"Emperor" couloir is located on the north side of Torreys and part of it can be seen from Interstate 70 -
1. Follow the Grays Peak road (#189) over a mile and turn right onto the Grizzly Gulch road. Drive or hike 0.25 mile to reach a junction. Park here if you don't have a small, high-clearance 4wd vehicle. Turn right on the "189.1c" road and continue for approximately 1 mile to a stream crossing in a meadow and then another 0.7 mile to a small clearing at 11,000', where you can see the route off to your left -
2,
3 and
4. Leave the road and walk down to the creek where you'll need to find a spot to cross. Once on the south side, hike to a rocky drainage and follow it to the base of Emperor, near 11,400' -
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Don the crampons and start climbing -
6. As you enter the couloir you'll immediately encounter a couple of short, steep pitches (
7) before reaching easier terrain near 11,800' -
8. You'll see snow fields up to the right but stay in the couloir as it turns left above 12,000' -
9. Continue through a more-narrow section before the couloir opens up again, near 12,400' -
10. The upper couloir is not obvious from here and there's complicated terrain up to your right. Stay left and as you continue up the couloir the route will become more obvious -
11.
Above 12,800', the couloir turns slightly right and you can finally see the north ridge, beyond the couloir -
12. The terrain gets steeper above 13,000' and even steeper as you approach the large, gray rock outcrop seen in the center of
13. When you reach the rock outcrop (
14) there are two ways to gain the ridge: 1) Stay right and climb steep snow to reach the ridge or 2) Turn left just before the outcrop, climb through a narrow section and climb steep snow to reach the ridge -
15. Once on the north ridge, turn left and climb 200 feet to intersect the top of the Kelso Ridge and Dead Dog Couloir routes -
16 and
17. Continue up the final pitch to reach the summit -
18.
Emperor Couloir
GPX Track File
