Torrey's Peak Kelso Ridge in Winter
Colorado, United States, North America

Torrey's Peak Kelso Ridge in Winter

Page Type Page Type: Trip Report
Date Date Climbed/Hiked: Feb 17, 2012
Activities Activities: Mountaineering
Seasons Season: Winter

Kelso Ridge Winter

This is my first video trip report. Bare with me. No photos, just video. Hope it's not too long, 10 minutes is a good chunk of time but there was a lot of climbing I wanted to cover. Shot with the HERO camera, cat eye lens. Man, these things are cool!

A few stats:

-Party: Solo

-9.5 hours car to car, with a nice break on the summit and a few breaks in-between. Had to start from I-70/Bakerville - I tried to drive up but the snow is already too deep and soft.

-The weather was great, albeit windy at the most inconvenient of places. However, one could've heard a whisper on the summit.

-Avy danger can be avoided. Kelso mountain had a recent slide that looks like it came about 100 yards from the summer trail. It doesn't appear there is enough snow up there for a major slide at this time, to cover the summer TH on the approach.

-There is a suspect slope on the Gray's/Torrey's saddle, closer to Gray's. I had to climb half-way up Gray's to cross in the rock band. It was a convex wind loaded slope. Had a hollow sound underneath the feet. It was worth the extra vert to avoid.

-As for the route, one should be comfortable with class 4 and exposure - including climbing on rock/snow in crampons. Snowshoes needed for the approach past the summer trail head.

-A blessed day. Enjoy the video.

Comments

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Viewing: 1-4 of 4
Boriss Andean

Boriss Andean - Feb 21, 2012 1:27 am - Voted 10/10

Kelso ridge...

Very enjoyable video. Makes me wanna be up there.

SarahThompson

SarahThompson - Feb 21, 2012 4:03 pm - Hasn't voted

Cool!

Pretty cool footage James! Nice solo effort. Do you think the lens of that camera makes the ridge look more dramatic than it really is? Its been a while since I've been up there in winter but I don't remember it feeling as gnarly as it seems in the video. Anyway, congrats.

jameseroni - Feb 22, 2012 1:46 am - Hasn't voted

Reply

It has a "cat eye" lens, which does make for a more rounded effect on the footage. However, It was still gnarly class 4 with a lot of exposure. A fall would've probably been fatal. There were two crux sections that I think I got off route on. The snow didn't seem safe to traverse below so I think I wound up climbing a little more difficult of a section than I needed to.

darinchadwick

darinchadwick - Feb 22, 2012 5:22 am - Voted 10/10

Did it right.

I remembered the section shown from 3:40 to 4:40 on my summer climb of the route. That was the easiest then, though it looks pretty interesting covered in powder snow. I liked the sequence around 7:00 as well where you looked pretty indecisive and just went for it. I think I bear-hugged that rock as well. Didn't look off route to me, but things change in the winter, and it was a couple years ago I did the route. Great vid, I can relate to the frustration you had, brushing snow off of holds, scratching around with the axe looking for something solid, nope, this kind of climbing isn't very graceful but it is a lot of fun!

Viewing: 1-4 of 4


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