Mt Bierstadt (14,060) East Ridge route by Brian Schultz Sunday July 29, 2001
The East Ridge route on Bierstadt has held my fascination for some time and originally I wasn't going to do it because Minnesota friends would be meeting me in Colorado. I couldn't have them doing the long route for their first fourteener (the gain of 4600 feet would be a bit much) but we could get around it by sending friends Art and Mark up the regular route from Guanella Pass around 8:30 AM while Tim Briese and I would start from the Scott Gomer Creek trailhead at 6:00 and hopefully we'd meet on the summit near the same time.
Tim met me in Georgetown at 5:00 AM. We drove up separately to Guanella Pass where we dropped off his truck and continued to the trailhead in mine. Since it's 8 miles one way to Bierstadt on the East Ridge route, we could shorten the day with a descent to Guanella and I could either ride with Tim or Art back to my truck.
The trailhead directions were accurate and we left at 6:10 on a well worn trail to Abyss Lake. The forecast called for sunny clear skies and we hoped the rest of the day would match our beautiful morning. I was feeling strong and we kept a good pace on relatively flat terrain for three and a half miles before it steepened. When we passed a small scenic lake at 9:00 the trail continued ahead in an open area but we soon left it for the beginning of the bushwhack. Unless we missed it, there was no marker of any sorts to identify the cut-off but the route was obvious and we picked a line up the slope to the left of the buttress high above us.
The grass and rocky slope reminded me of Maroon Peak's South Ridge. It was steep and we stayed on as much grass as possible but it still took an hour and ten minutes to get up to the 13,000 foot ridge. From there we had impressive views of how far we'd come and what still remained ahead. We sat down for a twenty minute break and contemplated how to tackle Point 13641. As we ate I noticed a lack of marmots on this side of Bierstadt- maybe they're aware of how few people come up this way and don't even bother looking for a handout. Although we did run into two people from Mt Evans and a solo climber later, they were the only people we saw on the East Ridge today.
At 10:30 we started up the ridge to get around Point 13420 and paused just past it to consider the route. We contoured around the right side of Point 13641 because the pitch to the top was too steep and then we split up with Tim staying higher and me lower. The routefinding tended to be slow and there were a couple difficult moves, one had me stepping around a protruding boulder with exposure below, but all holds were solid and it was great fun. I met up with Tim shortly and we regained the ridge but we avoided the top of the Point because we somehow missed the parallel cracks. Overall, the climbing didn't seem particularly dangerous but we had the benefit of dry rock. The scrambling (other than the two hard moves) was moderate class 3 and the ridge did indeed get easier as Roach describes but the half-mile or so to the summit was a long haul with lots of up and down humps.
Art had sent a radio with me and I called him from high on the ridge. He said they were 15 minutes from the summit and I told them we'd be up in 30 but it was closer to 50 before we labored our way to the top. We finally got there at 12:25, much later than my hoped-for arrival. (Hard to believe but the thousand feet elevation gain from the ridge to the summit took almost two hours).
Many, many people were lounging on Bierstadt this beautiful Sunday morning- the most I've ever seen on a fourteener summit. Art and Mark had been on top for nearly forty minutes waiting for us and were quite excited to have made their first fourteener. I was worried about the altitude affecting them after arriving in Colorado just a day earlier but they did well. Tim and I were also excited- we enjoyed the challenge and scenery of a seldom climbed route.
We stayed on top until 1:15 doing the usual visiting with others, taking photos, and eating lunch. On our descent, Tim pushed ahead so he could beat auto traffic on his way back home while I hiked with Art and Mark. But their descent was quite slow below the ridge so I too went ahead and decided to make Bierstadt official in every sense of the word. I told them to meet me about two miles down the road so I could claim the 3000 ft. descent. The trail on Bierstadt from the ridge to Guanella Pass has been reworked nicely (even though it's longer) and the new boardwalks in the willows are great- no more slopping in the mud! I made it to the parking area at 3:25. After a short water break, I trudged down the road and sat on a large rock cursing my newborn blister while waiting to get picked up. Other than the undesirable blister, the East Ridge route to Bierstadt and descent to Guanella Pass made for a great way to tour this fourteener.
From Scott Gomer Creek trailhead to summit- 6 hours 15 minutes
Total day- 10 hours 5 minutes (including all breaks and road descent)