Mt. Bierstadt Trip Report 06/16/2007

Peak(s):	Mt. Bierstadt - 14,066 feet
Date Posted:	06/16/2007
Date Climbed:	06/10/2007
Author:	Climbing Bronco

Bierstadt and other considerations
What happens when you get a New England winter mountaineer and his son on top of a 14er for the first time together ? This trip report. The report is is less about what we encountered for conditions (they've changed by now) and more about my "Justin" observations. afer 6 decades of climbing mountains (later) We saw a lot of very happy people on Bierstadt and well they should be. Heck the sun was arcing in a cloudless sky, the temps between 30 and 50 and visibility extended into several other area codes. Except for a "little" mud on the way out (like the "little" iceberg the Titanic hit) the trip was idyllic. 80 percent of the vertical was on snow, making us feel right at home. You could route find your way pretty much unimpeded right to the summit. Stop, look and go get it!!! I'm convinced God created Colorado after he practiced getting it right in the rest of the world. Which brings me to the hikers/climbers we met. Maybe a hundred or so really social folks. Several were so social that in many cases they would need the help of others if anything happened to them. Ill prepared for a trip even to a rock concert, these hikers were in sneakers, cotton socks and no gaiters, 1 liter of water ( a good way to experience a high altitude close encounter with God's image or listening to a rap song backwards) and probably ,I‘m guessing here, no med kit. I always said you can tell the real ourdoors folks from the newbees by the condition of their gaiters. Check it out . These must be the experienced hikers because they know that the overcautious ones bring plenty of hydration , a med kit with sun block, wear boots, have gaiters to keep scree and snow and mud off their wool socks, carry a small repair kit for snowshoes/poles/sunglasses. Yup us "Justins" carry this just in case we have problems or we encounter Fastpack Freddie with his/her Dasante water bottle in one hand and cell phone in the other. Which bring me to cell phones. (We forgot both of ours in the parking lot, a real no no in this climbing business) The debate as to whether to carry a cell phone has been pretty much resolved in the eastern winter climbing community. If you have a cell you bring it. Why some ask? "Im out there for the pristine, natural, flannel silence of the mountains !" Ya ok fine. But, if you get injured, all that wilderness turns into a very dangerous environment both for you and your rescue party unless of course you have no friends to begin with. I carry a cell for 2 reasons. 1.To possibly save my life and that of members of a rescue party who will have some idea where to look for me. 2. To report in to our "safety net" person back in the flats that we will calling in later than we wrote in our trip plans. Having said this, don't call anyone in earshot of other climbers unless they are in your group . Hike with the phone shut off and with a spare fully charged Lithium 1700 milliamp battery. Having said all this thanks to the great crew on the summit who joined us in our zany glissade down the snowfields ! Onward and upward. The Climbing Stallion/BMT

Bierstadt and other considerations

What happens when you get a New England winter mountaineer and his son on top of a 14er for the first time together ? This trip report.
The report is is less about what we encountered for conditions (they've changed by now) and more about my "Justin" observations. afer 6 decades of climbing mountains (later)

We saw a lot of very happy people on Bierstadt and well they should be. Heck the sun was arcing in a cloudless sky, the temps between 30 and 50 and visibility extended into several other area codes.

Except for a "little" mud on the way out (like the "little" iceberg the Titanic hit) the trip was idyllic. 80 percent of the vertical was on snow, making us feel right at home. You could route find your way pretty much unimpeded right to the summit. Stop, look and go get it!!!

I'm convinced God created Colorado after he practiced getting it right in the rest of the world.

Which brings me to the hikers/climbers we met. Maybe a hundred or so really social folks.
Several were so social that in many cases they would need the help of others if anything happened to them.

Ill prepared for a trip even to a rock concert, these hikers were in sneakers, cotton socks and no gaiters, 1 liter of water ( a good way to experience a high altitude close encounter with God's image or listening to a rap song backwards) and probably ,I‘m guessing here, no med kit.

I always said you can tell the real ourdoors folks from the newbees by the condition of their gaiters. Check it out .

