Torreys & Greys (via Kelso Ridge)

I'm not going to lie, during one section of the climb, I was pretty scared.

Had this been a standard run up and down Greys & Torreys, I wouldn't have wasted my time blogging about a route that's been tackled thousands of times by runners.  However, with our climb going up Kelso Ridge, I felt that alone would be of interest. 

Start time was at 5:10am from the I-70 / Bakersville exit.  Along side me was the now veteran Soccer Coach himself.  3 miles of slow grind up to the trailhead followed by a quick stop at the nasty ass toilet facilities and finally we were off for some real fun. 

I had suggest running this route as I thought it would be a great training week for the upcoming SJS50 in 2 weeks.  WA thought adding in Kelso would make for a more interesting run.  And boy he wasn't kidding.

We made quick work of the mile plus to the turn off to the Kelso Ridge.  For some reason, I had envisioned the climb up to the ridge being this huge bitch of a climb straight up a scree field.  It was more like 200 or so feet up to the saddle. 

(WA racing the morning sunrise)

(Top of the saddle with the Grey's route not far below)

 

Once on the saddle, the long climb began.  The route is steep and has some pretty impressive exposure.  Majority of the route was Class 2 with probably three Class 3 sections. 

Above was the first of the Class 3 sections.  A 15-20 foot wall with one pretty tough spot.  The picture above does it no justice.  What you don't see below me is a sheer 500+ foot drop.  About half way up, I realized I needed to re-adjust my position.  It was at this point I looked straight down and oh shit was I scared for a second.  A quick regrip here and foot plant there and I was out of the tough section.  Took me a good minute to regather myself and off we went with another 1,500 feet of climbing left. 

Again, the pics above do the route no justice but hopefully gives one an idea of what we dealt with.  On a side note, the last picture is of the "Knife Edge" the last Class 3 section.  Apparently the cool thing was to climb to the top of it.  Yeah, f**k that.  You're above 14,000 at this point and it's a long way down on both sides.  Not much room for error. 

(WA near the top of Torreys with my car way down there by I-70)

(WA finishing off Grey's in style)

 

Once on Torreys safely, the rest of the route was pretty straight forward.  Only issue of the day was the strong wind blowing east to west.  Other then that, all was great.  Temps were warm and I felt fantastic the whole day out.  

The descent of Greys was a blast.  The crowds of folks hiking was shockingly minimal.  All those we encountered couldn't have been nicer.  I even saw JV on the way down and exchanged a quick hello as we moved on.  JV did mention he was running with another guy who looked like Anton Krupicka.  Never saw an Anton look alike but did see a Johnny Damon circa Boston Red Sox's look alike.   

 (Wrapping up Greys)

Stats were 13.75 miles for the day.  Slightly shorter then the normal route up Greys/Torreys.  A shade over 5,000 feet of climbing.  Slightly higher (by feet) then the normal route.  Time running was around 3:55 and total time was 4:17.  

Most impressive stat was our time on Kelso Ridge.  Something like 0.98 miles in 79 minutes.  Boom!  Out of here!