Grays Peak 14,270 feet (4349 m)

After as great a season as we had this year, and after 83ski days, I got a pretty severe case of “ski season postpartum”. I decided to cure that, or rather mitigate that, with an end of season “treat”. So, I thought, how about skiing a 14er? If you live in Park City, the closest ones are in Colorado. So, I looked for one not too far from an I-70 Exit and decided on Grays Peak. At 14,270 it is the 10^th highest 14er in Colorado and being off Exit 221 just about a 7:30 hr. drive from Park City.

Grays Peak (39.633820° N -105.817520° W) is close to Torreys Peak 14,267, so I was even thinking a twofer maybe in the cards? As it turns out it wasn’t because the snow got slushy long before a typical corn cycle time, so adding time for a second peak was not in the cards if getting a decent ski out was the objective. And it certainly was!

With an easy 10:00 am start from Park City, I got to the trailhead Saturday late pm and set up the car for the night. For a one-nighter, at a trailhead, I no longer bother putting up the tent. I sleep in the back of my 4-door Jeep which gets me a full-length bed. This saves a lot of time both in and out.

Phil and I started walking at 4:27 am with our skis on the backpacks for the first two miles to the summer trailhead. That is an average experience in my 4-buckle ski boots. At the TH we started skinning and were able to summit without taking the skis off once. At elevation the overnight refreeze was at 27F, so we were mostly skinning on ice until sunrise. 

We put in a nice pace and summited at 8:45 even though, on the last 1,000’ elevation gain, the shortage of oxygen made itself felt for both of us. In any case, we were first to summit so we got first tracks. The skiing was good in most parts, but you do feel this is June skiing, and as soon as next week or for sure two weeks from now, with forecasted temps in the 70s, this may not be worthwhile anymore.

The main point of the exercise: the get a 14er in and extend the ski season by a bit was all achieved on a ski which was, in most parts, really fun.

To get there

From I-70, take the Bakerville exit, Exit 221. Coming from Park City that’s the second exit after the Eisenhower Tunnel (from Denver two exits short of it) and about a 7:30 hr. drive. Still assuming you are coming from PC, turn left and go over a bridge to a large dirt parking lot. At the parking lot, there is one obvious paved road to the left, that’s not the one you're looking for. You are not going to immediately see Forest Road 189 aka Stevens Gulch Rd. You will need to cross the parking lot to its end and take the dirt road that climbs up into the woods to the south (left) and goes three miles up to the trailhead. The road is rocky, rutted, and quite bumpy and steep in places, add snow to that (yes even in June) and the adventure can start right here! This road is clearly better approached in an SUV on the dry as clearance at times will be an issue. If you are driving over any snow the SUV becomes compulsory but will still not take you all the way up to the official TH. I stopped 1.6 miles from the actual trailhead adding that distance to the approach and on the way back down.

Here are the pictures (click to enlarge):

Ski lines everywhere...

...you look.

This is Torreys Peak, 14,267  (the next one over). The
central couloir is Dead Dog Couloir. For an idea of
 the gnats, we are to these hills, look in the lower
third of the couloir for the party of three climbers.

This would be, from Grays Peak, the easiest route to the
summit of Torreys.

Phill enjoying summiting a 14er...

...as well as yours truly.

In the distance, at the bottom f the valley, the trees that constitute the woods
above the trailhead.

Kelso Mountain with its famous class 3 ridge.

How Kelso ridge lines up to Torreys ridge

Voile V6 BC – Vipec 12 – BCA Scepter: A Triad of Excellence

I am in the process of writing a full review of each of these three items but as it is taking for ever to complete, I figured I release this little preview in the meantime. Stay tuned for the complete thing though…

These three pieces of equipment provide together an uncommon level of synergies. The Voile V6 BC ski with scales underfoot, in addition to being a riot to ski, allows for a virtually transition-less change from downhill to uphill mode and vice versa. For that to remain true though, you have to have bindings that allow for that same transition to happen without clicking out. This is where the Fritschi Vipec EVO 12 comes in. This binding allows you, after skiing downhill, to free the heel simply by lifting a lever behind the heel piece. The three available settings for the heel piece are all achieved through a lifting motion. If you don’t have the right poles, that means bending down and messing with your bindings. This is where the BCA Scepter (carbon or aluminum) comes in. it has a built-in hook in the handles. This enables you to flick up both the mode lever and the two riser settings without bending anything at all. Another really smart backcountry piece of equipment from BCA!

This is the very short version of why this is a very fun and relevant “Triad of Excellence”. 

