Mt. Bierstadt Trip Report 07/11/2014

Peak(s):	Mt. Bierstadt - 14,066 feet
Date Posted:	07/11/2014
Modified:	07/23/2014
Date Climbed:	07/11/2014
Author:	jfritz

Mt. Bierstadt - 2 Old Dudes and 2 Young Guys from Minnesota
This was my 2nd 14er after a successful summit of Gray's Peak in 2012 with my wife Karen and older son Josh. That experience left me longing for another shot at a 14er, so when my son Jimmy's (age 13) youth group decided to attend a youth camp near Ward, CO, I jumped at the chance. We decided on Bierstadt because of the location (about 2 hrs from Ward, Co) and the relatively straightforward climb. We convinced another youth, Nick (age 12) and another adult leader, KC to join us. KC has a few years on me, but he has run 31 marathons, so we were thinking we'd flip a coin to determine which one of us would be the last to summit. We knew we'd be chasing the boys up the entire time. It turned out to be about a tie between the 2 adults. Jimmy's comment to his Mom from the summit was 'it was pretty easy, but it was a lot tougher for the adults'. Kid's don't lie. We had been in Ward, Co for 5 days prior to the hike. Being from Minnesota, we knew we'd need a few days to acclimate to the higher altitude. Ward is around 9,000'. We did a 7 mile hike two days prior between 9K and 10K, which seemed to help. However, being from Minnesota, there does not seem to be a great way to train for the altitude, you just got to do it. I also did a quick 500' climb to rock climb at Jurassic park near Lily Lake the day before, so I thought I was about as ready as I'd be for my 2nd summit attempt. We left Ward at 4:30am and arrived at the trail-head at 6:30am. After a quick use of the facilities and a quick breakfast, we hit the trail right about 7am. It appeared several other groups had the same 7am goal as there was about 40 people all starting about that same time. It felt like we were doing something right. The weather seemed to be perfect, clear skies and about 60F. KC at the Trailhead at 7am (Mt Evans on left, Mt Bierstadt on Right) The climb actually starts with a descent into the lowlands. There are very nice wooden bridges that cover all the marshy areas, so the trail was very nice. The first mile or so was actually a great warm-up before the more serious uphill hiking to follow. We put an adult in front and in the rear of our 4 man group to keep the kids in check. This worked for the most part, but they were in a bit of a hurry, so it was constant reminders for them to wait for their leaders - yea right. The first 2 miles is a pretty simple hike, but even the modest altitude increase starting taking it's toll on the adults. We took about a 2-3 minute break every 15-20 minutes and that seemed to be enough for us to catch our breath. We seemed to be making decent progress, we passed 3 or 4 groups and about 3 or 4 groups passed us. We were passed by a guy that was running up the same route we were struggling just a bit with. Dudes that run 14ers are pretty much insane humans to those of us from Minnesota. Anyway, it was good motivation to see him running up, it made our slow hiking pace seem easier for some reason. Jimmy and Nick 1/2 Way Up. You can see the trailhead in the distance, just beyond the lake We reached the ice field at about 13,500' without much trouble by about 9am. We were actually ahead of our target of submitting by 10am, so we took a timeout for some quick pics and a snowball fight. Snow it not too big a deal being from MN, but the boys thought it was cool to be on snow in July. The last 500' looks a little daunting, so the adults were happy for the break. Snowfield at 13,500' We started off on the final push to the summit about 9:20am. We seemed to get off the beaten path several times on the scramble up the last 500'. There were several groups ascending together, and everyone was looking around to determine if they were on the right path. It didn't seem to matter as all the routes led up and that's where we were going. The rocks are large, but firmly planted, so the risk of injury did seem minor. I will admit that the altitude did seem to start to have an impact on me as my balance was not quite what it was at the trail-head. I had to catch myself a few times to avoid just falling over, but slow and steady seemed to do the trick. After just a few minutes on the summit push, we let the boys go ahead and go. There was no longer any use in trying to restrain them. 13 year old boys don't really want to be restrained much anyway. The boys submitted about 9:50am and the adults followed at 10:00am. So just about 3 hours from trail-head to summit at a steady, but not aggressive pace. There was a lot of people on the summit, about 100 people. I was surprised that there really wasn't much wind (maybe 15 mph gusts). Lots of climbers were still in shorts and short-sleeve shirts on the summit, but I was comfortable in 3 layers and light pants. We spent an enjoyable 30 minutes on the summit taking pictures and calling Mom. On the Summit! (Jeff, Jimmy, KC, Nick). Grays and Torrys in the center behind us The hike down was a little tricky back through the boulders to the snow field. We just took our time and worked on staying safe. By the time we got back to about 13,000' my balance came back and I knew we were good to go. I knew from my previous climb that my thighs and knees were about to take a beating, so we took it nice and slow on the hike down. There were some fairly dark clouds starting to form around the summit by 11:30am. I was glad we started early like we were suppose to. The trail of hikers coming up didn't seem to stop though. At about 1 mile out from the trail-head, we met a young family that was just starting up, but they wisely decided to turn around after looking at the darkening clouds. The Mom made the comments, 'well maybe if we had started a little earlier, we might have been able to do it?'. Ya think? We made it back to the trail-head right at 1pm. Total round trip, 6 hours. Just as we started getting into the car, it started to sprinkle, seemed like we finished our hike just in time. Overall an awesome hike. The boys were excited about their accomplishment and us old guys were excited too. You gotta live life, take an adventure every now and then! Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Mt. Bierstadt - 2 Old Dudes and 2 Young Guys from Minnesota

