Peak(s): Grays Peak, Torreys Peak
Location: Arapaho National Forest, CO
Date: September 22, 2018
Start time: 3:52 am
Summit Grays: 7:45 am
Summit Torreys: 9:14 am
End: 12:05 pm
Planning
The original plan was to go for a total of 5 peaks, a Saturday combo route of Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross, and on Sunday go for Sherman while setting up camp at Sugar Loafin Campground in Leadville, CO. Sometimes life gives you lemons, and when that happens, hopefully you have a freezer and a hell of an arm so you can freeze the lemons and throw them at the source of your problem. With my buddy having to work last minute and I needing to be back in town to be at a training course Monday at 7:30am. I decided to still salvage the hike, go solo, but switch up to an easier hike and settled on Grays and Torreys.
I read a few trip reports and learned the summer lot would likely take a 4WD vehicle. In sound logic, I rented a full size car betting on either getting a fitting vehicle assigned or using the exchange isle. If history is bound to repeat itself, I would be fine. Last time in Denver I was assigned an Armada, no exchange, upgrades, or anything. This time I was assigned Passat. No options to exchange, upgrade, or anything. At least the car was fast. When I arrived, I decided to give it the old college try taking the Passsat to the summer lot and shortly after decided to take the recommendation of the posted signs and parked right off the highway at the winter trailhead.
Preparation
Unlike Longs, I didn’t spend the week prior to this trip in Seattle or going straight to a pop-tart and Cool Ranch Doritos diet. I spent the few weeks prior actually training, lifting weights, and brought a few jet boil meals for ahead of the hike.
The Hike
The hike really started on Friday when I lost the bet with the car and started up to the summer trail head and Friday night camp site. One challenge with this was that I did not plan on being far from my car except for the summit so I had to pack up a ton of water, roughly 11 liters and two packs, with a little pack inception action. I made it up to the summer trail head in about an hour and a half. With plenty of time I setup camp, took a nap, read the pre-work for training after vacation, and had a late lunch.
The summer trail head has a ton of campsites and a decent amount of parking, most of the trip reports talk about the upper lot filling up by 8am, well I think on this day it was more like 8pm the night before. While I had an awesome camp site, it was a little close to the lot as people kept coming in after dark.
Summit day started with waking up at 3am, eating a protein bar, and making sure my summit pack had everything it needed. I checked twice and spoiler alert, I forgot something, sun screen. More on that later, maybe. The start of the trail is fairly easy and gravel, transiting to dirt and small rock. Shortly into the hike it was time to shed some layers. Fellow hiker Josh caught up with me and decided that of all the places on a 7.5 mile trail, shedding layers, including a lower layer beside me was the best place he could find. Josh had driven down from Ft. Collins that morning at 1am in hopes to get his first 14er and summit grays in time to see the sun rise. We went our separate ways and not even 30 minutes in and I was already getting passed! I continued on my way in the dark with a slow and steady incline between the tundra bushes. In absolutely no rush, I was breaking often.
As you get out of the tundra bushes and you hit your first fork with a sign, below the etching is a smaller knife carving that says left for grays right for Torrey. If you go the standard combo route you will want to go left. This is where the wind started to kick in. Once I made it a top Gray’s I took a break, thankfully there is a nice rock wind protection wall. From here I headed down the saddle with constant wind gusts, not enough to knock you right off your feet, but fierce. Since I have no facts around how strong these constant gusts were and this is the internet, I would say 64mph at a minimum. Coming down the saddle is to be the hardest part of the hike, but thanks to those winds I was hauling ass and had no time to think about it. At the bottom of the saddle I ran into my first mountain goats, 20 minutes, and a hundred photos later, I was ready to go for the summit. From here the approach looks steep, but it’s wasn’t bad and your up before you know it. This is also where a true rarity this year occurred, I passed a hiker on the way up to the summit!
Upon summiting Torrey’s and looking back at Gray’s, it looked like there were 50 or so people on Gray’s. The other big difference was the lack of wind on Torrey’s. On Torrey’s I got my first official summit photo with a sign thanks to my Texas trail friends that let me borrow theirs. While talking with some of the fellow summiters in the winners circle, I came to learn that one of them was not only a fellow Penn State Alumni, but graduated the year prior to me, and another person went to Dickinson. Small world.
The trip down was fairly easy, but busy. There were a lot of people mid afternoon still going for the summits. Remember that lack of sun screen? Ended in me sweating to death wearing long sleeves and a Balaclava the whole way down. While tanning is an age old hobby of mine, I still suck at it. Once making it to the summer trail head it was back to the camp site to pack up and hike the three miles to the car with my macgyver rigged backpack strapped to my other backpack. Shortly after heading down the 4wd path, I was offered a ride down by none other than a Colorado transplant that grew up in St. Louis and moved to Colorado after 10 years in the work world.
Lessons Learned
- Don’t forget the sunscreen, should have triple checked!
- Before next 14er season I will start adding in more long distance endurance training/cross training, maybe a bicycle?
Last modified: October 14, 2018
