I have been itching to do Kelso Ridge for a long time and this year with my work schedule, I didn't think I would be able to do any 14ers at all, but thanks to Labor Day, it was possible!

My friend John and I set out from Grand Junction at about 5pm on Sunday and made it to the TH around 8pm. The plan was that John was going to sleep in his Forerunner and I would sleep in my backpacking tent around the dispersed camping near the TH. Well... not only were all the camping spots near the TH full (thanks to the holiday weekend) but I (so empty headed-ly DID NOT PACK MY SLEEPING PAD!) So he parked in the corner of the TH and I just popped the tent up right next to his car for the night on the flat dirt parking lot ground. I know you aren't supposed to camp at the TH but options were limited, but if it makes you feel any better about me breaking the rule... I had a TERRIBLE night's sleep without any padding underneath me. I am a side sleeper and it did not turn out well. But my tent was packed nicely away by 4am and no one was any the wiser.... well till now when I just told all of you.

We planned to be hiking by 5 am but didn't officially start till 5:15, but let me tell you... It felt like such a late start because there were already at least a hundred people there and hitting the trail ahead of us!

So, we crossed the bridge and hiked that first bit of trail (like 1.5 miles right?) with all the other hikers and their headlamps dotting the way. And made the turn off to the right to head up Kelso Ridge. I think we got up to the top of the bump and started on the technical-ey stuff at 6:20am. And once the class 3 stuff started the perma-grin would not leave my face. We jumped right in following this other couple:

We just scrambled up and over all kinds of fun stuff, John choosing one route and I choosing another, but both of us comfortable with scrambling and exposure. It did not take long at all to reach the section that you are supposed to drop down to the right to skirt around (route photo #10) and all of us (John and I with the other couple) all got to the top of the ridge crest before realizing we were supposed to go down and around, so we downclimbed and adjusted the route. So... Just know that this bit of terrain comes much quicker than you would think!

Here are some photos from this section:

It did not take us very long to reach the white rock wall (#12 from the route description). I chose to follow the directions in the photo and John decided to climb up the little chimney in the middle.

We continued scrambling up similar stuff for a while.

We continued this way for a decent chunk of time. The lines were at times super chunky an stable and sometimes loose and tricky... but at all times it was an absolute blast! I have never enjoyed a route so much, I did not feel tired, or bodily exhausted like I do on the steady upward slogs, it was just pure fun! We kept climbing up and up and up until finally we reached the "knife edge" at about 8:30. I was so excited to do this because I love the tricky stuff! But I had John go first (so he could get a photo of me when it was my turn!)

John didn't sit and straddle once... I was impressed and thus, I took it as a challenge!

I stayed nearby to watch the next guy Jackson try his hand at it!

Next came the cruxy white marbley rock pile that the route says to go around... but John (who had just navigated around it) told me that it is totally managable to climb up and over it... so that is exactly what I did!

Well, we made it up and over the crux part of the climb and the summit was in sight! We hauled it up the last push to the summit where we landed at 8:45am! So from beginning to Torrey's summit it took us 3.5 hours. We could have pushed the speed a bit more, but we wanted to pace ourselves so we wouldnt be wiped before heading over to Grays!

We stayed on the Torreys summit for less than 10 minutes before departing down towards Grays. And I tell you.... that incline (going up Grays) looked much bigger from there than we anticipated... but we weren't not going to do it! The traverse took exactly an hour and we landed up on the Gray's summit at 9:45am!

We decided to go down the standard Grays route instead of going back town the saddle so we didn't have to repeat any terrain. Walking back during the daylight gave us some great views that we missed while hiking in the dark.

There were tons of lovely little wildflowers still and we even were able to spot a tiny cropping of columbines!

We made it back to the TH at 1140 with a total time of 6.5 hours.

We loaded up and drove the long drive back to Junction with smiles on our faces.

Here are some extra photos from the adventure.