Grays Peak

Route: South Ridge
Posted On: 5/29/2012, By: Oldskool70
Info: Dirt road leading up TH mostly dry with only one spot of snow. Fine for SUV (I have a pathfinder) Might be tough for 2WD/low clearance. From trailhead to about 12,000 the trail is mostly dry (Although at the 12K junction there is runoff). As you head westerly/SW there are snow chutes that must be crossed. Snow was very stiff & icy (microspike material) but was easily navigated around. Green slope leading up to the S. Ridge was clear. Fortunately the crux on the shoulder was clear of snow (no other clear options if it had been covered). Stayed 40-80ft from ridge crest for a 1/4 mile. Smooth sailing (and there was plenty of wind for that yesterday!!!) from then on. There is snow in the basin for skiing/riding but I would check the conditions first as it seemed very stiff & icy all day. Might not last long either. Wanna get away from the crowd (till you reach the top ), this the way to go. I was the only one at the Argentine TH all day (on a Memorial day weekend) taking this route. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 5/28/2012, By: Mountain Goat1
Info: Getting to the trailhead was easy the and road was clear of snow. The trail was not snowpack until over 12,000 feet on the trail. Although, when it got snowpack ice came along with it which made the trail hard to follow and very slick going up Grays. Even though we didn't use them, micro spikes are recommended. Descending into the saddle between Grays and Torreys was mostly snowpack on the Grays side of the saddle. When we reached the Torreys side of the saddle it was snow free in exception of the area close to the cornices off to the right. It was also very windy on the saddle so I would also recommend something to protect your face. Overall it was a great day of climbing some 14ers.NOTE: As said in the report after I made the summit of Grays I descended into the saddle between Grays and Torreys and made it to the summit of Torreys. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 5/16/2012, By: coopergirard
Info: We got a late start and left the trail head at around 8:30. There wasn‘t much snow until we got to the fork in the trail that leads up to Torreys. From there, the snow was a few inches deep all the way up to the summit. In the morning hours the snow was decent but in a few areas it consisted of a hard crust with loose dry snow underneath. In the afternoon very warm temperatures started to have its affect on the snow. It started to get very wet, loose, and slushy. Micro Spikes were helpful on the way up but when the snow turned to slush they didn‘t help much on the way down. There were plenty of hikers that did just fine without traction devices. I spotted a group going up Dead Dog Coulior that summited around 900. There was some slide activity on the south aspect of Torreys so if you want to get your coulior climb in, you better get an alpine start. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 5/14/2012, By: SolarAlex
Info: There was a lot of snow on the standard route today, especially on grays. id bring spikes and poles for sure, ice axe could be helpful. the traverse back to the trail from torreys is snowy and a little slippery, but there is a clear bootpack to follow. it was extremely warm in the afternoon, and we noticed some very small slide debris, 1 in lost rat couloir and another on the face of torreys. by the time we headed down the trail was muddy. road was clear 

Route: Grays and Torreys
Posted On: 4/29/2012, By: DaveSwink
Info: The road to the summer TH is almost clear of snow. The road is rough in some sections but should be passable for 2WD cars driven cautiously. The trail up Grays is clear in a few areas but mostly packed snow. The snow is hikable in boots but microspikes will make descending more comfortable. Microspikes and an ice axe are not required for the traverse down from the saddle, but will definitely make it easier. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 4/21/2012, By: Alan Arnette
Info: used my Jeep to reach summer TH. 50% dry but the 50% not was rutty snow, very slippery. 2wd with high clearance could probably make it. It was very cold and windy above 12K. Trail was snow packed. Saw several slides off Kelso Ridge but not on DD proper. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 3/17/2012, By: Tony1
Info: The road is easily walked to the main trailhead. It may take a while, but it‘s not difficult and the road has some dry areas if you don‘t want to walk on snow the whole time. In early hours, the snow will be hard frozen and traction control will be very helpful. This goes for the road and the trail all the way to the summit. A few sections of the trail are dry (and muddy with a lot of melting snow), but the vast majority is snow covered. No avalanche danger past Kelso Mountain if you stay on the trail. Be careful soon before passing by the Kelso-Torreys saddle where there is an avalanche slope that the trail crosses and it is fairly steep, but not too high up. Beware of any sliding snow in the area here - there is evidence of one accordion-like slide plainly visible. The descent down to the Grays-Torreys saddle is covered mostly in a couple inches of snow and can be easily navigated. Follow the cairns and all will be well. No snowshoes needed! :) 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 3/10/2012, By: BobbyFinn
Info: Expect to walk the road. Some attempts at driving have been made. You might get 100 yards or so before you have to stop. The road is hard packed and mostly snow covered. There are a few icy and bare spots, but not many. The trail is hard packed all the way to the top; postholing was minimal for us. We left our snowshoes on our packs and then stashed them near the kelso ridge turnoff. We never regretting not using them. We used micro spikes the whole hike. There are a couple of steep and hard snow fields coming off Kelso mountain where I was glad I had traction, but they are likely passable without (but traction benefitted us). These fields are avoidable by going lower. 

