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Snowgirl and I left Golden around 3:30am Sunday morning for the ascent up the Dead Dog couloir on Torrey's Peak. The road up to the Steven's Gulch trailhead was passable in my Subaru up to about 1/2 mi below the bottom of the east chute on Kelso. Apparently they graded it last year, so it was in great shape! Alpenglow
Our ascent route. Torrey's still has great snow cover. The trail was in great shape for skinning up to a point in the basin just below the split between the Gray's and Torrey's trails. We were able to skin most of the way to the base of Dead Dog, but had to boot pack from that point to the apron. Snow cover on Torrey's.
There was a group of 3 hikers ahead of us ascending the couloir, so they broke trail in the new snow and we made easy progress following their tracks. Thanks for the boot pack, boys! Make the climb.
The snow on Gray's looked more wind affected but colder. Clemsonmtneer looked like he had great fun schralping the main snowfield. Good look at the snow cover on Gray's peak
We took a couple of breaks on the way up for some water/bars, but the ascent was pretty straight forward. Snowgirl drops some cals. Snowgirl makes the climb.
The snow in the couloir is still transitioning, and was nowhere near corn status when we climbed it. We started our descent just before 10am, and with ~4 hours of sun on the east face it had already softened up considerably. We met a hiker at the bottom around 10:30 who said he was thinking of doing the Dead Dog ascent at that time, which we advised him against considering the rapidly softening conditions. Snow in the couloir is not yet spring-snow. Solid on a cold morning, but easily distinguished from S/W aspect snow. Moderate winds kept things cold at the summit. I dropped Snowgirl's camera right after this shot was taken. That's why i don't own one.
Hopefully the snow this week extends the spring climbing/skiing season a few more weeks along the northern and central mtns, at least on nice leeward aspects like this. We're just getting warmed up!
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
if anyone happens to see a camera case (the case AND the camera were both lost...sad day) while bootpacking up Dead Dog let me know, it‘s bright orange and made of pretty bulletproof material so it might show up.
We kept waiting and watching for you guys to come down and when I saw you drop in we hung out and watched the show. Great job both of you, I‘ll be happy to bust trail anytime
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