A Good Way to Top Off the Season

Today, took what was probably the last ski trip of the season, one of the hardest, and definitely one of the most fun. Went up to the top of Torreys Peak, via Kelso ridge(more on that in a bit), and had a lovely ski out.

Got to Bakerville at about 6:15, and drove to about a mile from the Steven's Gulch trailhead before being stopped by debris from a huge avi that came down almost a month ago and completely covered the road 4 feet deep for about 100 feet. Shouldered my pack and skis and started hiking. A surprising number of people were there, even for Memorial Day weekend, must have been 15 cars along the road where we parked (and that was at 6:30 in the morning). Any ways, got up over the bridge and strapped on the boards with some prototype tester skins from BD and schussed on up into the uper basin, breaking out of the shadows at around 11,000 feet.
All of the other times that I have hiked up Grays and Torreys, I have followed the "sidewalk" that ascends the broad NE face of Grays peak. I have never attempted a route up to Torreys known as Kelso ridge, and I have certainly never attempted to summit either peak at any time other than the middle of summer. That is until today, and I can proudly say that I have accomplished both.

Kelso Ridge is a knife edge ridge that runs NE off of the summit of Torreys peak, Connecting Torreys and Kelso Peak.

This is rated at class III in the summer with sustained pitches of IV+, and a few class V moves. For those of you who don't know the rating system, class I is the lowest, basically a sidewalk, and class V is the highest, like rock climbing. Any ways. Today, the ridge was partially covered in snow, and it was clearly not summer conditions. This is by far the most technical and exposed rock route I have done without a rope, not to mention in ski boots and a thirty pound pack with skis waving all over the place.

There is no way that words can describe the feeling you get from having your body weight supported by a half-square-inch of vibram boot sole on a protrusion of rotten granite while 1500 vertical nothingness is tugging on your pack. This was the kind of place where, if you screw up, even for just a second, you will fall, and you will probably not survive. More of an adrenalin rush than anything else I have ever experienced. There is something different that happens to me at altitude, kinda like being in the zone I guess, but just being up there, at the complete whim of Mother Nature, very cool feeling.


But, we arrived at the top, without incident, had some food, looked around, threw our skis on and went right down into the belly of the beast. A group earlier that day kicked off a pretty big slide one gully away from where we were going to ski, which was off the north face. So we changed plans and made our way to the saddle, from which we went straight off the east face, and on down back to the car. On the way down, I was trying to make some heavy turns to see if I could get any slough, but no such luck. The snow was fantastic though, similar consistency to that of warm margarine, a bit sticky in places, but a fine run indeed.


Coming back down through steven's gulch required some interesting maneuvering to make it possible to ski the whole way down. But as we are naturally innovative, we found a way to ski almost the whole way to the car (it may not have been 100% sierra club approved, but it worked).

Most of these photos are courtesy of Dale Atkins