Bierstadt/Evans, starting a G. pass, ending at Summit Lake

[jltweedy4]

Planning to hike Bierstadt/Sawtooth/Evans beginning at Guanella Pass. Thinking about avoiding the dreaded "willow" section back from Evans to Guanella Pass by descending to Summit Lake from Evans and asking a family member to pick us up at Summit Lake trailhead. Of course they'd have to take us back to our car at Guanella Pass. Is this a ridiculous idea? Should we just bite the bullet and return the traditional way? Thanks!

[Trotter]

Planning to hike Bierstadt/Sawtooth/Evans beginning at Guanella Pass. Thinking about avoiding the dreaded "willow" section back from Evans to Guanella Pass by descending to Summit Lake from Evans and asking a family member to pick us up at Summit Lake trailhead. Of course they'd have to take us back to our car at Guanella Pass. Is this a ridiculous idea? Should we just bite the bullet and return the traditional way? Thanks!

check out the trip reports, apparently you can bypass most of the willows on the return by going off path.


here found it. a lot of good alternatives in here

http://www.14ers.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 0&p=539009" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



PS. this is the wrong forum area for this question

[Doctor No]

That seems like a lot of effort just to avoid the willows.

The willows aren't too hard to avoid - I have an Evans trip report from a few years that may be helpful (including links to other relevant TR).

Should I be worried that this thread is already in the "Climbing Accidents" subforum?

[Fr3ako]

The willows are a pain in the butt especially with the rain we had this spring/summer.

It's really muddy, at least it was 2 weeks ago and you have to do lots of detours not to sink into this sh*****. After a good day of hike, you just do not want to have to do that. Glad you are not the first one as lots of "alternative" paths have been built

But it's not that long and you should be more worried about the steep downhill section before arriving there....

[Jim Davies]

Fr3ako, you probably took the gulley down to the willows. You shouldn't do that. See: http://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=5136" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Fr3ako]

The gulley down to the willows is indeed quite unpleasant. Thanks for the heads up, nice to know there is a different route.

I just downloaded the standard route .klm file from here and put it in into my Ambit. May be worth shouting it loud...