line. We were able to ski from the summit back to Bakersville with one 50 foot section of dry road we had to walk in the middle. Good sendoff for Arthurs return to Germany. 

Route: South slopes
Posted On: 1/3/2024, By: Istoodupthere
Info: Started from lower trailhead. The road and trail until you head up the grassy slope is about as easy to walk on as it gets. Packed snow. No snowshoes needed. No postholing. Slope and ridge was mostly 3-4 inches of snow. 3 separate bands of about a dozen mountain goats on the ridges around Kelso. Beautiful day with no wind. About 11.6 miles round trip and 3410 feet of gain 

Route: South Ridge
Posted On: 12/16/2023, By: Chicago Transplant
Info: Generally not to snowy or icy, did not use spikes or flotation. Some minor postholing but I wouldn't bother with the weight. Bakerville to Trailhead is well packed, especially the first roughly 1.75 miles where an ATV with a snowcat track has been up and down from one of the cabins. Beyond there are vehicle ruts and hiker tracks, some of the vehicle tracks get a bit squirrely, but a 4runner was at the summer trailhead. I hiked the whole road, might be good to Grizzly Gulch with good tires and AWD/4WD. Trailhead to split for Kelso/Torreys saddle is packed out trail, some icy spots to watch for. The avy slopes are starting to fill in higher, but near the trail you can see grass. Most just stuck to the summer trail, I did a wide bypass on grassy terrain with 2-3" of snow. Better yet would be through the willows but I didn't stay low that long. Some deeper snow on the trail just after that had some postholing and others had snowshoes on but they only seemed to wear them for about 1/4 mile. Kelso South Ridge is dry where its class 3 and was a fun bit of scrambling in winterlike conditions. You can bypass that by taking a more direct line up (my descent) from a little earlier on the trail. That terrain is steep but dry enough with some loose rocks. The ridge crest beyond was windy with some firm snow, I tended to stay to the east a little below to stay out of the wind. Nice day out in general! 

Route: South slopes
Posted On: 6/23/2023, By: sarahmariekirk
Info: Basically summer conditions for a few very short snowfields near the summit; did not wear any traction or require any. Bluebird conditions today. We took the ridge direct route which had some fun scrambling options along the ridge. Saw the resident goat up on Kelso! Kelso Ridge is pretty dry but still snowy towards the top of the route. G&T still pretty snowy. 

Route: South slopes
Posted On: 6/18/2023, By: MaryinColorado
Info: Approach contains a few stretches of snow that were a non-issue. Firm on the way up, mildly slick on the way down. A warmer day will cause more post-holing but definitely don't need snowshoes for it. Route from the turn-off was essentially dry, i.e., most snow completely avoidable. Unlike Grays and Torreys, Kelso's slope orientation allows for a decent melt-off. Had a couple snow crossings along the way including the final stretch to the summit, but nothing of consequence. Never felt the need to take out the ice axe. 

Route: South slopes
Posted On: 6/14/2023, By: dwoodward13
Info: Great day out. Some pretty well packed in snow in the willows off and on. No need for flotation although you might have a minor post hole here and there. Headed up to the mine at the Kelso ridge saddle and stayed right of ridge crest. Mostly snow free to the summit minus some avoidable patches/drifts on the ridge crest. There is one shallow gully filled with snow that you will have to cross but good snow and no traction needed. Goats were guarding the summit and took a while for them to move along. Descended grass down the shallow gully all the way back down to the trail intersecting just below 12k. Some glissade opportunities but elected to go with the grass. Attaching some photos of Edwards/G/T. Standard routes are still caked with snow in the 14ers. 

Route: South slopes
Posted On: 6/4/2023, By: slawrence2011
Info: Skied Kelso and a N facing couloir in the middle of the Grays - Edwards ridge topping out at about 13,600. Started at the upper TH thanks to hitches. Road seems snow free to there except for a 80 foot or so section of soft snow that is well tracked that needs to be hit with momentum. Trail seems either snow free or very packed for the first section, but I quickly transitioned off of it to the N, summiting Kelso via easy grass on the SE aspect (with between a dusting to an inch of snow), only to later see that the S aspect was even easier. Skied a nice E facing couloir that was very soft even at 8:30, a couple inches of new snow it seems, no significant instability noted. Then, decided to ski a line I had always seen when going through Steven's gulch, seems like the next couloir E of Lost rat (not counting a more moderate snow line), I would rate it around D7-D8. I later confirmed it goes to a saddle between two points 13,6, just W of Edwards. I climbed it first, electing no crampons due to quite soft but bearable conditions, and an ice axe. It hardly softened due to heavy cloud cover, but I think it didn't get a full freeze, and had a couple inches new snow. Small cornice at top easily avoidable far left, and very moderate angle on the entry. No good pictures of that, or Kelso N face, due to heavy fog that came in around 10:30. Curious if anyone else has skied this aesthetic little line. Great snow coverage on all the couloirs and routes I am aware of accessed from Steven's gulch, and heard Emperor skied great as well. Can ski out within a couple hundred yards of the upper TH if you stay at the very bottom of the gulch, but beware of snow bridges, as the creek sounds loud. Had a few painful posthole moments going from the E side of Kelso to the base of the unnamed couloir that I dealt with rather than constantly switching from skis to boots.