Mt. Bierstadt: 14,060 ft Rank: 38
Mt. Evans: 14,264 ft Rank: 14
The purpose of this trip was to climb two Colorado 14ers, Mt Bierstadt and Mt. Evans, in one day. Let me first mention this route is very dangerous, time consuming, and difficult. By the end we were tired, frustrated, hungry and glad to still be alive. Only experienced and determined climbers should attempt this route.
The morning started bright and early at 3am at Kevin's house in Evergreen, CO. We made the 1hr 30min drive to the trail head at the top of Guanella Pass. We thought this was just going to be a simple 10 mile loop hike up a couple mountains and through some fields but we were dead wrong. The hike began, before the sunrise, at 5am with Mt. Bierstadt and the Sawtooth visible in the distance. When we reached 12,500 ft we encountered some hikers headed down the mountain. They informed us that the conditions at 13,300 ft were "terrible" and decided to head back down. We disregarded everything they said and continued hiking. As we climbed higher into the clouds, visibility worsened. The visibility had decreased to about 20 ft and made us rather disoriented not knowing where the summit was. After hiking straight up the mountain we rose above the clouds and were surprised to find the summit so quickly. We had reached the summit of Mt. Bierstadt in only 3 hours and felt great! From the top of Bierstadt we could see the Sawtooth ridge very clearly and were amazed how steep the assent was. This is where the route changed from class 2 hiking to class 3 climbing.
We began the decent on to the Sawtooth, which was right off the bat a hands on technical decent.There was little snow on the route but the snow that was there made things very difficult. I had my ice ax out in case I slipped and began to fall down the icy mountain side, which did happen at one point. As we struggled down to the bottom of the ridge we could see the accent would be even worse. The beginning of the accent was about a 100 ft vertical accent. While climbing we were surprised to see a mountain goat staring directly at us from atop the vertical accent. After coming within 10 ft of the mountain goat it ended up moving and turned out to have a baby with it! The last portion of the Sawtooth took us to the other side of the ridge where the exposure greatly increased due to the large cliff to the left of, what could barely be called a "trail". What made this part even worse was all the loose rock that kept falling, not to mention giant boulders above us that looked like they could give any moment. Once we had passed the Sawtooth portion of the route we thought it would be just a simple short hike to the summit of Mt. Evans.
The short hike to the first false summit of Mt. Evans was relatively quick and easy. After that there was another huge boulder field to struggle through. At this point Kenneth had pulled ahead to where me and Kevin lost sight of him. After reaching 14,000 ft we were really starting to slow down due to lack of oxygen and energy but we pushed on thinking the summit couldn't be too far away. One false peak after another really started to eat away at our motivation and the realization of how far we were from the trail head didn't help either. Finally Kevin and I could clearly see the actual summit and were devastated at how far we were from our goal. At this point I got a call from Kenneth, letting us know he had reached the summit. At this point there was some threatening weather quickly approaching so Kevin and I made the tough decision to slowly start heading down as Kenneth caught up with us. We then struggled our way through yet another boulder field and were relived to get through it. The next portion of the route was a quick 2,000 ft decent down a rocky chute to the north east of the Sawtooth. For once we all expected this portion to be rather difficult.
At first the chute wasn't too steep and just a little rocky but that quickly changed. The trail turned into another steep, boulder filled, hands on decent which then turned into a very steep loose rock decent. I slipped and fell onto a patch of snow and pretty much fell until the snow patch turned to rock. After that, completely frustrated with this trail, I decided to glissade (which is the technical term for sliding down a mountain on your butt) down the rest of the chute; not caring how dangerous I knew it was. Kenneth and Kevin soon followed, after disregarding how stupid an idea it was, when they realized how much fun I was having! The glissading took us down the remaining 1,000 ft and into our worst nightmare! The reaming 3 miles or so were hell as we battled our way through marshes, deep snow fields and large patches of willows. At this point there wasn't much of a trail to follow so we had to start making decisions for ourselves. We had trouble deciding which side of this creek to stay on as it quickly turned into a rushing river of snow melt. After some arguing, we picked a side and stuck to it. For awhile the path we had chose was dry and easy going. Then as we were within 200 yards of the car the trail had turned into a deep, muddy and disgusting marsh! It was just a final slap in the face as we were so close to the end. At this point we couldn care less as we trudged through the marshes as our boots, socks and pants became soaked and mud covered.
Finally reaching the car was like the best feeling in the world as we finally knew the death march was over. We took off our soaked and soiled clothing, got into the car and began the trek home. My legs were too tired to drive manual so I coasted down the road by keeping the car in neutral the entire way down Guanella pass. We had began the hike at 5am and reached the car at 3:30pm. We had hiked 10.25 miles in 10 and a half hours! I do not recommend anyone attempt this route to spare them the torture we had endured. We had not encountered a single person on this route for obvious reasons.
