On the south ridge of Grays Peak, looking out at Colorado’s rapidly dwindling snowpack.
It’s been a long ski season. A decent one though all things considered, featuring a bit of a roller coaster in terms of snowpack totals and capped off by a temperamental, dusty spring. Some good days were had, but these days I seem to find myself looking forward to the green valleys, raging creeks and dry trails of summer earlier and earlier. I’ve also always been a fan of defined endings to seasons and activities, as there’s simply too much to do in the Colorado outdoors to risk getting burned out on any one thing. So with all that being said, for me at least, it felt like the right time to take the planks out for one final ski and call it a season.
After a rowdy ski of the Tuning Fork with a 22-person crew only a few days prior, it was an obvious choice to go back to the same area again. A few late-season refreshes had caked the upper slopes of both Grays and Torreys peaks, to a somewhat surprising degree given how dry things were looking at the end of May. I opted to check out the east face of Grays from Peru Creek, a line that had been on the list for a long time and was nice to finally lay some turns down.
A fine June morning in Peru Creek with my intended line up ahead.
It’s a nice line – almost straight east-facing, a decent length right off the summit and a perfect pitch for wide-open corn turns. I parked at the Argentine Pass TH and meandered up the dirt road towards Mt. Edwards to the base of Grays’ south ridge. From there it seemed like the most efficient decision was to just stick to the ridge all the way to the summit.
Looking down on the Peru Creek drainage with Mt. Bierstadt back left.
I hit the summit and found the snow on the east face to already be softening. It always amazes me how quickly things heat up in June but it’s also nice that it’s a virtual guarantee they will.
Grays Peak summit, 14,270 ft.
And onto the ski…
The snow was nearly perfect, nice supportive corn after a good freeze making for fairly effortless turns all the way down to the small pond near 12,700 ft.
A look back up at the line.
The road out, and a look back on a great ski season.
Totaling them all up this was ski day number 86 for me, which is the most I’ve ever had. The last one was a good note to end on.
Here’s to summer!
Sweet line. I smell a potential venue change for GAGB 2023? That looks like TF 2.0. I’ve only done Grays from Gaper Gulch. Would be cool and surreal to experience from a different approach and drainage. I remember doing Edwards from that side and it had an entirely different feel to it.
Yeah it’s a cool way of doing Grays that makes you forget the fact that it’s Grays. Would be fun to relocate the GAGB there someday, but we’d have to get Carl’s approval first which likely wouldn’t happen 🙂