7/12/03 – Torreys Peak & Kelso Mountain – Kelso Ridge, South Ridge

7.6 miles, 3930'


Erin and I were stuck in Denver this weekend with a couple of engagements to attend, so I thought it would be a fine time to take Erin up Kelso Ridge on Torreys Peak for some scrambling practice before we set off for Maroon Peak next weekend. I had soloed Kelso just over a year earlier (on July 9th to be exact) and was itching for a repeat run on this fine ridge.

We left Broomfield at 4:00 a.m., a little later than we had wanted to because we wanted to ensure a good view of alpenglow on Torreys. Sure enough, we had all but missed the show when we arrived at the Stephens Gulch TH at 5:30. The Stephens Gulch Road showed some of the wear-and-tear of a normal snow year and was in far worse shape than last year when I drove my Prizm up. There were a handful of passenger cars at the TH and campgrounds when we arrived, but I doubt they ascended that road without taking some damage.

We were ready quickly, and we hit the trail at 5:45. We were behind just four other folks who started ahead of us, but we soon passed them all while we enjoyed the rapidly fading pink and orange on Grays Peak. It didn't take long to reach the turnoff for the Torreys-Kelso Mountain saddle, which is just fifty feet or so above the basin's elevation. I had been talking to Erin about how I saw young ptarmigans last on the trail last year, but we saw no wildlife this morning aside from a small group of mountain goats several hundred feet beyond the turnoff. We packed our trekking poles and began to pick our way up the ridge.

Last year when I climbed Kelso Ridge, I was nervous about making a solo climb and, consequently, picked the easiest path possible up to the summit. This year we were feeling adventurous and stayed on or near the ridge crest much of the way. Doing so affords much additional scrambling, and you get to avoid a lot of the unpleasant, loose gullies and trails that the beaten path takes you on. Plus, I rarely encountered any notches or other surprises while staying on or near the ridge crest. Simply put, this is the way to go! I also chose a few short but excellent third or fourth class pitches along the way. One of the pitches was up a buttress fairly early on the ridge that kept me on the crest. Another was up a small face that I scoped out the backside of first and backtracked for. The last was the righthand of a pair of cracks in whitish rock about midway up the ridge. I remember climbing this harder crack last year, and I couldn't help but repeat it this year. Erin took easier routes around these three pitches, but otherwise stuck with me on or near the ridge crest.

We watched other hikers far below on the Grays Peak trail as we continued up the ridge. It's far too cool to be able to stay above and away from the crowds on a summer weekend morning. We reached the fourth class buttress noted in Gerry Roach's route description and climbed it directly. The knife edge follows soon after, and we loved the views down into Dead Dog Couloir as we scrambled across. There were still some footsteps remaining in the couloir, though there was no one taking that snow climb this morning.

John Maki noted the need for an ice ax just beyond the knife ridge when he climbed Kelso Ridge a few weeks earlier, but now there is just twenty feet of snow intervening between the knife and the final climb to Torreys summit. We tooled around on the ridge so long that we didn't summit until 8:30, which already was host to a couple of climbers from the standard route. From the summit, we realized that there were more than a few climbers on Kelso Ridge behind us. The best view from Torreys was of Mount of the Holy Cross, which still looked to be holding plenty of snow in its namesake couloir.

After enjoying the company of the folks on the summit for a good 45 minutes, we turned around and began our downclimb of the ridge. This, too, was great practice, including a number of spots where we got some practice downclimbing while facing in. Nothing notable happened on the downclimb, though we did bump into a couple of guys who were happy for some beta on the Chicago Basin 14ers, where they were headed the following week. We passed by at least five other groups of people ascending Kelso Ridge during our downclimb. I'd say for better or worse Kelso Ridge is gaining some popularity.

From the saddle, we picked an easy third class scramble up the initial portion of Kelso Mountain's South Ridge. After maybe 200 feet of scrambling, the ridge turns into a completely gentle amble all the way to Kelso's rounded summit.

About 50 feet shy of the summit, I caught a profile of a ptarmigan mother on the ridge crest. To our delight, she was accompanied by four ptarmigan chicks. Last year when I encountered young ptarmigan, they looked like pint-sized versions of their mother – smaller, yes, but looking very much like adults otherwise. This year the chicks we saw couldn't have been more than a few days old. The were still covered in down, and they were around two inches high. The grass and flowers towered over them! It was neat to see how different weather patterns on consecutive years can mean a significant difference to the start of the ptarmigan breeding season. The chicks were already quite adept with their terrain, dashing quickly through the grass and over and under the rocks. They issued peeps, not unlike those of chicken chicks, almost constantly, keeping in communication with their equally vocal mother. At one point, I got a little to close for the mother's comfort, and she hissed at me while fanning out her wings, displaying her white plumage. I told her I was sorry, and we let them be. It's amazing to me that I've encountered young ptarmigan in such a heavily used area in two straight years.

Kelso's summit was just a couple minutes away. We found a summit register, which attested to the peak's relative lack of popularity. Yes, some people had signed it a couple days earlier, but it didn't even compare to the register on Torreys (which only dated back to July 1).

We chose a descent route that would help us cut off some distance, making a descending traverse on tundra and rock covered slopes back toward the trail. Lower on Kelso's slopes, we found a talus runout that got us down to the trail in no time. I was surprised that a hiker on the trail asked us if we had just climbed Kelso Mountain, thinking that very few of your average hikers on the Grays Peak Trail would even know that mountain's name. We made it back to Erin's 4Runner a little after 1:00 p.m. You've got to love how quickly you can get back to Denver after climbing Torreys, a welcome bonus after driving to Durango the week before.