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Tour de Abyss
Mt. Bierstadt East Ridge
Sawtooth
Mt. Evans
Departure at 6:45; back to the car 2:45
I don't see a lot of trip reports on this one, so my humble addition. Things of note:
1. Bill's route description is almost dead on. For almost all of the critical parts, careful scrutiny of the text/photos would show the correct way to go. When I got off route, it was because of my judgment and not the trip report.
2. I though that I was in good shape this summer. I have climbed every weekend but one, turning out some 5000' plus vertical and 11 - 13 mile trips. This one is 3000' and 6 miles and kicked my butt. I thought that it would be fun, but not tiring and I would be back for lunch. By the end my legs were shaking, I was rationing the last of my water, and was exhausted. This was a more demanding hike than I was expecting. One of the reasons I think is that you are engaged in challenging hiking within about 10 minutes of leaving the car. Not much time to ease into it and warm up the legs.
3. I thought that this was a fun hike, and I learned alot about route selection. However, I would have been much more comfortable with a partner. I thought that the East Ridge was harder than either the Sawtooth or the Kelso Ridge. I wouldn't recommend it for a first timer class 3.
I parked right at the switchback on the Evans road and set off just before 7am. Very quickly after starting down to the saddle, a trail went down into the first gully. I had read to take the gully at the true saddle, but this one seemed to get a lot of traffic so I took it. It was fairly steep, and I stepped / slid down most of the way. The gully didn't "cliff out", but somewhat waterfalled out. It took some careful downclimbing on wet rock to get to the bottom. A few times rocks slipped out from under me and went a long ways down to the bottom before stopping.
I wouldn't recommend this route, Bill's reads to be much easier.
Looking back up the gully from just below the waterfall area
From the bottom of the gully, looking at the ridge ahead.
Since I dropped out of the gully to the north of the correct one, it made more sense to skirt around the north side of the small lake. It was fairly easy to pick my way across the willows and water and eventually made my way up to the slope. It wasn't too steep.
Looking up the slope, I topped out just to the left of the rocks in the small gully
Up on the ridge, looking up at the first point on the ridge. Easy scrambling
Ultimately I made my way to the base of point 13,641. My shot from Bill's vantage point shows how much less shadows there are in my photo versus Bill's (translation I am slow)
Making my way onto the grass ramp, I didn't go far enough across. I thought I found a way back up to the ridge, but it was just below the class 5 section
Wrong way
The right way
I had trouble finding a way back up to the ridge. I didn't see a path that made sense, so I ended up climbing up a rock leaning up against the ledge. Shimmied up like it was a palm tree and it worked out well
My switchback to the ridgeline
Looking down on the grass ledges, which you cannot really see well. Quite a bit of exposure, but not too concerning.
After regaining the ridge, the last bit of scrambling wasn't bad. I looked at the route Bill suggests, but like one a bit to the left better.
On top of the point, I couldn't find a way down. I should have got out the route description, but I didn't. I looked at the direct route down and didn't like it, didn't like the east side so ended up coming around the west side.
The correct route in blue, mine in red
Around the west side, was down sloping rock with a slight overhand, but good handholds. Just one spot at the end to get around/up that was challenging.
Getting back up to the ridge line
From that point on, it was pretty straightforward getting up to Bierstadt, through the Sawtooth, and back to Evans. Since I was exhaused, I didn't take many photos. There are plenty of photos of these stretches out there anyway.
The walk down to the car was pretty easy, but the last stretch between switchbacks was steep and long. I got back to the car at about 2:45.
Looking back up at the final slope from the car
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
Nice pics, Mike! The only thing you forgot was to mark the exact spot where you ran out of water. I heard the empty SLURP right on the Sawtooth cliff bands that day!
My buddy and I hit the east ridge yesterday and I‘m glad I didn‘t read your report beforehand, haha. It would have deterred me for sure. I agree, this route kicked our butts - but was an awesome experience!
-Chris
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