Thanks for reading,
Tanner
Mt. Evans: 14,264 ft Rank: 14
The purpose of this trip was to climb two Colorado 14ers, Mt Bierstadt and Mt. Evans, in one day. Let me first mention this route is very dangerous, time consuming, and difficult. By the end we were tired, frustrated, hungry and glad to still be alive. Only experienced and determined climbers should attempt this route.
The morning started bright and early at 3am at Kevin's house in Evergreen, CO. We made the 1hr 30min drive to the trail head at the top of Guanella Pass. We thought this was just going to be a simple 10 mile loop hike up a couple mountains and through some fields but we were dead wrong. The hike began, before the sunrise, at 5am with Mt. Bierstadt and the Sawtooth visible in the distance. When we reached 12,500 ft we encountered some hikers headed down the mountain. They informed us that the conditions at 13,300 ft were "terrible" and decided to head back down. We disregarded everything they said and continued hiking. As we climbed higher into the clouds, visibility worsened. The visibility had decreased to about 20 ft and made us rather disoriented not knowing where the summit was. After hiking straight up the mountain we rose above the clouds and were surprised to find the summit so quickly. We had reached the summit of Mt. Bierstadt in only 3 hours and felt great! From the top of Bierstadt we could see the Sawtooth ridge very clearly and were amazed how steep the assent was. This is where the route changed from class 2 hiking to class 3 climbing.
We began the decent on to the Sawtooth, which was right off the bat a hands on technical decent.There was little snow on the route but the snow that was there made things very difficult. I had my ice ax out in case I slipped and began to fall down the icy mountain side, which did happen at one point. As we struggled down to the bottom of the ridge we could see the accent would be even worse. The beginning of the accent was about a 100 ft vertical accent. While climbing we were surprised to see a mountain goat staring directly at us from atop the vertical accent. After coming within 10 ft of the mountain goat it ended up moving and turned out to have a baby with it! The last portion of the Sawtooth took us to the other side of the ridge where the exposure greatly increased due to the large cliff to the left of, what could barely be called a "trail". What made this part even worse was all the loose rock that kept falling, not to mention giant boulders above us that looked like they could give any moment. Once we had passed the Sawtooth portion of the route we thought it would be just a simple short hike to the summit of Mt. Evans.
The short hike to the first false summit of Mt. Evans was relatively quick and easy. After that there was another huge boulder field to struggle through. At this point Kenneth had pulled ahead to where me and Kevin lost sight of him. After reaching 14,000 ft we were really starting to slow down due to lack of oxygen and energy but we pushed on thinking the summit couldn't be too far away. One false peak after another really started to eat away at our motivation and the realization of how far we were from the trail head didn't help either. Finally Kevin and I could clearly see the actual summit and were devastated at how far we were from our goal. At this point I got a call from Kenneth, letting us know he had reached the summit. At this point there was some threatening weather quickly approaching so Kevin and I made the tough decision to slowly start heading down as Kenneth caught up with us. We then struggled our way through yet another boulder field and were relived to get through it. The next portion of the route was a quick 2,000 ft decent down a rocky chute to the north east of the Sawtooth. For once we all expected this portion to be rather difficult.
At first the chute wasn't too steep and just a little rocky but that quickly changed. The trail turned into another steep, boulder filled, hands on decent which then turned into a very steep loose rock decent. I slipped and fell onto a patch of snow and pretty much fell until the snow patch turned to rock. After that, completely frustrated with this trail, I decided to glissade (which is the technical term for sliding down a mountain on your butt) down the rest of the chute; not caring how dangerous I knew it was. Kenneth and Kevin soon followed, after disregarding how stupid an idea it was, when they realized how much fun I was having! The glissading took us down the remaining 1,000 ft and into our worst nightmare! The reaming 3 miles or so were hell as we battled our way through marshes, deep snow fields and large patches of willows. At this point there wasn't much of a trail to follow so we had to start making decisions for ourselves. We had trouble deciding which side of this creek to stay on as it quickly turned into a rushing river of snow melt. After some arguing, we picked a side and stuck to it. For awhile the path we had chose was dry and easy going. Then as we were within 200 yards of the car the trail had turned into a deep, muddy and disgusting marsh! It was just a final slap in the face as we were so close to the end. At this point we couldn care less as we trudged through the marshes as our boots, socks and pants became soaked and mud covered.
Finally reaching the car was like the best feeling in the world as we finally knew the death march was over. We took off our soaked and soiled clothing, got into the car and began the trek home. My legs were too tired to drive manual so I coasted down the road by keeping the car in neutral the entire way down Guanella pass. We had began the hike at 5am and reached the car at 3:30pm. We had hiked 10.25 miles in 10 and a half hours! I do not recommend anyone attempt this route to spare them the torture we had endured. We had not encountered a single person on this route for obvious reasons.
Thanks for reading,
Tanner