Photo credit: 14ers.com
Climbing Mt. Bierstadt
Colorado's 38th highest peak at 14,060 feet (11/30/2020)
After I climbed Mt Sniktau, a 13er, last December (2019), I realized that winter climbing was actually fun. In the past I never even thought about it because I thought that was something for the experts only. Most mountains are for the experts in the winter, but there are plenty out there for me too. You may recall that I climbed Quandary Peak in February 2020, my first winter 14er. My second was Mt. Bierstadt on Nov 30, 2020 which is not technically winter, but the conditions were the same. Quandary is very popular as a winter climb because it is relatively avalanche-safe and the trailhead is right off of a paved and plowed road. Bierstadt is also popular as a winter hike because the avalanche danger is low. The normal trailhead is at the top of Guanella Pass, but that road is only plowed in winter up to 1.5 miles below the trailhead. So as you can see below, I had to hike up the road a ways, which adds 3 miles to the round trip, and about 800 feet of elevation. This one was 10 miles round-trip, and 3,700 feet elevation gain.
As I got to the top of Guanella Pass, I saw the moon at just the right time.
Most of the rest of these photos are in reverse order, that is, they were taken on the way down. On the way up, I was too focused on the task at hand to stop and take pictures. And as it turned out the cold temps do weird things to my iphone, so the camera I used was from an old android that I kept which isn't as good. Most of the climb took place in the Mt. Evans Wilderness. In the middle is the Sawtooth, which is to the left of Bierstadt, as seen in full above in the first picture.
Between Guanella Pass and the west slopes of Bierstadt, there is a massive sea of willows, more than a mile long. They built a trail through them, but that wasn't always the case. Like when I climbed Bierstadt back in the summer of 1996. Back then there were some trail segments, maybe, but now there's a fine trail all the way through. The Colorado 14ers Initiative has done a lot of work here in the past 24 years apparently.
I did take a couple of pictures on the way up. These two are past the willows. This route went up the west slopes of Bierstadt, so I was in the shadows all the way up until I was nearly at the summit.
Here's another shot of the Sawtooth from higher up. Bierstadt on the right.
Here's a photo from the summit. It's looking southwest. The trailhead would be off camera to the right.
Walking back down the road on the way back to my Jeep, here's a beautiful shot of the Sawtooth, and the mountain I climbed, Mt. Bierstadt.
In 2019, it's estimated that 30,000 - 35,000 people climbed Mt Bierstadt (!) On this day I saw no one until I was descending. I saw one guy going up about 10 minutes after I left the summit, and then I saw one other person blazing a snowshoe trail straight up (off summer trail). Another joy of winter climbing is the solitude compared to the summer. I've seen pictures of hundreds of people on Bierstadt's summit at the same time in the summer. Total time for the trip: I left the house at 3:15 AM and set out on the climb at 5:45. I reached the summit at 10:45, and returned to the Jeep at 2:15. 8.5 hours climbing and descending, 5.5 hours driving. 14 hours doorstep to doorstep.