Mt Bierstadt: Front Range 14er

Snowy 14er

Saturday 29^th, I climbed Mount Bierstadt with Kyle Barnoff. This was a very late season, if not a winter attempt on a 14er. Not knowing that this was going to be the first 14er for Kyle, it turned out to be a memorable one none the less.

We left from Littleton at 4am, got to the trail head of Guanella pass by George Town (which I was surprised was open after the snow) at 6am. Sunrise wasn’t until 7:30am and the wind was in full force all day. We saw sunrise from behind the mountain, and watched the night retreat behind us. The trail was pretty straight forward, but the slog up through the snowfield was pretty grueling. The wind and snow wore on us both mentally and physically. We made the ridge line after some disparaging post holing and took a quick shelter behind a semi large rock.

Here, we evaluated the push to the top and decided to go for it (push from 13700ft to 14060ft). We negotiated some quick 3^rd class scrambles, to avoid some painful snow drifts. Although eventually, we had to push through some more snowdrifts crawling on our stomachs as to not sink. We made the summit and it was eerily quiet. We were the only ones on the summit and the wind was gone. So we opted for some photo shoots.

Afterward, we descended down the snow ridge line, which we avoided on the way up. Doing some glissading and some simple avalanche testing (chopping cornices) we made our way back to the windy saddle.

The trudge back from the saddle to the car was grueling. Pushing through snow drifts, sandblasted by wind and snow, and dealing with dehydration made for long push back. Eventually we made it to the Blazer, and recouped from the journey. This was my 1^st winter-esk 14er and Kyle’s first, definitely a lot of fun and worth the pain.

(props to kyle, another excellent photographer)