Here are a couple of pictures (click to enlarge):

The Dream Team of BC Shredding

The scales cover ca 2 feet underfoot,
the rest, in front and back, is a regular base

The Fritshi Vipec Evo heel piece and the three
settings that are all acted upon by lifting them.

The BCA Scepter Carbon with the hooks that enable
you to flick up the three levers without bending
down to your Vipec heel pieces.

Loki is back! - 05-12-2019

After six weeks of recovery, for a severed Achilles tendon, and some low volume rehab on the mountain, Loki is back! Last Sunday I took him for a few laps on Jupiter, Sundog, and out to Empire Lodge. He was in grand form chased sticks, birds, marmots and luckily only caught sticks. As a bonus, he seems to have learned to keep a respectful distance to my edges which is a great relief. Here are some pictures (click to enlarge):

Loki in top form and on top!

View down Machete. It skied quite well for being wet snow.

More Jupiter Bowl views.

Here is the sundog himself, on Sundog.

Panoramic view into BCC...

...and Loki enjoying the view.

Brighton uphill policy - The sequel

In the Wasatch Brighton was one of the early adopters of an Uphill Policy. That is a policy authorizing and regulating uphill travel on skins for ski tourers. Brighton allows ski tourers up on two different routes: One is up to Catherine's Pass, the other one up to Twin Lakes Pass, for the full policy, click here. In 2015 I posted about the first half of that policy. Only four years later (I don't skin in resort all that often) here is the sequel i.e. the second half of the policy.


From the bottom of the Millicent lift base, looker's far-right, follow the resort slopes up to the Twin Lakes Dam. To do that you keep to the right of the farthest right slopes until you are just below the dam at which point you are asked to take a sharp left. This has you cross to the other side of the lake under the dam. You then make your "escape" from the resort on looker's left of the dam. This is where you want to start your hike towards the Twin Lakes Pass as the right side would make you skin under eminently avalanche-prone terrain.

Here are the pictures (click to enlarge):

Since 2015 the resort has added good signage to keep the confusion down...

...including arrows and groomed sections!

You are now out of the resort and skinning looker's left of the lake. Twin
Lakes Pass in the center and Black Bess to the right.

Having not skied this area in years I was surprised to see Solitude's claim
to the Backcountry!

On an otherwise very overcast morning, a short opening in the clouds
 allowed me this shot of Mt Superior from just below Patsy Marey.

Snow hare

This little guy heard Loki and I coming and ever so carefully walked in under a spruce and decided to stay perfectly still hoping to avoid detection. Lucky for me that gave me the time to get my pack off, unzip (slowly), get the camera out, and take a bunch of shots. Lucky for him the uptrack was a couple of feet deep so I was able to just keep Loki laying down where he couldn't even see what was going on.

Here is a couple of pictures (click to enlarge):

This an enlargement so not as sharp as the two others.

Update on Loki's recovery

So, Loki is now one week into his recovery from surgery for a severed Achilles tendon. For more on that see the last post here. He is having a boring existence: no touring, no horseplay, no running, no jumping, basically there goes his whole social life. But just because you're wounded, doesn't mean you can't relax...

Loki making sure he is not straining himself too much...

A bad day in a ski dog's life

Loki is a VERY enthusiastic skier. How do I know this? Every time I am done transitioning and down to getting my gloves back on, he starts bouncing around, repeatedly jumping up at me, and squeals! I take that as a sign. Then, I start skiing and he still aims at jumping up at me while I am skiing and most of the time manages to get right in front of my tips. I have strategies for that, like faking a left turn while executing a hard right or simply speeding away in the powder. All these strategies experience uneven degrees of success. With the occasional abysmal failure. Like yesterday.

Yesterday, I was just starting my ski down from Summit Park Peak when he must have caught up to me from behind. I didn't see him, took a left turn, felt something slight and undefined on the outer edge of the back of my left ski and saw Loki not actually on my ski but close enough. I continued down and suddenly noticed him limping. His hind left leg was limp and when I checked on him, it was bleeding, not a lot but still. I figured another ski cut so off to the vet for another 4 - 5 stitches (had already happened to my other dog Skadi).

The vet diagnosed and the verdict was a fully severed Achilles tendon! She said it takes the bad luck of having the "perfect" angle on the leg and really sharp edges (I was using new skis...). So today he went under the knife in Layton (only available surgeon this Sunday) and I just heard he did great, is out of anesthesia, and is breathing on his own. All is well that ends well! except, he will be missing six weeks of the best season in a very long time...

For those of you that don't know Loki the superhero, here is a before video (see him fly through the powder). a before picture, and today's "after" picture:

Kinda majestic...

...kinda hard to look at...