Torreys Peak

Route: Kelso Ridge
Posted On: 11/7/2026, By: daway8
Info: Third report of the day is the charm! Interesting how much variety of opinions there is. I didn't bother with microspikes until a little above 13k, but I had on mountaineering boots with good edges which helped a lot.

From there up I stuck with microspikes and trekking poles. Had crampons and ice axe but never felt like I needed to use them, in part because there had already been so much traffic on the ridge putting in steps.

There are tracks going all over the place - lots of people losing the trail. I ended up playing along with the chaos and got to throw in a couple easy class 5 stints for fun - including one wall no one had gone up yet, so I spent a decent amount of time brushing away snow to find the good holds.

Knife Edge doesn't have much snow/ice but the bits that are there are positioned in just such a way as to make it notably more interesting than usual. This is a fun year-round route - different in every season! 

Route: Kelso Ridge
Posted On: 11/7/2026, By: Italian_Waffles
Info: Did Torreys and Grays via the Kelsi Ridge solo today, I didn’t have a conditions report up when I did it so I’ll break it down.

Grays trailhead start: very little snow and ice to start. It picked up around 12300 ft. The standard route was mostly hard packed as long as you stayed on the trail.

Cut off to the saddle: once I cut of the the ridge the snow basically stopped it was very sparse until about 12900.

On the ridge: At the white rock wall the snow started and it didn’t let up. After the white wall there is a short class 3 scramble that felt like hard class 4 due to all the good handholds being covered in snow and ice. The snow was powdery and I did not wear spikes as they were basically useless with how deep it was. (Also I just personally don’t like doing technical climbing with spikes). From here on out I did not follow the exact trail, the trail will lead you though lots of deep snow dipping around the true ridge. The north west side hardly gets sun so the snow we harder and much deeper. I stayed basically directly on the ridge making it closer to class 4-5 to avoid the snow. Only try this if you are very comfortable with class 4-5 climbing as the less traveled direct ridge has lots of loose rock and took more route finding.

Upper ridge: Around 13700 the snow was real pain it was completely unavoidable and was extreamly steep. I used an ice axe to make foot holes while climbing (this only helped a little as the snow was very powdery and the rocks under it was loose). This continued until the knife edge.

Knife edge: the knife edge was great, there was about 4 inches of perfect snow on top of it and all other footprints took the low right side to completely avoid it. If your brave enough the snow wasn’t too bad but there was ice on some of the feet. The great jugs for hands makes it relatively secure. Overall it felt like class 4-5 in the current conditions. Judging by the snow and ice on the knife edge no one has done it in a week or so.


Summit push: This was the worst part, dry this part is know to be extremely loose and steep almost 45 degrees at some points. With the extremely powdery snow it was quite a nightmare. An ice axe is probably required to be relatively safe as if you started sliding here you might die. At this point I still had not put on spikes the snow was too powdery and not worth loosing feel on the rock.

Traversing to Grays: not much to say here, pretty boring class to with packed snow on the main trail. I put on my spikes at the summit of Torreys they where a huge help on the traversed as it was much more packed then anything I had seen that day.

Grays: more packed snow and reliably uneventful summit.


I will leave this here, if you want more on grays standard route some people misted their updates.

Ps: this is prolly the end for the Kelso ridge this season unless you come with full winter gear and a totem of undying. 

Route: Kelso Ridge
Posted On: 11/7/2026, By: ajtrezco
Info: Summited at 1am this morning. Bring cramps/axe, leave spikes at home. Pitch below knife is a bit sketchy and committing with the current snow quality. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 10/24/2026, By: TrippyTurtle
Info: South route is icy in the morning (~5am and continues to stay icy until snow pack). I did Torrey’s first because I figured with fresh legs it would be better. Boy I was wrong. Grays from Torreys was a slog. Deep snow, soft in some areas . Definitely bring poles and micro spikes or even crampons honestly. Both routes were easily marked and packed, minus the ascent from Torreys to Grays! Be safe and enjoy! 

Route: Kelso Ridge
Posted On: 10/18/2026, By: lukebonucci
Info: Ridge is scoured with a couple of inches of snow and some deeper drifts occasionally, but the boot pack from folks who climbed the last couple of days made it easy to manage (thanks!). Brought microspikes and poles. Didn't put on the spikes until after the knife edge before the final approach to the summit. Microspikes and poles were helpful going down with the freeze thaw happening on the South Slopes trail. Icy at the bottom of the trail near the upper lot. Got there at 4:30am or so and we were maybe the 5th car in the upper lot. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 10/18/2026, By: Holler Wanderer
Info: A little slow going up Grays with drifts and lose snow, but most of the trail is now packed out and easily passable. From the saddle up to Torrey's is almost all melted out due to sun angle hitting that side all day. Used spikes all day, but by the time we got back down into the valley the trail had become pretty slushy and bare closer to the parking lot. I would still recommend spikes for sections of the trail.

