Trip Report
Kelso Ridge in Winter
Thursday September 15, 2016 9:21am
Gentle reader, as I slide deeper into my dotage I am losing friends and adventure partners at an accelerating rate. As it turns out, gravity and rust are not the only things that never sleep. This is the first of several postings I hope to complete in order to honor those friendships and shared adventures that have so enriched my life. I beg your indulgence and hope this is not a waste of your time. Cheers
Kelso Ridge is the steep, eastern ridge of Torreys Peak, a 14,000 ft peak in the Colorado’s Front Range approximately 50 miles west of Denver. With easy access off of Interstate 70, Torreys Peak is an extremely popular peak to climb in the summer and a fairly popular ascent in the winter. The Kelso Ridge is the steepest and most challenging route on this otherwise fairly benign peak, and a summer ascent typically involves little more than 3rd class scrambling with some modest exposure. That being said, it becomes a far more interesting endeavor in the winter with snow-covered rock, short days, and cold, windy conditions. As such, it seemed to me to be an ideal introduction to winter mountaineering for several of my friends from Dallas, Texas one winter day in 1990. My friend John has long been one of my main climbing partners for the past three decades and is no stranger to winter mountaineering in Colorado. A couple of his friends from the Texas Mountaineers climbing club, Phil and Donnie, joined us for the ascent. An early start put us on the trail just as it was getting light. The approach entails about 8 miles of fairly easy skiing up an old jeep road that results in several thousand feet of elevation gain. We beached our skis at around 12,000 ft near the saddle between Kelso Mountain and Torreys Peak and started up Kelso Ridge. One advantage to climbing this ridge in the winter was that rock which is pretty loose in the summer was pretty well frozen together for us. We were able to climb fairly quickly, slowed more by the lack of acclimatization of my Dallas-based friends than by actual technical difficulties. Although I carried a rope in my pack, we seldom needed to bring it out. The scrambling sections were usually only 15 to 30 ft long at a stretch, with abundant hand and foot holds lurking beneath the snow. As long as one was nonplussed by the exposure everything was cool. We paused half way up for a food and water break, and then proceeded to the top. One advantage of Kelso Ridge is that it is on the leeward side of the prevailing westerly winds so we didn’t have to deal with the typically high winds until we were on the easier upper slopes of the ridge. We summited in mid-afternoon with at least two more hours of sunlight left. The stroll along the ridge between Torreys Peak and Greys Peak (the neighboring 14,00 ft peak) was made easier by the high winds at our back. Snow depths were pretty modest on the upper slopes of Greys Peak due to the incessant winds so the descent back to our skis entailed only a few hundred yards of post-holing through deeper snow. Once at our skis we flew down the valley with the wind at our back, getting back to the trail head just as it got dark enough to make skiing “interesting”. Although this wonderful day in the mountains was the kind of thing that John and I have shared many times, for Phil and Irby it was an astonishing adventure the likes of which they had never experienced before. Both of them went on in the following years to have many wonderful adventures in the mountains, but this crystalline day in the cold winter air of Colorado remains a cherished memory for all four of us.
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John on one of the scrambly step sections lower down on Kelso Ridge.
John on one of the scrambly step sections lower down on Kelso Ridge.
Credit: Nick Danger
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John (L) and Phil (R) chillin’ at our lunch and rest s...
John (L) and Phil (R) chillin’ at our lunch and rest spot about half way up the ridge.
Credit: Nick Danger
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John (in blue) and Phil (in yellow) taking a break.
John (in blue) and Phil (in yellow) taking a break.
Credit: Nick Danger
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John, Donnie, and Phil leaving our lunch spot.  It’s very important to...
John, Donnie, and Phil leaving our lunch spot. It’s very important to wear primary colors when you are winter mountaineering.
Credit: Nick Danger
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The rock glaciers in the valley to the right of the ridge is where we ...
The rock glaciers in the valley to the right of the ridge is where we stashed our skis on the approach. At this point John, Donnie, and Phil are about 1,200 ft above the low point on the ridge where we began our climb.
Credit: Nick Danger
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John in the foreground on one of the easier sections between scrambles...
John in the foreground on one of the easier sections between scrambles.
Credit: Nick Danger
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Back into scrambling mode on another one of the steeper sections of th...
Back into scrambling mode on another one of the steeper sections of the ridge.
Credit: Nick Danger
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Donnie and Phil at the top of the scrambling section.
Donnie and Phil at the top of the scrambling section.
Credit: Nick Danger
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Phil on the lower angle but much windier top section of Kelso Ridge.
Phil on the lower angle but much windier top section of Kelso Ridge.
Credit: Nick Danger
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On the summit from left to right, John, Phil, and Donnie.  That’s my o...
On the summit from left to right, John, Phil, and Donnie. That’s my orange ice axe, the “day-glow metal monster” on far left.
Credit: Nick Danger
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Taking a short break on the high ridge between Torreys Peak and Greys ...
Taking a short break on the high ridge between Torreys Peak and Greys Peak. The upper portion of the Kelso Ridge can be seen in the background descending off to the right from the summit. Did I mention that it was windy?
Credit: Nick Danger
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Nick Danger
About the Author
Nick Danger is a ice climber from Arvada, CO.

Comments
Don Paul

Social climber
Washington DC
  Sep 15, 2016 - 05:02pm PT
Looks like a great adventure. Here are some pictures I took last year, it's quite a different place in the winter, that's for sure. Torreys Peak I think this picture looks down the Kelso Ridge. I was tempted to downclimb it but didn't know what it was.
ydpl8s

Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
  Sep 17, 2016 - 08:19am PT
Bob, I missed the one the first time around. Kelso ridge was my first 14teener in 1972. In more recent times, I skied up the W. side with Dean Pesci and another friend. We camped above timberline in our bivy sacks and then went out and skied that night by the full moon. Faceplants in windcrust at midnight.....woo hoo!

Is the John in your pics the infamous John Ferguson? If it is I only have one thing to say "Igneous is Bliss!" :-)
Ezra Ellis

Trad climber
North wet, and Da souf
  Sep 19, 2016 - 02:59am PT
Looks like a great time!!!
Thanks!
Nick Danger

Ice climber
Arvada, CO
Author's Reply  Sep 19, 2016 - 05:54am PT
Scott,
Yes that is John Ferguson. I am busy converting a bunch of my slides to digital images and have about 30 years of adventures with john to convert. Face plants in wind crust?!? I remember actually suffering from skin abrasions falling ta high speed on that stuff.
cheers
ydpl8s

Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
  Sep 19, 2016 - 07:57am PT
Yes Bob, abrasions, or rather a plethora of microcuts. But, as you know, when it comes to skinny skiing, I've always lived on the dark side. :-)

Looking forward to more converted slides.

Moss
micronut

Trad climber
Fresno/Clovis, ca
  Sep 19, 2016 - 11:09am PT
Fantastic. Those old slides make everything look more hardcore in the mountains. Very cool. No coincidence that kids these days use Instagram filters to look "old school" with all their photos. A great adventure among friends in the high and wild. Doesn't get much better than that. Keep em comin.

Scott
JEleazarian

Trad climber
Fresno CA
  Sep 19, 2016 - 11:29am PT
Great pictures and story. I look forward to seeing your future installments. And thank you, too, Paul, for the link to your pictures. Good stuff, both.

John
fear

Ice climber
hartford, ct
  Sep 19, 2016 - 11:50am PT
Nice! I've always wanted to climb that ridge... One of those perfect lines snaking it's way up.
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