Route: Grays and Torreys
Posted On: 2/20/2012, By: aaronmojica
Info: Grays & Torreys summit yesterday (2/20/11). Left the winter TH at 4:30 am-75 minutes up the wide packed road to the trailhead. Since we were the first party of the day we needed snowshoes to make the drift work easier, kept them on for most of the Grays Peak Trail to the base of Grays. From there it was micro-spikes the rest of the day, pretty straightforward, minimal avalanche danger up to Grays. The ridge up to Torreys had some nice cornices, pretty to look at, easy to stay off of. Coming off of Torreys we pretty much had to regain Grays summit to avoid the seemingly unstable snow field hanging under the saddle. Once we were well below the field we watched two skiers start from right below the cornices and have a blast skiing down what we had just painstakingly circumnavigated. Snow started falling nicely as soon as we were back on the Grays peak trail all the way back to the car. 14 miles RT, 4600 ft of gain, 12 hours. Great day for the Trinidad Mountaineering Club! 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 2/1/2012, By: scottmoser
Info: Snowshoed in to 12,000 feet near the kelso ridge trail cutoff on Friday night and camped. Saturday went up to about 13,000 on Grays before turning back from high winds. Flotation is definitely needed now up to about 12,000 or 12,500. Above that, it‘s windswept. Microspikes may be advisable but east slopes are not really very snow covered. There is definitely no longer any chance of making progress up the road in a vehicle. I tried my jeep with chains on, and probably didn‘t even make it a quarter mile before spinning. Backed down just fine, but others without chains were sliding into the ditches... don‘t bother, just plan to hike it. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 1/4/2012, By: lafutura
Info: big thanks to sdkeil for his right on the money peak conditions report. if you are thinking about heading up there, do it! just be prepared for a really long day (took us 8 hours rt with very little time at the summit as it was too cold to hang out for long). there was one insane guy who ran up and down the peak and one couple from arkansas who parked @ i-70 and turned back a while before the summit. we didn‘t see anyone else. best time to experience what i understand is a normally very crowded peak! some notes: take very seriously the 4wd requirement to get anywhere near the trailhead. we made it to about a mile from the th, and we had 1 jeep and 1 4runner! very little snow up there, but as is reported what is snow is icy. 3 of us had microspikes and did just fine. 1 had yaktrax and he said that he thought microspikes should be the absolute minimum. after seeing him slip and fall several times i‘d have to agree. got windier up towards the summit but nothing unreasonable. and no snowshoes are needed anywhere. glad i didn‘t haul a pair up and back down with me! 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 1/2/2012, By: sdkeil
Info: We made it to within 1.2 miles of the summer trail head making the round trip distance about 10 miles and the elevation gain approximately 3500 feet. The entire trip is doable without snowshoes due to the lack of snow. This lack of snow made it possible to stay on the summer trail, even as it passed below the ever dicey slopes of Kelso. Be sure to reevaluate the avy conditions before staying on the summer trail and passing below Kelso Mountain. We used traction devices for the upper part of the route since most of the trail is snow that has frozen into ice. The upper part of the route is on a slope is more North facing than East and does not see much sun this time of year. Multiple groups were successful on Kelso Ridge today, hopefully they will post. 

Route: Grays and Torreys
Posted On: 1/2/2012, By: 54coldones
Info: The trees have been cut and removed and the road is not passable to however a few people tried. From the trail head the trail has drifted snow in some places but is easily identifiable. As you get higher the snow gets harder and is drifted into the trail. However after about 12500 the trail is the only snow on the ground. The ridge to Torreys is also in good condition except were the snow has created a large drift. The 4 foot high cairns are still visible. It was windy today but next week is looking like a great time to go. have fun. 

Route: Grays and Torreys
Posted On: 11/22/2011, By: DaveSwink
Info: The road to the trailhead has several downed trees across it. The first downed tree is about 1 mile from 70. I recommend parking at the pullout before the downed tree. Be careful of very slippery road conditions when departing downhill. The trail to Grays is mostly packed snow. There are a few postholing sections but not enough to warrant snowshoes. The trails on Grays and Torreys have many sections of ice so microspikes are very useful. The descent trail from the saddle between Grays and Torreys has several sections of loose, slippery powder over very hard snow/ice with significant fall consequences. Our team all made it with just microspikes but everyone would have been happier crossing with light crampons and an ice axe. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 11/21/2011, By: StikMan
Info: We did the whole hike in just Microspikes. The trail through the gulch at the base of Kelso was hit or miss - some areas were wind scoured, others had loose knee deep snow. I don‘t have any experience with snowshoes, so I can‘t really give an opinion on if they would have helped or not. For the most part we stuck to the Grays trail, which is still relatively easy to find so route finding was fairly straight forward. For the most part, snow on the trail was loose and not packed by wind, with some calf/knee deep sections mostly above 13,000 ft or so.