TR: Torrey's Peak (East Face) 6-11-11

[skiracer88_00]

I just got back from skiing by far the most awesome (and exposed) line I have ever skied. I have also never skied a line that involved this much route finding. Some lines only come into the picture every few years, and this is one of those. After about 600" of snow near Loveland pass this winter, the east face of Torrey's was filled in enough to ski this spring. Personally, before this year, I have never seen a line go on the east face all the way to the valley floor (except for the dead dog couloir). Brennan Metzler and Andy Dimmin also skied this a couple of weeks ago (http://peaksforpeace.com/peakreports/?p=556) Me, Mike_Records, and Conor set out to ski it this morning.

Gray's and Torrey's viewed from Steven's Gulch:



After about a two hour and twenty five minute hike, we reached the summit of Torrey's...Mike and Conor at the summit



Skiing down...the snow was perfect corn except for close to the rocks where it was a bit wetter than we would have liked. We were, however, able to adequately manage our slough.
Conor:





Mike:







Panoramic of Steven's Gulch:



The line:



Our route:

[kathleenturneroverdrive]

Nice work. Looks like you guys were able to drive all the way up Stevens Gulch?

[benners]

Nice! Looks like a fun line.

[skiracer88_00]

Nice work. Looks like you guys were able to drive all the way up Stevens Gulch?

not quite, but you can drive to about 1/2 mile from the trailhead. Give it another week and you will be able to go all the way to the trailhead for sure

[FrontRangeDrummer]

That sure is a fun line.

[skibum193]

yea boys!! wish I could have been there with you guys. both you and mike have been getting after it, love it

[Mike_Records]

What a day! As always great getting out with you boys!

You can really see in this picture just how much the snow quality is starting to be affected by the sun. So many debris piles out there!

Here is another shot of the Torreys' east face that I took from Edwards last week:


Some pictures of the author:




Some more Conor action:




And, of course, more pics and words over on my blog.

[Mike_Records]

yea boys!! wish I could have been there with you guys. both you and mike have been getting after it, love it

Definitely miss having your company Erik. Can't wait to come visit you up in Jackson!

[adimmen]

Glad to see others enjoying the face. It's such a fun descent.

[Mike_Records]

Heres Conor Byrne's POV of the line:

[mtskier]

strong work fellas!

[tone capone]

Nice line.

[TransplantedFromRMNP]

anyone been up there recently? how far can you drive up the road? looking to go ski up there on sunday. anybody interested?

[pbourdon]

Damn, don't know how I missed this one the first time around. Nice work fellas.

anyone been up there recently? how far can you drive up the road? looking to go ski up there on sunday. anybody interested?

I was up there last week on Thursday? Things were still looking pretty good. Dead Dog was still waaay in, and I think this line might have went too; but memory is hazy. We got flashed off of Grey's about 300vert shy of the summit, but it was cool, we were really only up in Stevens Gulch to scout coverage any way. We just got a SHIT-TON of rain here in G-town, and I'd be surprised if it was doing anything different all the way up top. I'm planning on hiking in that area tomorrow morning any way, so I'll bring my camera and post up some shots of how things look up there. Lindahl and I were talking about hitting a line on Grizz if conditions allow on Sunday, but the way it sounded he was pretty much up for what ever. There's also a burly line west of the tuning fork on Torrey's that I'd been eyeing up for a while now, but its getting damn late in the year to be stepping to anything super heavy unless we get a solid freeze. The snow is getting pretty rotten in a lot of places.

[TransplantedFromRMNP]

pbourdon
thanks for the beta! i was thinking about tuning fork. hope to see your recon photos.
cheers