After the big storm this weekend, I figured it would be "fun" to do my weekly run up Grays and Torreys. I wasn't too sure on how the conditions would be - Loveland, just up the road reported around 8+ inches out of the storm, and other areas got more. However, I figured it would be a good time either way. Needless to say, conditions were OK. Running up the road was not too bad, with some windblown spots here and there while the rest of the road had about 4 inches of fresh. Once I got to the summer trailhead, the snow got deep - there were sections where I was wallowing up past my knee/thigh, and if you didn't pick the best path, you were sure to end up in even deeper drifts. I pressed on, and punched my way up the hill until reaching the turnoff for the Kelso Ridge, at which point the conditions got remarkably better. There was still a ton of snow, but the big windblown drifts found below in the willows were gone. Once again, I had the entire basin to myself, as I cruzed up to Grays via the East Ridge and then over to Torreys and back down. On the way back down near the Big Sign there were two parties coming up - one party had been using snowshoes so the trail should be much better by tomorrow. They thanked me for breaking trail and I wished them good luck as I quickly ran back down to Bakersville and my recovery drink of chocolate milk (normally beer, but I got stuff to do today). Despite all of the snow and slogging in the snow, I was able to just come in under 4 hours at 3:56. Slow for summer conditions, but fast for winter. I also realized I've made it over the initial hump of 13 times (exactly one quarter of a year - once every week) and now have 14 weekly trips done. Still hoping to pull off 52 consecutive runs.
Torreys and Dead Dog looking nice...
Looking south towards South Park and beyond...
Looking west past Keystone and Breck...
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