The start of the Bierstadt Trail
Last weekend my wife, brother-in-law, and I had an unsuccessful attempt at summitting Mt. Evans–we got turned back by bad weather (blog post). I decided to return on my own and try again.
This time I started with the shorter trip up Mt. Bierstadt (from Guenella Pass) to make sure I could get in at least one summit before the regular afternoon thunderstorms moved in. I made it to the top of Bierstadt in about 1.5 hours and hung out at the summit for about 10 minutes. I contemplated traversing to Evans via the Sawtooth but decided I wasn’t quite brave enough for that yet.
Instead, I headed back down Bierstsadt trail for a bit and then made the cut over to Evans below the Sawtooth. I ended up cutting over earlier than I had intended and ended up in a pretty steep drainage. I had to scramble down for a while but it was nothing too dangerous. The ‘valley’ (valley? I don’t know all my mountain terms yet) between Bierstadt and Evans on the north side was pretty amazing. There were a few small ponds full of crystal clear runoff and the entire area was covered in lush green grass.
Eventually, I joined the trail up to the saddle between Mt. Spalding and Mt. Evans (the same trail that I’d done with Lindsey and Brandon the week before). I made pretty good time up the steep climb and then navigated the rocky terrain to the Mt. Evans summit. I hung around there for maybe 15 minutes and then headed back to the car. There were threatening clouds all around for most of the afternoon but none of them ever resulted in any weather. It was overall a great day on the mountains. Two days later and my legs are still pretty damn sore.
Totals:
Distance: 12.65 miles
Time: 7 hours and 36 minutes
Elevation Gained: 6,755ft
