Mt Bierstadt (14,060) and Mt Evans (14,264) by Brian Schultz Friday September 24,1999
What a difference a day makes. This morning was cold and overcast as I left Fairplay to meet Tim at Guanella Pass. Driving the crummy washboard road from Grant to the pass was slow, and at 7:30 when I arrived, the weather was freezing and windy. No sign of Tim as I waited and listened to the radio. The announcer said there was a traffic tie-up on I-70 and I wondered if he got caught up in it.
At 8:00 he pulled in and said he was stuck for 40 minutes in that freeway jam. We threw on the packs after a quick look at pictures of our Little Bear climb and at 8:15 headed down into the willows, planning to hike the Sawtooth if it was snow-free. When I peered down on it from Bierstadt in 1996 I told myself no way would I do it. Three years later I was looking forward to it.
Our ascent was quick and easy despite some snow on the trail higher up. Some descending hikers mentioned the Sawtooth was too risky but we decided it looked fine when we made Bierstadt's summit at 10:15. We took a short rest and snack break and struck up a conversation with a solo hiker named Jason who also wanted to cross the Sawtooth. At our invitation he joined us and at 10:30 the three of us started down.
A 900 foot elevation loss brought us to the ridge where we stayed on the east side until the third saddle. This was fun scrambling and quite steep in some areas, especially before crossing the ridge to the west side. Once across, the exposure was dramatic but not too scary as there was plenty of room to safely traverse on a wide sidewalk. Crossing the scree gully required caution- a slip here could be disastrous because of the extreme dropoff. The last part of the ridge gives quite a view looking back on the Sawtooth and Bierstadt before meeting the slopes of Evans. It took 1 hour and 30 minutes total travel from Bierstadt.
Above the slopes, a long ridge of exhaustive boulder hopping brought us to the summit of Evans at 1:10, nearly 5 hours from Guanella Pass. We only stayed until 1:30 and then had to make our own route down Evans' west ridge as there is no trail. Near the bottom we crossed the gully and bushwhacked through the willows, at times finding a faint trail, and ended up in the woods to the right. It began hailing, then snowing as we found a sketchy trail. Beyond the woods we saw a car parked up at the pass with its headlights shining, a welcome beacon in the worsening visibility.
As it continued snowing harder, we found a more defined trail in the willows and bushwhacked some more before finally emerging at the parking lot below the one we parked at. We walked up to our cars at 4:40- the snow quit but it was freezing cold. All in all, an interesting and memorable day. Jason left for home and said he'd like to meet us next summer when we do the Maroons. Tim and I talked a while before he left for the Springs. I thanked him for making an effort to hook up with me on all three trips to Colorado this year. As for me, the year closed out with 10 new fourteeners along with 5 old ones.
Total climbing time- 8 hours 25 minutes