Mt. Evans and Mt. Bierstadt Trip Report
Trail: The Sawtooth, Class 3, 9.7 (~12 with getting lost) miles, 3840 ft elevation gain
Let me start out by saying this trip was an absolute blast. I woke up at 2:45 in the morning of Saturday, August 23rd 2003. My friend Matt who attends CSU as a graduate in the physics department showed up at about 3:15 and along with my wife we set out for the mountain. We arrived at the trailhead somewhere around 6:00 in the morning just as the sun was rising. I was a bit upset because I really wanted to try out the LED headlights I had purchased the previous evening but there will be other chances.
We hiked up to the top of Mt. Bierstadt by around 9:00 and on the peak met a guy who had his dog with him. Now as you know from my other pages I don't tend to get excited about dogs to much but this one was so cute I had to include his picture.
This dog has apparently summated 22 14'ers.
After leaving the peak we headed down the Sawtooth. The Sawtooth is a pretty fun scramble up, over, and around a typical knife edge ridge. It had some fun climbing available off route but we passed this up for now.
I really thought this was a ton of fun but it was a bit much for Matt's first 14'er. We got a little lost trying to find a path we could all walk but eventually made it around to the last portion. I have a little lingering fear of heights and didn't like the scramble over loose dirt and rocks on a 40 degree slope. While there was never any real danger of falling, the slope you were walking above led to a vertical drop that would definitely kill anyone who fell off (the Mountain Goats below looked like tiny ants, just white puffs).
After the Sawtooth the weather started to look pretty ugly.
I made the call to go to the peak of Mt. Evans because I hate turning back. We headed out and summated by about 11:30. Ok, here is my personal rant. I hate people that drive up mountains who can walk. If you are taking pictures or get altitude sickness, or are physically unable to climb it (and I have seen 6 year olds and 80 year olds on peaks) then drive but if you are a yuppie in an SUV who flies up the roads to pretend like you summated at least get out of the way of people who just spent hours walking up the thing. Anyway after the summit and a couple of pictures we turned back for the parking lot at Guanella Pass.
On the way back we skipped the Sawtooth and tried to find our way down another trail. It didn't work and we got pretty lost. I ended up convincing the group that the best way back to the car would be to follow a man who had previously climbed 51 of the 14'ers. It was pretty fun and we hiked through willows, over beaver ponds, and along a game trail for a couple extra miles. I would guess that the real mileage for this trip was around 12 miles. It turned out that allot of people had gotten lost and we had a significant group following the experienced hiker for miles.
When we got back to the parking lot we had our picture taken with the guide and some other people who had bushwhacked with. This picture exemplifies to me the spirit you find hiking through these beautiful mountains. Everyone has there own reasons but everyone shares a common respect.
REPEATS
Repeated Evans with CMC March 5th, 2005, 9 miles, 3100 ft (Jared&Jen)
Repeated Bierstadt with CMC March, 12th, 2005, 6miles, 2770 feet (Jared&Jen)