After spending the past few weeks climbing some of the more technical 14ers, I wanted to take a break and knock out a couple of the walk up ones near Denver. I’d never done Gray’s and Torrey’s peaks, and figured it was a great chance to introduce a few friends to their first experience of hiking at higher altitude.

One really great thing about the front range peaks is that you don’t have to get up obscenely early to make the summit and get home at a reasonable time. We met at my place around 6:30 am, and headed out. We got there too late to get a parking spot in near the trailhead itself, but were early enough to get one not more than a few hundred feet down the road.  The trail was crowded, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d been told it could be.

The weather was looking perfect, and when we finally hit the summit of Gray’s right around noon, there were still no clouds in sight, so we headed over the saddle to Torrey’s. We hit the second summit around 1:45 or so, and then started to head down.

Three of the group and the two dogs headed down the standard route, but I was feeling cocky after hanging out in the Elk Range so I decided I wanted a bigger challenge. I’d read about a class 3 traverse on Kelso Ridge that would come out near the main trail…I figured that it would be fun, and save some time on the main route down. Sarah decided to join me, so we headed off toward the ridge.

Well, the route wasn’t that easy to find. Somehow I got off route very early and ended up descending way too quickly. I’m still not sure exactly how it happened, but we ended up in Dead Dog Couloir. I’m sure this a great snow climb, but for a summer descent it leaves a hell of a lot to be desired. We worked our way down through some tricky down-climbs with lots of loose rock all around. Taking our time, we ended up down on the main trail about an hour later than the folks who’d taken the standard path down…so much for time saving!

After the previous days hike and a good night of sleep, it was amazing how good both Ian and I felt when we woke up this morning. After a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast (again!), we headed off down to the road to Dole. The trail was amazingly well maintained, with fitted flagstones making a good bit of the surface, and nice steps space out at a comfortable distance. After a mile or so we came to what seemed to be a work gang, all busily paving the trail with new stones. I was impressed with the organisation of the effort and was wondering to myself who was paying for their labor; well, not five minutes later the answer was right in front of me as an older Sherpa gentleman had set up a stand on the side of the trail soliciting donations from trekkers. It was definitely worth a couple hundred rupees for a trail that was so easy on the legs!

Not much father down we came to a Stupa that was dedicated to Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa who was with Edmund Hillary on the first successful climb of Everest. Soon after, we came around another bend and got our first glimpse of Cho Oyu, the 6th highest peak in the world. This would become a constant companion for the next few days as we followed the valley northward towards Gokyo, and one of those things that really makes you feel like you are some place special.

After about five hours of slow but steady climbing, we finally arrived at the village of Dole. Our guide was pretty impressed with our progress…according to him we were about an hour and a half ahead of the normal time to arrive. I spent the afternoon reading and wandering around. At this altitude the skies were not nearly as hazy, but the afternoons were bringing in clouds that covered the mountains, and the first really chilly weather we’d experienced. All heat in the lodges is produced by burning yak dung in a central stove, and I was very pleased when they finally fired it up and served dinner. It’s veggie fried noodles or fried rice for dinner from pretty much now on, but when you’re hungry it tasted like a real feast!