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I was lucky enough to get this past week off work, which gave me the opportunity to attempt my first winter summits. My goal for this week was Grays and Torreys on Wednesday, Pikes on Friday and then if I was really ambitious, comfortable with winter mountaineering and able to get a buddy to join on Sunday-then I would consider giving Longs a shot to cap off the week. I was turned around at 13,000' on Pikes last February and at 13,900' on Longs this last October so I was looking forward to getting the winter 14er monkey off my back.
I picked up snowshoes at Pioneer Sports in Frisco Tuesday night and then drove to the winter TH with a few beers and a warm sleeping bag. I set my alarm for 3:45, but woke up at 2:45 and there was no way I would be able to go back to sleep at this point so I had some breakfast and then got started around 3:30. I made it up the road pretty quickly and even though it snowed quite a bit the previous day, I did not need snowshoes for this entire section (they would have been helpful in a few places, but we are talking ~50 yard stretches max). I made pretty good time and reached the summer trailhead a little before 5.
Sunrise view over Stevens Gulch
After crossing the bridge, I strapped the snowshoes on and used them on and off until I reached the informational sign 1.5 miles after the summer trailhead.
The trail was in pretty good shape. There were some sections with a little more snow, but for the most part-it was pretty easy to follow.
There were a few spots after this that the snowshoes could have been useful, but these were short stretches and to me, not worth the 60 seconds it took to strap them on.
At 12,600', the trail became difficult to follow and instead of attempting to follow the standard route, I went straight up to the ridge and hiked along the ridgeline until 12,900'. I recommend sticking to this ridge as opposed to staying low-you have stable footing and it will take you up pretty easily. At 12,900', I regained the trail and took this until ~13,400'. At this point, the trail was completely snow covered so instead of heading off to the right (to approach the mountain via the actual trail, from the center of the mountain), I stuck to the ridge and followed this for the rest of the hike.
Around 13,800', the wind really started to pick up. The high for the day on the summit was 0 with 30 mph winds and it must have been around 9 am so it was most likely a few degrees below 0... pretty chilly.
I didn't stay long, but below are a few photos I snapped from the top.
Looking back at Stevens Gulch and the route up
I started for Torreys, but it didn't take long for me to realize I was biting off a little more than I could chew. After going down maybe 50 feet toward Torreys in some pretty strong wind, I turned back and started heading down the mountain. The wind was starting to really blow at this point and my ears and nose were feeling a little funny and after getting frostbite in the beginning of January, I decided to not even mess around with the weather.
On the way back, the wind REALLY picked up. I wasn't being tossed around, but I had to keep my bearings about me since I was sticking to the ridges.
The wind died down at 12,300'. After that, it was pretty much nonexistent. I reached this point around 10:15 and I finally sat down for food and water for the 1st time since 3:00 this morning. Dumb? Yes. Lazy? That too. But I felt relatively strong prior to that and since I was freezing for most of the hike above treeline, I figured I wouldn't stop for food and water until either I got below this point or started to really get into trouble. Not the best strategy, but it worked.
From here on out, it was smooth sailing. I strapped the snowshoes on for the rest of the hike and made it back to the car by noon without seeing a single person until I was 1/2 mile from the winter trailhead.
Grays & Torreys from 10,000'
For anybody heading up there this weekend, expect great conditions.
Torreys
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
it's always a little challenging suffering through nasty wind chill, especially when the weather down in the city is nice and warm.
congrats!
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