Grays Peak and Torreys Peak 7-20-11

Here in Colorado we have a saying that was created to kill tourists. That saying is “easy 14er”. The end result of this saying is the misery experienced by foreigners (hopefully from Texas or California) when they undertake an “easy 14er” during their stay here in Colorful Colorado.

The term “easy 14er” is relative to the hard 14ers. Just as 300mph is slow relative to 1000mph. However, 300mph is still f-ing fast and an “easy 14er” is still f-ing hard.

Despite my knowledge of this I decided to tackle not one, but two, easy 14ers.

IN ONE DAY!

The trailhead to Grays and Torreys lies roughly one hour from my front door so a 5am departure was in order. Myself, my wife Aimee, our friend Blake, and of course Maggie Mae (the soon to be famous 14er climbing Labrador) left the trailhead at 6:30 am.

The trail was relatively flat until the ridge up to Grays. Once the ascent up the ridge began, the trail began to become a little rocky.

We had our first views of Torreys at this point.

Aimee was not feeling very good and decided to turn around about one mile from the summit. Blake and I began the arduous ascent of the switchbacks up the north face of Grays. Some of them seemed to go on forever but before I knew it, we were on the summit. The views were amazing as always.

Maggie was very excited to summit her first 14er and was very surprised when everyone on the summit shared their lunch with her. We signed the register and headed down the ridge to the Grays-Torreys saddle. I would not recommend going up this route as it is very steep and rocky. After Blake called me a sissy for even thinking of turning around at the saddle we started up Torreys ridge. It looks a lot worse than it was and before we knew it, we were on the summit of our second 14er.

Maggie at this point thought handouts were the standard on 14er summits and proceeded to beg everyone for more lunch. The clouds were beginning to look a little dark(although no rain was experienced all day) so down we went.

Looking back on our route up Torreys

Our route up Grays

The hike out, as usual, felt longer than normal. We arrived back at the trailhead at 1:15pm. Those of us of age celebrated with lunch and libations at Tommyknockers Brewery in Idaho Springs.

Those of us not of age did this….

All in all it was a great day climbing my second and third 14ers. We met lots of great people and got Maggie on the summit of her first and second 14er.