Kelso Mountain (13,164)  by Brian Schultz   Saturday December 1, 2012

Roundtrip mileage: 3.7 miles from Stevens Gulch trailhead

Elevation gain: 1,935'

Start to finish: 3 hours 30 minutes

Participants: Jason Mayfield, Tim Briese, & Brian Schultz

I flew to Denver yesterday for the annual Fourteenerworld gathering. This was the first get-together for members of the now defunct climbing site and judging by the turnout last night, this popular event will carry on. It was my primary reason for coming to Colorado but I packed an additional bag of hiking gear when Tim mentioned the possibility of getting a climb in as well. Tim and I had a great time at the gathering and today's weather looked favorable for climbing, other than the 60mph winds that were predicted in the early morning.

With such strong winds in the forecast, we decided to start later and hoped they'd dissipate as the morning progressed. After a good night's sleep and a great breakfast at buddy Jason's house, the three of us drove to the Stevens Gulch trailhead. We drove in Jason's 4x4 truck but the road to the trailhead was in such good condition and that a regular car could've handled it. There was very little snow on it and we easily made it to the parking lot. There were nine vehicles in the lot when we pulled in and another one arrived as we were getting ready.

Winds were light at the trailhead and it was cool and sunny when we started at 10:30. It didn't take long to warm up as we headed up the mostly snow-free trail and we talked briefly with returning climbers who'd bailed on Grays because of the high winds. There were a few sections of ice on the trail but amazingly, the slopes below Kelso were clear of snow. When the trail leveled out at ~12,000 feet we headed up Kelso's southeast slopes (photo 1, photo 2), which were steep but easy, and gained Kelso's summit ridge without difficulty.

The east side of the summit ridge held some snow but it was easy to sidestep and we reached the summit at 12:25. The winds that we thought would pummel us turned out to be only 15-20 mph and we stayed on the summit for a half hour. It was chilly up there but we really enjoyed being on a high peak, especially in December, and the views were great.

We departed at 12:55 and were back at the truck at 2:00. Hikers were still heading up the trail but we didn't ask if they were climbing or just out for a walk. This was a fun weekend in Denver and a special treat for me to get a climb in.

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