Mount Bierstadt

 

The boulder ridge from below

Sawtooth Ridge

Sunrise on the trail

Yesterday Daphne and I, along with six of our teammates, climbed Mount Bierstadt - considered one of the easier summits among Colorado's 53-some Fourteeners.  We left our house around 4:30 and reached the trailhead around 5:45.  There were already a dozen cars in the parking lot, so clearly there are some pretty intense climbers who start long before dawn.  It's possible to climb both Mt Bierstadt and Mt Evans in one day, but that involves a difficult - even treacherous - climb across the sawtooth ridge that joins the two peaks.  Apparently a woman fell to her death from the sawtooth last year, so it's not a climb to be attempted by novices.  Not long after we left the parking lot and starting down through the willows, I just happened to look back to my right and saw a large animal standing in a clearing about 100 yards away.  It was a young bull moose munching on the willow bushes.  As we stood there watching him, I realized upon closer inspection there were two other, larger bulls lying down with just their antlers visible above the bushes.  Pretty cool. Adam, who grew up in Colorado and who's climbed at least 20 Fourteeners, had never actually seen a moose in the wild.  I kick myself now for the decision not to bring my Nikon camera.  Next time.


We hiked down through a maze of willows, across a small creek, and then started the ascent.  I decided about 2/3 of the way to the summit that "easy" in Coloradan mountain-climbing lingo actually means "you probably won't kill yourself".  The trail-head starts at 11,600 ft and you climb to 14,060 - so around 2500 vertical feet.  I decided to take Duke along with us for the day because he loves to go on hikes.  After being pulled up the mountain and then pulled down, I've decided that Duke needs some remedial obedience training.  His energy level is unbelievable, and he could have turned around at the bottom and done the whole mountain again.  Course, he would have done it by himself because I was absolutely hammered by the time we got back.  The Bierstadt trail is only 7 miles round-trip, but the last 1/4 mile and 500 vertical feet is all boulders.  Standing at the bottom of that part and looking up at the summit you say to yourself, "You know,  I could be happy just to enjoy this from afar".  But of course, you drag yourself up that last stretch to the top.  It would be a real shame to get that far and not reach the summit.  The climb down was considerably easier, though I was really feeling it in my 50 year-old knees by the time we reached the bottom.  At one point Daphne and I stopped to wait for some of our teammates to catch up.  Duke and I found some shade under a tree that was partially hidden from the path.  About 5 minutes later a man came walking down the path and Duke, true to form, came up out of the bushes to saw hi.  I thought that guy was going to jump out of his skin!  Duke is the same color as a mountain lion, and for a split second he thought he was being attacked.  I tried not to laugh as I apologized for Duke's over enthusiasm, but it was really funny.

Jim and Duke at the summit

With a good night's rest and only some lingering soreness in my legs, I've caught the bug and I'm already planning my next Fourteener excursion.  I'll take my camera next time!