Grays and Torreys: Herb Gets His Mountain Mojo Back

Yesterday was the second trip up some 14ers this season. We were going to try and bag two peaks Grays and Torrey's.

This would also be an occasion for Herb to get his 14er's legs back under him after falling prey to the evil cold pizza breakfast that stopped him on Elbert in May.

But he was also coming back off a week of the liquid s..ts, after visiting his brother and family in Montana. 

On hearing this Bill and I thought he was getting the excuse ready early.

We started up at 6am on the 8.25 mile round trip (if we hit both peaks) in a big wind, with a lot of company. These are two of the most popular 14ers in the state due to their proximity to Denver and they are very accessible.

We were passed by quite a few groups, but funny thing is we re-passed most of them before the summit of Gray's.

We topped Gray's at 9am, spent a few minutes taking pictures, eating and hydrating.

Herb let us know at this point that he had no interest in going on to Torrey's. We said we would work down Gray's toward the saddle between the two peaks and make another assessment about going up Torrey's then.

By the time we hit the saddle and Herb could see Torrey's top just up the other side, he had changed his mind and we were off for number two of the day.

It took us about an hour to get from the top of Gray's to the top of Torrey's.

This is a picture of Herb coming up the final few feet to the top.

Gray's is in the background and you can see the trail crossing back and forth on the right side of the mountain to the top.

There was quite a crowd on Torrey's and Herb's signs were again a big hit.

Herb was asked by a Catholic Priest (in his roman collar) to take his picture for which he received a blessing.

We were down by 12:20pm making for a little over six hour round trip.

On Sunday we are off to Mt. Bierstadt.

Breckenridge Ski Resort in the background and Keystone on the middle right.