Opening pic
I Spent the long July 4th weekend meeting up with two of my old UK high school friends that I have known since 1973
.. For the past few years we have all been living in the States & so this has become an annual event. Last year we met up here in Oregon & hiked up McNeil Ridge in the rain 
This year our plan was to climb Grays & Torreys Peaks in Colorado in hopefully better weather!Grays & Torreys Peaks are 14,278' & 14,270' respectively & can both be climbed on the same 8.5 mile trail which begins at 11,280' (30' higher than the summit of Mt. Hood!).
We spent the night in Keystone about 20 miles away & were out the door at 4:30 & on our way over Loveland Pass. It took about an hour to get to the trailhead, the last 3 miles are on a steep rough rock road. We pulled into the parking lot at about 5:25 & took the last available space. The hundreds of cars that would arrive after us would be parking on the side of the road!
About 5:40am setting out on the trail.
If it wasn't for the altitude this would be an easy hike on a par with doing Table Mountain. However since none of us had hiked much above 12,000' feet before & so not knowing how we would fair, we set a conservative 2 mph pace over the gentle first 1.5 miles.
The Sun came over the ridge at about 6:15
The climbing gets a bit steeper after passing a little creek just shy of the 2 mile mark at about 12000'.
We continued slowly but surely up the ridge.
This rock is called "The Rascal" a great little class 4 climb & photo op for some people but not for any of us on this day
..
Shortly before reaching the Rascal our friend Charles had been having a harder & harder time with the altitude and at about 13,300' felt he had to stop. He decided to sit where he was for a while & see how he felt after a good rest. Paul & I continued on to the very windy summit of Grays Peak.
Requisit Summit shot!
From here it was down to the Saddle between Grays & Torreys.
Grays - Torreys Saddle 13,700'
Then up the other side again! The Torreys climb was probably the steepest part of the whole hike.
The weather was better on Torreys than it was on Grays though we had been battered most of the way up in gusty winds.
Torreys Peak Summit
Torreys Peak Summit
Once back down in the Saddle we took the connector trail down to the Grays Peak Trail.
Looking back up at Torreys we could see a line of people like ants still making there way up to the Summit!
As we reached the Grays Peak trail junction we saw our friend Charles coming back down towards us, after an hours rest on the side of the trail he had felt well enough to continue his climb & had made it to the Summit of Grays!
Charles on Grays Peak
All that was left now was the hike out to the trailhead.
We arrived back just before 12:30 for a 6 hour round trip of 8.5 miles & about 4000' of EG all happening above the summit of Mt Hood
...Arriving at 5:30am we were by no means early for this hike but we certainly beat the rush! By about 10:00 the trail was swarming with people & cars were parked for probably half a mile down the road from the trailhead.
Also interesting was the number of old mines along the road & trail even up to the 12000' level.
There are also private cabins along the road all the way up to the 11,280' trailhead!
A few more pics of the day here & a map below.
