Torrey's Peak and Gray's Peak 2 14er's in 1 day

The day after I finished the hike up Mount Evans Markus and I had a plan to climb two more 14er's Torrey's  and Gray's. As I drove back to the house after doing Mount Evans I was seriously doubting I was going to be able to make it up the two peaks, but I had to try and would go as far as I could.

We started out earlier than our Evan's trip planning on taking more time to do it and wanting to be done so we could meet Kendra and my niece for her first camping trip. So, we made a quick breakfast, grabbed coffees to go at the local coffee shop and headed out to the Georgetown and the mountains. We had read questionable things about the road to the trail-head but we poo pooed them and as we headed up the dirt road we could not understand the warnings. But, they were mostly valid we found two really tough spots but whit me driving and Markus out of the car spotting we got the VW Rabbit all the way up the road to the trail-head parking lot where all the vehicles were high clearance or at least AWD

We parked used the bathroom and headed out, full of gusto. Though we did feel like we were getting a late start as we had one of the last spots in the lot.

As we set out across the bridge that started the hike a fella ran by us in shorts with two water bottles in hand and a windbreaker around his waist. Markus told me he was attempting to break his own record and run grays peak in 2 hours he did it in 2:15 last year. You can see him in our off we go photo.

Yes my Brother in law is a very silly man. But what would you expect from an  Economics professor?

The hike starts off winding is way slowly up a valley following a stream the is running off the snow that is still on the peaks. the fields around us are covered in green and wildflowers.

The trail is well maintained. There are still loose rocks and such but nothing serious, I am sure that will change. As the climb is still very gentle we are chatting and joking, Markus tells a few stories and we keep to a steady pace not wanting to use up too much energy before we get to the hard parts. We come to another stream crossing this one is more like a small very shallow pond that we use stepping stones to get across.

There are a lot more hikers on this trail than there were on the trail from Echo lake and we yo yo with a couple of groups and pass as well as get passed by other groups the entire hike. including a youth group of high school age boys and their councilors. The bulk pass us as we start to get into the steeper stuff and their stragglers appear on and off during the hike.  We meet them again later.
The views are amazing and the air is clear and beginning to cool off again.

As we ascend we use the excuse of looking at the views and taking pictures so we can take breathers.

As we hike our way up the trail gets more and more rocky. We cross a small patch of snow and up up up the scree fields. At one point we hear someone yell and a WEEEEE or WAAHOO as they take a slide down one of the snowfields.

 Yes there is a person there a small black dot with arms. sliding over 1000 feet down the mountain. Very soon after we see the slider walking off from the bottom we hear another person yell as they slide down after the first.. I guess we know where the emergency bail out is if a thunderstorm comes in.

The community of climbers/ hikers is really quite a friendly nice community I am finding out. everyone we pass or come across has a smile (sometimes pained) and often a Hello or even conversation as we were working our way up a couple of collage age guys caught up and passed us and they were discussing weather there was life on other planets and how there must be otherwise it is a total wast of space. Markus of course joined in and there as I caught my breath they had a full discussion about it, well until they realized that they wanted to be hiking and not just standing there.

Due to our slightly lateish start and the way weather can come in we decide to climb Torrey's Peak first. it looks to be the more interesting one and if we have to bail and only get one peak that is the one we would prefer to do. So we take our fork to the right that winds it's way up to crossing one of the snowfields.

After crossing the snowfield there was the hard part. the steep hike to the final summit of 14,273 ft. About halfway up that last push I gave up on speaking at all and just concentrated on walking and breathing. I repeated to my self with each step "right" then "left" over and over. I was taking long deep breaths pushing my self up the mountain during this part I remembered the "rest step" and though I should have been doing it the entire hike I started it as soon as I remembered. The idea is that at the end of every step you lock your knee and let your bones take your weight for a moment and thus give your muscles a rest. Each rest taken on its own mean little but they all add up. 

As we reached the top we came across the youth group again and one of the leaders was down. when Markus got there he was laying on the ground holding his head. Markus got him to sit up about the time I got there. On these summits there is a logbook that you sign to say you made it, that logbook is stored in a tube with a PVC cap. It seems one of the youths tossed the cap to the fella on the ground a nailed him in the head. giving him a nice couple inch gash in his scalp. lucky for him i carry my first aid kit all the time so out it came. since it was in his hairline we put a gauze compress on it and then used a non adhesive bandage to hold it in place then he put his hat back on and we told them to get him to a hospital and get some staples put in. I gave them some extra pads in case they needed to mess with the dressing. We then cleaned up and headed to the top.

We spent a little bit of time on the summit enjoying the view and resting up. We chatted with a Father/Son team a bit and we all tried to figure out which peak was which of the ones we could see.  They pointed out another fella up there who was in his mid to late 50s and told us it was his second time up there today.. makes me really feel out of shape. There was also a young man up there (prolly in collage) who was able to tell us all the peaks around us and what roads we could see. It was very cool. But as you can see from the photo the clouds were building up and so if we wanted to hit Gray's Peak as well we would need to get going and hustle. so we went down to the logbook, signed it and headed down the saddle

Down the saddle was not that bad, my knees are holding up just fine. all the balance board squats I have been doing at the gym are apparently really helping. I am still going slower than Markus but that could just me being unsure of my footing on the loose surface. As we start up the other side of the saddle to Gray's Peak it does not take long before I am back to my "right, left" mantra but, due to the worry about weather we are not taking breaks . Soon my mantra is too complex and it changes to "up, up, up" one up per step. I am not sure how much of this is the thin air and how much is my fitness. It is inspiring me to work harder on the fitness. I finally crest the top. I am exhausted.

But the view is fantastic

You can see the dark clouds and the rain in the distance. This peak also had a bunch of people on it. It seems these are popular peaks to climb. A group of them were talking about heading over to Torrey's and that Collage student who was pointing out the peaks and such said, "well you have about 30 min to do it and then you will probably be in trouble" He really seemed to know what he was talking about and we decided we did not want to wait those 30 min and just head down now. 

The hike down is much easier and though my knees still twinge a couple of time but I expect they just still need strengthening but I am quite happy with how they are doing. On the way down the scree field we notice some precipitation, snow. just a few flakes but it is snowing on us in July. 

a little further down and i hear that Markus is not right behind me. When I look back I see he is eyeing spire. I don't think we should clime that Markus...

 a little further down we meet up with a couple and their dogs they have stopped to take pictures of a heard of mountain goats. I believe all I have seen this trip are mountain goats and not Bighorn sheep. Anyway, the dogs really wanna go visit the goats and are being good and not going after them, but when the goats start moving toward us and what I can only assume is the lead male moves in staring us down we decide it is time to leave them be and we take off. 

We get ahead of that couple and continue our decent it starts to really sprinkle and we get out our rain gear. The light has soften and Markus is all about the flower photos I keep trying to get a shot of the Pika who keep peeping at us then running into the rocks. I am unsuccessful, they are all blurry. We reach the car and the latrine and head out to meet up with Kendra and my niece to do our camping trip. My legs are kinda like jello but it feels really good to have accomplished that. 

8.2. miles in 7 hours. From 11,253 ft to 14,287 ft and back. At our highest a total gain of 3,517ft.