Grays Peak - 14,270 ft
Date: 6-15-2004
Climbers: George Barnes, Tony Melton of New Zealand, Joel Rutkowski (all unicycle descents)
Route: North Slopes II, Class 1
RT distance: 8.0 miles
RT time: 5 hours
Time to summit: 3 hours 15 minutes
Time on summit: 10 minutes
Time to trailhead: 1 hours 35 minutes
Elevation gain: 3,040 feet
Coordinates of TH: 39° 39.72'N, 105° 47.09'W
Coordinates of summit: 39° 38.03'N, 105° 49.05'W
USGS Quadrangle: Grays Peak
Trip Report:
Pre-climb:
After dinner at Beau Jo's in Idaho Springs we headed for the Steven's Gulch TH and set up camp.
Climb:
We started the day with a breakfast of champions, served by master propane burner chef Joel. Joel filtered super-strong Russian Roulette coffee directly into our waiting mugs. Scrambled eggs and homemade Hawaiian bread were also on the menu.
We packed some lunch (bagels with cheese and salami), struck tents, and made for
the trailhead. We were on the trail by 9 AM.
The lower section of the trail was a wide but rocky track, heading up a U-shaped
valley towards the ridge between Grays and Torreys Peaks. We quickly moved
above tree line and into alpine meadows. Joel and Zoey, Joel's German Shepard,
streaked ahead and would not be seen again until the summit. The trek up
included some rideable sections, but mostly we were pushing our unicycles.
Soon the gradient increased noticeably and the plants became more sparse.
On a ridge next to the trail there was a mountain goat checking out the curious
humans and eating alpine grasses or whatever mountain goats normally do. The
goat was quite unconcerned by our approach, and got within 3 yards of Tony. Joel
had already streaked past this point but later would swear black and blue that
there was no mountain goat on the trail, only a large white dog which Zoey
wanted to play with!
There were a few patches of snow covering the trail, but nothing serious. The
trail got steeper and switch backed across rocky boulder fields. The last 300
feet to the summit were really taxing. Tony and I could measure our progress by
looking across to Torreys Peak which is connected to Gray's by a saddle and
only 3 feet shorter at 14,267 feet. It was hard to keep moving upwards, but
ominous black clouds were building quickly near the summit. I knew we had to
push on to make the summit before the infamous Colorado afternoon thunder and
lightning storms struck. Even knowing this it was tough to find the strength to
push on. Grays is supposed to be an easy hike, but carrying 20 pounds of
unicycle increases the difficulty!
Finally we made it to the summit at about 12:15 PM. Joel, who'd been there for
some time already, announced that we'd spend only 10 minutes at the summit
before heading down due to the incoming weather. In those precious minutes, I
managed to wolf down a cheese and salami bagel and take some photos. After
eating I suited up in my helmet, gloves, and DH leg armor. Joel held his
unicycle in the air above his head for a photo. As he was in this pose a
lightning bolt struck down behind him, only a few miles away. We took this
as a serious cue to start our descent!
We rode down short sections and paused to take photos, Tony and I swapping cameras once. The descent was quite exciting because if you fell off you could fall onto nasty jagged rocks and potentially roll a long way down. I noted to myself once again that things often seem steeper and less rideable on the way up than on the way down. There were some very rocky and snow covered sections which were unrideable, but I'd estimate we rode about 85% of the trail from summit to the upper slopes of the valley.
The remainder of the trail back to the trailhead was fantastic technical rocky alpine riding. Luckily the effects of the altitude were now gone. The last couple miles were really cool - rock drop offs followed by more drop offs and boulder strewn chutes - really good riding! We rode out, tired but happy at 2 PM.
Thanks to Tony Melton for helping with this trip report and allowing the use of
his pictures. More of Tony's pictures can be found
here.
