Kelso ridge is a dramatic alternative to the very popular route up Torry’s peak near Denver.   14ers.com has a great route description so I am not going to repeat that here.

I have been chased off this route twice by weather.  The forecast for Saturday morning was 60% thunderstorms after 11AM.  Not a great forecast, but it looked like we had a window of good weather before 9AM.  We decided to be on the trail by 5AM.  We arrived at the trailhead around 4:45 to find a mostly full parking lot.  The first few miles of this route follow the standard trail, so we got an easy warm up. The trail was very easy to follow by headlamp.   We reached the turnoff to the ridge around dawn. The sun revealed no sign of approaching weather so we put on our helmets, and started up the ridge.   Continue reading →