Ascent of North Greyrock on 2018-04-29Others in Party: | HC Liang Bronson Willis ----Only Party on Mountain | Date: | Sunday, April 29, 2018 | Ascent Type: | Successful Summit Attained | Motorized Transport to Trailhead: | Car | Peak: | North Greyrock | Location: | USA-Colorado | Elevation: | 7681 ft / 2341 m |
Ascent Trip ReportQuite a long trip but the bushwhacking was not too bad. The meadow is wonderful affording views of all peaks in the area a nice way to guess your approach. We followed the basic tracks of the other folks in LOJ reports heading to the right and east but the tree fall down was bad in places. We contoured the side of the peak and had to go up and down a bunch to avoid burned blow-down. We headed more direct than the GPS tracks in LOJ. nearly along the nose ridge skirting the many false summits and finally up to the ledge. I found a couple of classic class 3 headwalls to play around on but we avoided anything class 4 or higher. Brinson started to get blisters and we wanted to get down without killing our feet. Nearing the peak we were getting weary of all the false summits. Finally we looped around the backside and attempted our summit and hit a pinnacle rock with a nasty technical down-climb. Close to the summit but not about to risk that down-climb we looped around the north side and found an easy slab section and summitted.
Most GPS tracks have you going back the same way but from the summit we were enticed to try a bushwhack down the northwest face and there was wonderful lines much better than the southeast approach we upclimbed. We avoided any class 3 and made this down climb all class 2. Best of all, the dead burned trees were upright so we were not having to navigate through all the dead down fall we encountered on the southwest side. Be careful if coming down this way as the ravines will lull you to far west you can easily miss the saddle with Aiguille du Greyrock. This route finding had us do a couple of up and down adjustments but once we hit the saddle of Aiguille du Greyrock it was a cake walk. The entire route down was grassy, little burned trees, amazing views and I found 2 shed mule deer antlers.
This path would have been the far better route up the Greystone north peak in hindsight. Better views, more grass, less dead trees on the ground.
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Summary Total Data | Total Elevation Gain: | 1356 ft / 412 m | Total Elevation Loss: | 2478 ft / 754 m | Round-Trip Distance: | 7.2 mi / 11.6 km | Grade/Class: | 2,2+,3 | Quality: | 6 (on a subjective 1-10 scale) | Route Conditions: | Maintained Trail, Unmaintained Trail, Open Country, Bushwhack, Scramble | Weather: | 75F | Ascent Statistics | Gain on way in: | 1181 ft / 359 m | Gain Breakdown: | Net: 1001 ft / 305 m; Extra: 180 ft / 54m | Loss on way in: | 180 ft / 54 m | Distance: | 2.3 mi / 3.7 km | Start Trailhead: | 6680 ft / 2036 m | Descent Statistics | Loss on way out: | 2298 ft / 700 m | Loss Breakdown: | Net: 2123 ft / 647 m; Extra: 175 ft / 53m | Gain on way out: | 175 ft / 53 m | Distance: | 4.9 mi / 7.9 km | End Trailhead: | 5558 ft / 1694 m | Ascent Part of Trip: Ft Collins -1
Complete Trip Sequence: Total Trip Gain: 3676 ft / 1120 m Total Trip Loss: 3676 ft / 1121 m |
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