Post-work on Friday I drove up to the Stevens Gulch trailhead and prepared to camp out in my car overnight. I enjoyed the views of Mt Edwards while talking to a few other climbers camping out.
Sleep was disturbed around 2:30 am by a chipmunk jumping on my vehicle’s springs and gnawing at some tasty part of my car. It didn’t leave until I got out and poked a flashlight under the car.
My first alarm went off at 3:10 and I quickly reset it for 3:30. About that time a couple new cars pulled into the lot and climbers began packing. Most of those who camped at the trailhead planned for 4:30 departures and I wanted to be ahead of everyone else. After a quick breakfast I started hiking just after 4am and soon passed what turned out to be the only group ahead of me. Even by headlamp the trail was fairly easy to follow, with so many boot prints in the snow. I got a little off-route only once and started following a different set of tracks up Kelso Mountain, but shortly cut across some snowfields and rejoined the main track.
I reached the base of the Dead Dog couloir just after 5am as the sky was lightening up. I put on my helmet and crampons and got out the ice axe. I took a few steps toward the couloir and realized one of the crampons had loosened up. I stopped to re-adjust it and began climbing about 5:20a.
The snow was frozen solid and I was able to walk flat-footed all the way up without having to kick steps. The top layer was icy, but the crampons stuck well and little bits of the ice would break off and tumble to the base as I ascended.
The sun and I quickly meet in the couloir so I stopped to switch to sunglasses and lather up the sunblock. I was also thankful to have the route to myself – the Dead Dog is a very popular route on a popular mountain. Fast hiking and an early start gave me the unique experience of having the place to myself.
As I neared the top I found the only usable foot steps that hadn’t been melted out on the whole route. I went ahead and used those for the last 50 feet of the climb. The couloir had been solid enough that my ascent wouldn’t have left any steps for the climbers after me, so I didn’t save anyone any effort today.
Just before reaching the top I saw another climber approach the base of the route.
The couloir topped out about 100 feet shy of the summit. Mountain goat tracks were all over the snow here, they seemed to have been enjoying the summit views for a while. I turned left and followed the tracks to the top.
The route was a little lonely without a climbing partner, but I was still enjoying the experience of having this mountain to myself while on the summit. It wasn’t even 6:30a yet and I should have plenty of time to traverse over to Mt Edwards (not a 14′er, but one of Colorado’s 100 highest mountains).
The summit was very windy so I dropped down a few feet to find a sheltered position to enjoy the views and have a snack. After that break I followed the trail and some snow patches down to the saddle between Grays and Torreys. Here I meet a skier planning to descend the Dead Dog and I advised him to wait a while for the snow to soften up.
I decided not to visit the top of Grays Peak today, but traversed across it and found that once again my crampons had slipped loose. Thinking about the problem I decided that my new boots were causing a problem with the spring lock and especially on rocky terrain the lock was occasionally getting knocked loose. I resolved to visit a hardware store and replace the spring clip with a bolt and lock nut once I got down.
A couple hikers heading for Grays Peak and I yelled greetings to each other. Then I spotted a fox crossing a snowfield around 13,700 feet and yelled back to the hikers so they’d get to see the wildlife too.
From the east side of Grays Peak I crossed above the Lost Rat couloir – another snow climb that is a little less steep than Dead Dog and doesn’t go as close to the summit. From here I could see, up close, the ridge I’d follow to reach Edwards.
The ridge traverse started out as fairly easy walking, I just followed some goat trails and stayed away from the corniced north side. There were several ups and downs along the way and I was worried about pushing myself too hard – I still had a big day planned for tomorrow as well. I also wasn’t sure how I was going to descend from Edwards. The safest way out would be to retrace my steps to Grays and descend the well-worn trail. The further I went on this undulating ridge, the less I enjoyed the safe option.
Another option was to continue north and east and look for a reasonable descent gully that would take me right back to the trailhead. That would make a nice loop, but I wasn’t positive I could pick the best route down from above.
The more I thought about it, the more I convinced myself that it might be reasonable to descend one of the steep snow gullies coming directly off from Edwards. With that thought in mind, I examined each gully I passed on the way to the summit looking for a good route down. Never mind that I couldn’t see the whole route down.
From the summit of Mount Edwards I had a nice view of the Dead Dog Couloir on Torreys Peak.
By the time I’d reached the summit I’d determined on a gully immediately west of the summit to descend. I’d let my desire to have some down time this afternoon make the decision for me. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have made that choice had I also not been carrying an ice tool in addition to my ice axe. Having both let me feel I could handle most surprises the gully could have for me.
Still, it was with a mix of excitement and fear that I started down. The snow was still frozen solid and I could walk down trusting my crampons to hold me. As I moved down some of the fear dissipated and I grew more comfortable with the situation.
A single rock bouncing down from avoid missed me by a good 100 feet, but still kept me on my toes. The ridge above had lots of loose rock and I’d heard of goats knocking rocks down on climbers here. Thankfully, I hadn’t seen any goats today (just tracks) but anything above would get funneled my way as the gully narrowed.
Soon I came to the first icy section – sun had melted the snow which had dripped over bare rocks and refrozen. Carefully, I picked my way down this section, having turned in to face the ice and actually swinging both tools to bury the picks in the ice and aid my down climb. I wanted to call this Alpine Ice 3 – but knew if I’d been going upwards it would only rate as AI2. Either way, I needed to be careful since no one knew where I was.
Luckily these ice sections were short, but I encountered 3 or 4 on my way down. One I made a detour around, climbing slabby and loose rock when I probably should have stuck to the ice.
Finally, I exited the gully and practically ran out the lower angled snow back to flat ground. I felt lucky not to have had any rock come down while I was dealing with the narrow and icy sections. With relief I took off my helmet and crampons and a few layers and basked in the sun.
I looked back at the route I’d come down and thought “that was a descent route my mom wouldn’t approve of”.
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