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| Grays Peak 14,270 |
Sunday, July 8
Spoiler Alert: I didn’t die climbing Grays Peak. We were up at 5:30 AM and hiking by 6:30 AM. Since Grays is a 14,000 foot peak, we wanted an early start to climb and descend a few thousand feet before the expected afternoon thunder storms. (An exposed peak is not a good place to be in a thunder storm.) We had 3,600 feet of climbing to do from our camp site, and I felt sluggish climbing to Argentine Pass (13,221 feet) where we took a break and I ate a snack. After the pass was a climb to Mt. Edwards (13,817 feet), and that's where the fun (and by fun, I mean a knife edge ridge walk of death) began. The map below shows our route marked in yellow and you can see the steep ridge we walked.
Below is a picture of the ridge between Mt. Edwards and Grays Peak. The view is looking back from Grays.
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| I'm getting scared just looking at it! |
Here are a few more pictures of me and my amazing hiking partner, 5 Star.
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| The view of Grays Peak (left) and the ridge we walked to get there. |
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| A short section of scrambling on the north side of the ridge. Don't look down!!! |
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| Yes You Can!!! |
I'm so thankful I had a hiking partner for this ridge walk. 5 Star kept me calm, focused, and most importantly...moving. It took us over 5 hours to complete 5 miles to the summit of Grays. Most of that time was spent on the ridge walk and by the time we reached the summit, I was physically and emotionally exhausted. On our way, we met another CDT hiker, Patches, and even a few mountain goats. It was the scariest, hardest and best day on trail so far and I am thankful for friends to celebrate it with.
We descended to the Grays Peak trail head used by day hikers and stopped for a late lunch. There we met another CDT hiker, Story Time, and together devised a plan to walk to Georgetown and celebrate the day with town food and beds. Even though we only hiked 5 miles before noon, we ended up hiking over 20 miles to get to Georgetown by 8:00 PM.
Here are two final photos of a dilapidated old building along the dirt road to Grays Peak trail head.
For additional content, check out Flickr for images, YouTube for video, SoundCloud for audio, and the Postholer Map with my most recent location.
Thanks for following along!
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