Grays Peak (14,270) and Torreys Peak (14,267) by Brian Schultz Monday July 9, 1995
My drive in from Minnesota was filled with anticipation of fourteener hiking after a semi-serious attempt on Longs last September. I drove in from Denver and made it up the road to the Stevens Gulch trailhead where parking my car proved to be the biggest problem of the day. Wow, there were lots of cars here! I put on some sunscreen, threw on my overloaded pack and headed for the footbridge. At 9:30 I was on my way.
It seemed rather easy to follow the nice trail and I got to thinking this fourteener stuff was going to be a piece of cake. Along the way a fellow from Denver named Ed caught up to me and we started hiking together. He's been hiking Grays every year for many years and has also done 30 or so other fourteeners. There was a steady stream of hikers in front and behind us as we marched up the peak. We arrived on the summit to a huge group of people but since the clouds were building up, Ed said if I wanted to go to Torreys we better get going right away.
Very few others seemed interested in Torreys- they were content to sit on Grays' summit while Ed and I descended. On the hike up to Torreys I noticed I was moving a lot slower. Maybe it wasn't such a piece of cake after all. No matter how hard I tried to push up the ridge, I had to stop and catch my breath often. We finally got up to the top just as a mountain goat was scampering down the other side. We had lunch and enjoyed the remarkable views. I liked the feeling of being up high on the mountains and looking out in every direction.
Mindful of the weather we headed down and at the saddle cut across the snow slope to avoid hiking back to Grays. Further down the trail were two women, one of them snowshoeing her way up. What energy! Her companion seemed uninterested in summitting Grays so she turned around and hiked back out with us. We got back to the parking lot at 4:30. The hike was everything I imagined it to be and I was thrilled but my face was stinging. In my enthusiasm I neglected to protect it further with additional sunscreen or a hat and that night I suffered a rather painful sunburn. I felt I was well on my way though, with peaks #1 and 2 checked off the list.
Total hike time- 7 hours