Not too crowded today, despite the beautiful conditions - met a lot of nice people. Unfortunately there were a number of people I saw that weren't prepared and were wearing jeans, sneakers, and no spikes. Please take these mountains seriously! 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 10/16/2026, By: CraigE
Info: There was snow from trailhead to summit this morning. The stretch from 12,500 to the saddle had drifts up to 2 feet deep. It was manageable but pretty hard climbing. The lower trail was melting out by early afternoon, and the upper trail has a pretty good trench going now, so the rest of this weekend should be better conditions. 

Route: Waldorf Mine to Edwards to Grays/Torreys
Posted On: 10/11/2026, By: bdloftin77
Info: Edwards, Grays, and Torreys are dry, as well as the road to Waldorf Mine/Argentine Pass. This could definitely change this week with the coming precipitation. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 10/9/2026, By: wolfgangstiller
Info: Route is in great shape. No snow or ice to deal with. Got some grapple on the way down but there was no build up at all. 

Route: Kelso Ridge
Posted On: 10/4/2026, By: Shredadactyl
Info: Kelso is dry except the last 100 feet, there are a few but avoidable pockets of snow scattered. Did not encounter snow / ice on trail standard down but it was a warm sunny day. Great climb! Car->car in 3h 50 min. 

Route: Kelso Ridge
Posted On: 9/21/2026, By: NovaDevi25
Info: Route overall in good shape, but with the moisture recently a lot of it had verglas early in the day. Due to all the moisture, areas of dirt were pretty muddy so I stuck to scrambling on rocks more and being careful regarding slickness. Road up to the trailhead was fine, got up to the trailhead Friday night at about 10:00 PM to about half-full lot. Drove my RAV4 carefully. By the time I started up the trail at 3:45 AM, folks were having to turn around due to a full lot.

Got caught in no-man’s land shortly after sunrise of being pretty high on the ridge as snow clouds were coming in from the west. Decided I’d be safer going up and over rather than descending verglas-covered class 3 features. Snow and wind up high made the climb more difficult, but manageable with care. Definitely make sure you’re prepared for rapid temperature changes, there were folks up high who were not and definitely were suffering for it. 

Route: Kelso Ridge
Posted On: 8/8/2026, By: EvanKBlack
Info: Pandemonium Saturday. Ridge very fun, many options; if you are a newer scrambler, use your eyes and caution, as others may be taking "adventure lines"! It's a good idea to find yourself some good footwear once you start moving into C3, too. Had some folks down on Grays ask if they needed helmets for the saddle between the peaks--dunno where that beta is coming from. But helmets for Kelso are bueno due to volume of traffic above. Upper TH bathrooms locked b/c full. Bring wag bags & pack them out! 

Route: Kelso Ridge
Posted On: 8/2/2026, By: SuperMario
Info: Great time on the ridge in the dark, plenty of class 3 to work with, and plenty of options to make it 4-5. Good exposure and good rock. 

Route: Torreys From Junction
Posted On: 7/27/2026, By: SWINTJJ
Info: Made Torreys this morning for my eighth 14er. The road up is still rough and I recommend high clearance vehicles. I only saw one car that was not high clearance, I don’t think they cared based on its vintage. The road was improved in one area from the last two years. The big rut up near the summer parking lot has been filed in. I arrived in the summer parking lot at 2:40 AM (a Monday) with about half of the upper portion of the parking lot full and no cars in the lower portion. Most of the cars that were there at 2:40 AM appeared to have been there all night sleeping in their cars. When I got back from my hike the lot was completely full and about 15 cars parked on the road.
There were about 100 people out there today, not bad for a Monday. Most everybody got an earlyish start, but I did see few starting at 10:00. With the weather forecast for lightening in the afternoon I did not think that was a good idea. Second hand I can concur the outhouse is overflowing based on the words and face of the guy that came out of there!
I was about third in line leaving the parking lot at 3:00 AM. Those ahead went to Grays and I was going for Torreys. Before I made the junction I looked back and there were about 20 head lamps on trail behind . There were at least three on the Kelso Ridge route. I made Torreys at 6:40 and had it to myself…for about five minutes… when the Kelso Ridge guys caught up to me. They had a minor mishap with a rock hitting one of them in the head (he did have a helmet on) but caught his leg and hand. There was very light rain that made the trail better for traction and not muddy at all. 

Route: Kelso Ridge
Posted On: 7/26/2026, By: slowtoad
Info: Arrived at winter TH at 6AM Sunday, plenty of spots. Ran up to main TH and was packed but people driving up between 6-7am seemed to be able to find spots.

Ridge was great, snow free with lots of folks enjoying - be sure to pack a helmet.