These must be the experienced hikers because they know that the overcautious ones bring plenty of hydration , a med kit with sun block, wear boots, have gaiters to keep scree and snow and mud off their wool socks, carry a small repair kit for snowshoes/poles/sunglasses.
Yup us "Justins" carry this just in case we have problems or we encounter Fastpack Freddie with his/her Dasante water bottle in one hand and cell phone in the other.

Which bring me to cell phones. (We forgot both of ours in the parking lot,
a real no no in this climbing business) The debate as to whether to carry a cell phone has been pretty much resolved in the eastern winter climbing community.
If you have a cell you bring it. Why some ask? "Im out there for the pristine, natural, flannel silence of the mountains !"
Ya ok fine. But, if you get injured, all that wilderness turns into a very dangerous environment both for you and your rescue party unless of course you have no friends to begin with.
I carry a cell for 2 reasons. 1.To possibly save my life and that of members of a rescue party who will have some idea where to look for me.
2. To report in to our "safety net" person back in the flats that we will calling in later than we wrote in our trip plans.
Having said this, don't call anyone in earshot of other climbers unless they are in your group . Hike with the phone shut off and with a spare fully charged Lithium 1700 milliamp battery.
Having said all this thanks to the great crew on the summit who joined us in our zany glissade down the snowfields !
Onward and upward.
The Climbing Stallion/BMT

Comments or Questions

HarryQuach	Gators 6/17/2007 4:19am Welcome to Colorado. Gald you had an enjoyable time. I climbed Bierstadt a week ago and did not use my gators, which I have used for numerous winter mountaineering outings, becuase I did not need them. I had tennis shoes and was comfortable the entire hike. I understand the point you are making but remember just because someone does not look a certain way does not mean they are inexperianced!
ajkagy	nice report 6/18/2007 12:45am I saw a couple of fools on the summit of quandary this weekend trying to make calls from their cell phones...very annoying to say the least.
coloradokevin	no doubt! 11/30/2010 5:28pm Good post! Having climbed in New England in the heart of winter (January on Mt Washington, which I have to admit is a bit nippy), I can relate to your sentiment about the tourist crowd out here. In fact, I just got back from a backpacking overnighter in the Mt Evans wilderness. Last night, as I'm pulling out my headlamp while the last light slips away, I see two people just across the lake from where we were camping... Jeans and T-shirts... No pack, no lights, and just 1 water bottle that I could see! At this point it is practically dark, and they are at least 5 miles from the nearest trailhead (which could only be reached over significant snow, deadfall, and about 2,500 vertical feet of hiking). I saw them start down the trail, and don't know what ever happened to them from there... it must have been a LONG night though! Unfortunately it isn't isolated to CO either. I was halfway to Camp Muir on Mt Rainier about 6 years ago, and ran across a guy who was heading up there in: jeans, cotton T-shirt, leather ”boat” shoes (also no water). He was a heck of a nice guy, and we even got a picture with him at Camp Muir (just for the ”hey everyone, look what we ran into up here” effect). We actually first made contact with him when he nearly slipped into a crevase on the snowfield, due in part (I'm sure) to the fact that he was jumping over it in shoes with no tread! This guy's story was that he: ”was walking along the 'good' trail, and it was pretty, so I kept going on that dirt path, and it was pretty, so I thought... gee, I should go up on that snow a bit”. We later joked that this would be the first guy in history to climb (and die) on Rainier's summit in boat shoes! He was also undetered by our initial suggestion that, perhaps, he wasn't carrying the right equipment for his little adventure!
404notfound	LOL! 2/5/2011 12:22am Welcome to climbing in Colorado. Too often I see people in the backcountry who seem to wear their lack of preparedness like a badge of honor. If you think the folks on Bierstadt were bad, you should check out Long's peak on a summer weekend. Hundreds in their tennis shoes and denim shorts, cotton hoodie tied around their waists - and that's a class-3 scramble, not the walk-in-the-park that is Bierstadt. Probably the same folks that try to get a photo of their 3 year old sitting on top of a moose.

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