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I'm not really one for writing up trip reports all the time and especially on popular mountains like Grays Peak. But since I finally got my best friend up his first 14er I thought I would write a little something about our day. My best friend Nathan moved here a little over a month ago and he's been wanting to get up a 14er since then. Last year we turned back on Democrat due to snow conditions (fall) and time. As I was looking at some mountains to do I remembered what he said to me last year., "I don't want to just walk up one". So I told him we were going to give Lost Rat Couloir on Grays Peak a try.
The alarm went off at 3am and after getting all our crap together we finally hit the trail a little after 4am. We made good time to the base of the couloir and got ready to climb. I had climbed this route last year and felt comfortable while my friend Nathan was still a little nervous. That nervous energy lasted about a minute until we started up and then it was all smiles. We made ok time up and watched Colin (astrobassman) come following in behind us. We took turns setting the boot pack up the couloir until Colin just went on ahead like he usually does and put the staircase in for us. We finished the climb and took a break to down some food and water. We saw Colin chatting up a couple of climbers ahead of us, I now know it was the Aubrey and Jen duo. We made our way to the summit and had the top to ourselves for 10 minutes or so before others started to arrive. We had some lunch and got ready for the descent.
Nathan glissaded down as much as he could as I skied the face ahead of him to take pictures for him. My dog was also in tow and she managed to get down just fine as well. She had a good 3 mile run from the summit back to the bridge as she chased me while skiing. We finished off and met terry (tmatthews) and jerry (some 14ers name) at the base of dead dog and discussed the day a bit. The trip back to the truck was uneventful and we enjoyed a few beers afterwards.
I am quite happy for my best friend for doing his first 14er in style. He might be hooked and ready for more. I skied from the summit back to the bridge but thought I would just post photos of my friends first. The snow conditions were pretty enjoyable. Enjoy some photos
starting up our goal moving up at the base ready to climb climbing partners doing good astrobassman setting the staircase, thanks again resting lone shot of me best friend finishing Lost Rat ready for the final summit push running at 14k Best friend and his first summit glissade my dog and friend racing, my ski lines are up there somewhere I think they tied pup was tired Best friend with a huge smile lone shot of me what it's all about, the after summit beer
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
History was made for Nathan and terry!!!!! 5/25/2010 3:22am
Nathans first 14er and Terry‘s first couloir. It makes me think that Torreys and Grays are some good technical mountains. It was a 14ers.com party at the bottom(with the beers and whiskey and the old guy walking by)!!! Good Times!!!
nice to see some other dogs out there tearing it up! Great job guys.
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