This was my 2nd 14er after a successful summit of Gray's Peak in 2012 with my wife Karen and older son Josh. That experience left me longing for another shot at a 14er, so when my son Jimmy's (age 13) youth group decided to attend a youth camp near Ward, CO, I jumped at the chance. We decided on Bierstadt because of the location (about 2 hrs from Ward, Co) and the relatively straightforward climb. We convinced another youth, Nick (age 12) and another adult leader, KC to join us. KC has a few years on me, but he has run 31 marathons, so we were thinking we'd flip a coin to determine which one of us would be the last to summit. We knew we'd be chasing the boys up the entire time. It turned out to be about a tie between the 2 adults. Jimmy's comment to his Mom from the summit was 'it was pretty easy, but it was a lot tougher for the adults'. Kid's don't lie.

We had been in Ward, Co for 5 days prior to the hike. Being from Minnesota, we knew we'd need a few days to acclimate to the higher altitude. Ward is around 9,000'. We did a 7 mile hike two days prior between 9K and 10K, which seemed to help. However, being from Minnesota, there does not seem to be a great way to train for the altitude, you just got to do it. I also did a quick 500' climb to rock climb at Jurassic park near Lily Lake the day before, so I thought I was about as ready as I'd be for my 2nd summit attempt. We left Ward at 4:30am and arrived at the trail-head at 6:30am. After a quick use of the facilities and a quick breakfast, we hit the trail right about 7am. It appeared several other groups had the same 7am goal as there was about 40 people all starting about that same time. It felt like we were doing something right. The weather seemed to be perfect, clear skies and about 60F.

KC at the Trailhead at 7am (Mt Evans on left, Mt Bierstadt on Right)

The climb actually starts with a descent into the lowlands. There are very nice wooden bridges that cover all the marshy areas, so the trail was very nice. The first mile or so was actually a great warm-up before the more serious uphill hiking to follow. We put an adult in front and in the rear of our 4 man group to keep the kids in check. This worked for the most part, but they were in a bit of a hurry, so it was constant reminders for them to wait for their leaders - yea right. The first 2 miles is a pretty simple hike, but even the modest altitude increase starting taking it's toll on the adults. We took about a 2-3 minute break every 15-20 minutes and that seemed to be enough for us to catch our breath. We seemed to be making decent progress, we passed 3 or 4 groups and about 3 or 4 groups passed us. We were passed by a guy that was running up the same route we were struggling just a bit with. Dudes that run 14ers are pretty much insane humans to those of us from Minnesota. Anyway, it was good motivation to see him running up, it made our slow hiking pace seem easier for some reason.

Jimmy and Nick 1/2 Way Up. You can see the trailhead in the distance, just beyond the lake

We reached the ice field at about 13,500' without much trouble by about 9am. We were actually ahead of our target of submitting by 10am, so we took a timeout for some quick pics and a snowball fight. Snow it not too big a deal being from MN, but the boys thought it was cool to be on snow in July. The last 500' looks a little daunting, so the adults were happy for the break.

We started off on the final push to the summit about 9:20am. We seemed to get off the beaten path several times on the scramble up the last 500'. There were several groups ascending together, and everyone was looking around to determine if they were on the right path. It didn't seem to matter as all the routes led up and that's where we were going. The rocks are large, but firmly planted, so the risk of injury did seem minor. I will admit that the altitude did seem to start to have an impact on me as my balance was not quite what it was at the trail-head. I had to catch myself a few times to avoid just falling over, but slow and steady seemed to do the trick. After just a few minutes on the summit push, we let the boys go ahead and go. There was no longer any use in trying to restrain them. 13 year old boys don't really want to be restrained much anyway. The boys submitted about 9:50am and the adults followed at 10:00am. So just about 3 hours from trail-head to summit at a steady, but not aggressive pace. There was a lot of people on the summit, about 100 people. I was surprised that there really wasn't much wind (maybe 15 mph gusts). Lots of climbers were still in shorts and short-sleeve shirts on the summit, but I was comfortable in 3 layers and light pants. We spent an enjoyable 30 minutes on the summit taking pictures and calling Mom.

On the Summit! (Jeff, Jimmy, KC, Nick). Grays and Torrys in the center behind us

The hike down was a little tricky back through the boulders to the snow field. We just took our time and worked on staying safe. By the time we got back to about 13,000' my balance came back and I knew we were good to go. I knew from my previous climb that my thighs and knees were about to take a beating, so we took it nice and slow on the hike down. There were some fairly dark clouds starting to form around the summit by 11:30am. I was glad we started early like we were suppose to. The trail of hikers coming up didn't seem to stop though. At about 1 mile out from the trail-head, we met a young family that was just starting up, but they wisely decided to turn around after looking at the darkening clouds. The Mom made the comments, 'well maybe if we had started a little earlier, we might have been able to do it?'. Ya think? We made it back to the trail-head right at 1pm. Total round trip, 6 hours. Just as we started getting into the car, it started to sprinkle, seemed like we finished our hike just in time. Overall an awesome hike. The boys were excited about their accomplishment and us old guys were excited too. You gotta live life, take an adventure every now and then!

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

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