Mount Ouray
6 October
2007
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Trip Report
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Mount Ouray (13,971)
Date: 6 October 2007
Climbers: Dave Hale and Dave Gibson
Trailhead: Gray's Creek
Roundtrip distance: 7.5 miles
Elevation gain: 4300'
Round trip time: 6:24 (3:28 up, 2:26 down)
This was a beautiful hike on a gentle giant of a mountain. Fortunately we didn’t let the forecast for rain and high winds deter us as the weather turned out great. Dave and I drove to the Gray’s Creek trailhead Friday night after work and car camped at the pullout just north of where Gray’s Creek crosses the well-maintained Marshall Pass Road. It took about 3 hours to get there from northern Colorado Springs. Kevin Baker joined us for the night, but took off for the Marshall Pass trailhead at 5am the next morning in order to get Point 13,472, a ranked 13er.
After a good night’s sleep, Dave and I set out with the dogs at 5:56am. We hiked by the light of our headlamps for the first half hour. The trail stayed on the north side of Gray’s Creek expect for one short section requiring two easy creek crossings. We moved quickly along the trail though a forest of mostly bare aspens (which we saw on the return tip). After hiking for 45 minutes we took a break to enjoy a beautiful sunrise over the northern Sangre de Cristos to the east. Between 10,900’ and 11,400’, the trail climbs up a narrow gully. At the top of the gully, the terrain opens up into a magnificent Bristlecone Pine forest. Hiking through this ancient forest was the highlight of our trip. Around 11,600’, we veered to the right and hiked through the Bristlecone pines aiming for point 12,761’ on Ouray’s northeast ridge. The northeast ridge forms the left arm of the “Devil’s Armchair”. Once above the last of the pines, we quickly gained 1000’ climbing up the steep but mostly solid talus slope. The breeze was stiffer and cooler on the ridge so I put on my jacket and heavier gloves. Most of Ouray’s northeast ridge is easy class 2 hiking. However, one rougher section of the ridge presents some options. Since the dogs were with us we stayed right (north) of the ridge proper along this section to keep the climbing to class 2. We crossed a few small patches of snow near the top and reached Ouray’s large flat summit at 9:24am, 3:28 after leaving the trailhead.
Dave and I spent 30 minutes on the summit enjoying the scenery, snacking and looking for Kevin on the long and undulating ridge to Point 13,472. We never did see Kevin, but we later learned that he saw us on the summit. When the wind picked up, clouds moved in, and it got much cooler, we decided to head back down. For our route down, we took the right arm of the Devil’s Armchair, Ouray’s southeast ridge, for a full loop around Ouray’s large eastern cirque (the seat of the armchair). We followed a well-built trail with many small switchbacks along the upper section of the ridge. At about 12,500’, we lost the trail and took a fairly direct route down to the Bristlecone forest 800’ below. Our route down from the summit largely followed Roach’s Class 1 Southeast Ridge route. Once down from the ridge, we again wandered through the Bristlecone pines and had to backtrack a bit before finding the trail through the narrow gully. The sun was back out for the remained of our hike along Gray’s Creek back to the trailhead. Even bare of leaves, the dense aspens along the trail made for a beautiful hike. When the leaves are turning this trail must be quite spectacular. We arrived back at the trailhead at 12:20 pm after 6 hours and 24 minutes of hiking on a gorgeous fall day.