Death Walk, AKA Grays Peak

Matt and I decided to brave our first 14er a couple weekends ago. A 14er is one of the 53 peaks in Colorado which are over 14,000 feet, are considered independent, and have 300 feet of prominence. We researched which peak we wanted to start with and Grays Peak qualified as a Class 1 which is "easy hiking, usually on a trail." The same source gave directions to the trailhead and said to get to the top of the trail, we would need a four wheel drive vehicle. A message board showed someone who drove a Pontiac Sunfire up the mountain without difficulty. We decided to drive the beast just in case we needed the four wheel drive and set off on our adventure.

The trail was about an hour down I-70 then it took us an additional 45 minutes or so to drive 4 miles up the road (Stephens Gulch) to the trailhead. Thank goodness we decided to drive my car because the road was absolutely horrible. There were huge holes and rocks and cars parked on the side because they couldn't get up any further. I had no idea I knew how to drive off-road but I do and we made it up without too much difficulty. It was extremely stressful, however, there were a couple times I thought we might tip over or get stuck.

We made it!

11,280'

Grays Peak on the left and Torreys Peak on the right

You have the option to hike both 14ers, they are separated by 1 mile of loose rock. We decided we would make a decision about whether to hike to Torreys once we ascended the summit to Grays.

This man ran the entire trail. We saw him running down the mountain when we still had several miles to go. I was short of breath walking.

Show-off...

This is what happens when the self-timer malfunctions....

When we were hiking the first part of the trail we came across a family with 2 young children who were walking. You could tell the family was arguing and we overheard the Dad say, "we came here for a hike not a death walk." That stuck in my head throughout the rest of the hike and made Matt and me laugh.

From this point on the hike became much more challenging. The terrain changed, the trail became steeper and the air was noticeably thinner.

Matt has been dying to throw a snow-ball at me since we got to Colorado...

I have to walk all the way up there?!?!

I began to struggle with the elevation with about an hour and a half left to the summit. I started to feel dizzy and nauseated and was taking frequent rests. It was very difficult...

I finally told Matt I couldn't go any further and he went ahead to the summit. I was sitting and resting and 2 guys (Bill and Mark) rested right beside me and I asked them if they had a GPS and they said they didn't. We struck up conversation and they said they had another friend who was going a little slower like I was with Matt. They took off again and after a couple minutes I met their friend Trent. He sat and rested with me and I found out Mark and he were visiting Bill from Nebraska for the weekend. They had partied hard the night before and had decided to do the hike at the last minute. I can't believe that they decided to do this wicked hike when they were just here from the weekend! He and I spoke with a couple different groups of people who were descending the mountain and I decided that I was going to do it, no matter what. Trent and I took it really slow and ended up meeting Matt on his way back down. He hiked up with us to the summit and it felt incredible to accomplish the goal. A big thank you goes out to Trent for giving me that last little bit of motivation to make it to the top when it was so difficult for me. And mad props to Mark and him for hiking that mountain when just visiting for a couple days, with a hangover!

Check out the video of the summit

In the video you can see Mark, Bill and Trent in the background

Grays Peak is the highest point on the Continental Divide. I felt like I was on top of the world when I was at the summit.

Made it!

Matt made it twice!

Torreys to the left

Smooch at 14,270'

Had to get to the top to sign the ledger

On top of the world

Proof

We decided that we didn't have enough left in the tank to go to Torreys. Looking back on it I wish we had done it because I never want to have to drive up or down Stevens Gulch again but at the time it just wasn't happening.

One of my favorites

Getting back to the trailhead was a relief but then the thought of having to drive back down Stevens Gulch was anxiety provoking. Not to mention, we were starving! All I could think about was the pizza we were going to have when we met Bill, Mark and Trent for dinner in Idaho Springs. That was my motivation for getting down the road alive.

View on the way down Stevens Gulch

Matt took a video of us driving down the mountain. This was one of the best parts of the road, there weren't that many holes.

After we got down the mountain, we headed to Beau Jo's restaurant to meet our new friends. Food has never tasted so good. We got home from the hike and pretty much went straight to bed because we were so exhausted.

When we began our adventure at the bottom of Stevens Gulch we did not anticipate the challenges ahead. When all was said and done, it was one of the most physically and mentally challenging things I have done. It was up there with the marathon and I'm really glad I did it.

Bring on the next 14er!