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Peak(s):  Mt. Bierstadt  -  14,066 feet
Date Posted:  08/29/2015
Date Climbed:   08/29/2015
Author:  smehta
 Mt. Bierstadt - Standard Hike from Guanella Pass   

My dad and I climbed Mt. Bierstadt by the West Slopes route from Guanella Pass on August 29, 2015. It was my third 14er (I've done Sherman and Quandary). I would say this was comparable to those two.

We left home just past 5AM and drove up Guanella Pass road from Georgetown. The road is properly paved with no problems. We got to the parking lot at 6:30, and had to parallel park just outside the lot. We started hiking at 6:40 with decent light. There is a good view of the route and summit from the trailhead. The first mile or so is very easy. It crosses a meadow with some marshy areas, but there are good wooden bridges to prevent your shoes from getting muddy. This first mile actually goes down about 200 feet. At the end of this mile, you have to cross a stream without any bridge, walking on some shaky rocks.

Then, the trail goes through many switchbacks up a hill. There are no trees directly along the route, but there are thick bushes. At the top of the hill, the trail flattens, and the bushes give way to tundra. From here, the trail zigzags up to the summit ridge. When looking up the trail, it is easy to think that the artificial "horizon" is the ridge, but when you reach that point, you see that there is more trail to go until you reach the ridge. This illusion happens 3-4 times, and the trail gradually gets rockier as you get closer to the ridge. This part of the hike (beyond the bushes but before the ridge) is the longest.

We gained the ridge at about 13,800 feet. That leaves only another 200-300 feet of elevation gain to reach the summit, but this is where the more intense, "Class 2" hiking starts. Watch people slightly above you to see what route they take through the rocks. You need to use both your hands and feet for parts of this. This is where it is very helpful to have hiking boots with decent traction. This part is relatively short, though. It took us about 20-30 minutes on the ridge to get to the summit. We reached the summit at 9:40 AM (exactly 3 hours after starting). The summit is a long, narrow, flat strip. Since it was a Saturday, the hike was very crowded with hundreds of people, and the summit was especially crowded.

The horizons were hazy and smoky, so the views weren't as good as they could have been, but impressive nonetheless. You can see the Sawtooth connecting to Mount Evans and the road going up Evans. We spent about 20 minutes on the summit taking pictures, and started descending at 10 AM.

Retrace your path on the way down. You can see the trailhead and the line of parked cars for almost all of the descent. On the summit ridge, I sometimes found it helpful to sit on a rock and lower my feet onto the one below it. Walk slowly and carefully down the rest of the trail. The last mile is a little annoying because of the 200 ft ascent. We reached the car at 1 PM. Our ascent and descent both took 3 hours since we were especially careful on the way down.

The weather was quite good along the whole route. It was a little chilly at the beginning, and a few clouds passed while we were descending, but no rain.



Comments or Questions
boudreaux
User
Congrats
8/30/2015 7:20am
On #3, hopefully you will get many more! Up there last week myself bringing a 1st Timer and a 3rd Timer like you!



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