This morning I got up at 3 a.m. and met Mark at the Grays-Torreys parking lot off of I-70. We both had already climbed both Grays and Torreys, but only by the standard route. This time we took a different route; the northwest face also know as the tuning fork couloir. Little did we know that we were in for such an adventure.
Mark hopped in my truck at the parking lot and we headed up the road to the trail head. Since this peak (and Grays) are probably the most climbed 14ers in the state (they are right off of I-70 a little outside of Denver), the road has become impassible for passenger cars (washout, wear, etc). Since I drive the perfect truck for 4-wheeling, we made it over the standard problem spots with no problem.
A mile or two later we came upon a snow drift. At this point we were only in Jeep territory. Feeling confident from the recent large stream crossings, I gunned it and made it about halfway through the drift. Another reason for my confidence was that we had packed a snow shovel, obviously our ice axes, and a towing strap. We were stuck, and the dig out process began. Eventually a very similar Jeep (older, white, bigger tires) came up behind us and pulled us out. I backed up to build up speed and hit the snow drift again. We made good progress so we pulled my truck out again with the Jeep and tried a third time. The third time I made it through the drift. The Jeep tried to follow, but also got stuck, so I turned around and pulled him out.
Having my new buddy now behind me, I felt very confident on the road. We crossed two mud pits/pools of water that we probably shouldn't have. I guess water in the intake is a bad thing? Well, we had no problems but the water was probably up to the bottom of the door at the really bad spot. Luckily, on the way back we found another option, but because the snow had melted more since, the puddles/mud bogs were really sketchy. It was bad enough and we were close enough to getting stuck to make it a completely awesome 4WD trip since we didn't get stuck.
...and that was just the drive. The hike was great too. This couloir provides 3,000 vertical feet of continuous snow. I guy we met along the way said his understanding was 3,000 vertical but about a mile of distance on the face. Think a 3-4-5 triangle and pythagorean theorem. Because this is one of the biggest snow fields, it attracts a lot of skiers. Mark and I choose a conservative glissade as our way to get down the mountain. After the steep part near the summit, the glissade was awesome. There's nothing like sliding down a mile-long section of a mountain on your bum. I don't know if the skiers were taking their time or not (it actually was pretty technical/steep for skis in my opinion), but we definitely smoked them on the way down. The only problem with a glissade that long is your bum gets numb.
In the end it was a great adventure. This route up Torreys was much better then the standard summer route, and it's a lot more fun on the way down. Of course, my truck was star of the show otherwise (Mark gave my truck a lot of compliments) and I have the mud all over the body to prove it.
Music by CCR (Bad Moon Rising)