After 4 years it was time to do another climb of the Kelso Ridge. Maybe this time I'd find the elusive knife edge Roach mentions in his guide. When I climbed the Kelso in 1998 I cut left at the 4th class buttress and had to claw my way up a steep, snow and dirt gully to regain the ridge. In doing so I missed out on the knife ridge, as I joined the ridge above Dead Dog Couloir.

I drove up to the Stevens Gulch trailhead and started hiking at about 07:20. I had just added a 2" suspension lift and new shocks on my Jeep - the lift actually came out to be 3" - and I was eager to see how it would do on the rough road to the trailhead. With that much lift I didn't even have to watch where I was going, and I just let the Jeep crawl up in 4-low. I am always surprised to see how many passenger cars make it up that road; just a couple years ago I would have been one of them.

The weather was looking good this morning: clear skies, warm weather, not much wind. As this was a Tuesday there were not many people on the trail, but since it is the Grays Peak trail of course there were a few. On weekends this trail is a superhighway of hikers, and it's hard to find a place to park along the road if you don't get there early. I made good time up the main trail and took the side trail to the Torreys/Kelso saddle. I made it to the saddle an hour after my start, and looked up at the Kelso Ridge. I was interested to see how my perception of the ridge would have changed after 4 more years of climbing experience, and no snow.

The climb is easy enough in the beginning, and it's not hard to stick to the ridge. About a third of the way up, I started skirting along the left (south) side of the ridge like I had done before. There was one spot that I remembered from the first time on the ridge, where steep walls above you present a rockfall hazard. This would have been a good place to don my helmet but instead I just scooted past the dangerous spot. After this spot I chose to regain the ridge and tried to stick to it as much as possible. Not only is the climbing more fun on the solid rock of the ridge, but the rockfall danger is nonexistent. About halfway up the ridge I negotiated a good sized tower; this was one of the few real class 3 sections. I had the impression that the climb is mostly class 2 punctuated with a few class 3 sections. Those class 3 sections definitely have some exposure, however.

Foto ©2002 by John C. Maki

There's really nothing tricky about the routefinding on this ridge - I only had to backtrack a short distance once. As I approached 14,000' I thought I saw the 4th class buttress Roach mentions, and made sure I stuck to the ridge so I wouldn't miss it. Yes, this looked like the crux section: a smooth wall maybe about 20' stood on the ridge, and I could see the detour routes to the left and right. I saw at least 3 ways to solve the crux problem, and I chose to climb a 90 degree corner on the left side of the wall. The rock of the wall was smooth and slick, but there were plenty of holds available and in a couple minutes I was on top of the wall looking down.

Foto ©2002 by John C. Maki

So far so good! I was past the crux section and still on the ridge. A short distance up I came across the famous Kelso Knife Ridge. The ridge is composed of two sections; the lower section is a light gray smooth granite, about 20' long, and is mostly horizontal. The upper section is a toothy, jagged quartzite which you must climb up and over then descend back to the ridge past the quartzite area. I started across the ridge, sometimes with my feet on good holds below the left side of the ridge, sometimes straddling the ridge. The rock was solid, holds were good, and the exposure was interesting, especially off to the left. The second section was a little trickier but still not very difficult, and I dropped down back on "solid" ground.

          
Fotos ©2002 by John C. Maki

After the knife ridge, the climb is basically over and a short grunt up some loose scree and talus left me on the summit at 09:50. I stayed on the summit just a few minutes; the weather was still nice but it was a little windy up there and the wind shelter wasn't very big. In the picture of Grays Peak from Torreys peak at the top of this page, you can clearly see a plume of smoke from the Hayman Fire on the horizon to the left of the peak. I headed down to the Grays/Torreys saddle trying to decide whether to climb Grays or just head back down. The snow below the saddle didn't promise a good glissade so figured I might as well climb Grays while I was there, and descend the easy Grays Peak trail from the summit. On the way down I met Candice who asked me about the descent from the saddle. It turns out she had read my trip reports then noticed this latest entry later that day, and emailed me saying she did Grays/Torreys too. We determined that she was the one asking me about the descent route - small world.

After about a 45 minute traverse I reached Grays' summit, which held 3 or 4 groups of climbers relaxing in the sun. The wind wasn't very strong here at all and I leaned back against a rock and had a bite to eat. I stayed up there 15 minutes then headed down the trail. I made good time and reached the trailhead about noon. I drove a bit faster on the way out to see how my new shocks handled the bumpy road - I was pleased with them.

Kelso Ridge is an excellent climb, and I hope to make it back soon. I think next time I'll skip the climb up to Grays; 3 times on that mountain is enough for me.