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Well, I've never tried the whole trip report thing so here goes nothing. I just got back from a little over a week in Colorado and did two major climbs while I was out there (Evans and Crestone Peak). The rest of the time was spent doing a few smaller hikes and spending time with the family and cousins.
Mt. Evans via Bierstadt and the Sawtooth
9.7 Miles from Guanella Pass Trailhead
3,840 ft. elevation gain
My dad and I left our hotel in Georgetown and were up at the Guanella Pass Trailhead around 5:00 am. Eventually, with the use of our headlamps we were able to find the beginning of the trail. We were on top of Bierstadt around 7:30 or so, as it only took us about 2:30 hours to get to the top. Definitely the easiest fourteener we had ever climbed we thought. This time also made us feel good because we had spent one day in Estes Park where we went up trail ridge road, but other than that we were fresh off the 700ft. elevation of Indiana. We made our way across the Sawtooth. I climbed the second largest spire directly which was pretty fun and my dad went down pretty low, and had to come back up a ways, but we met up and then crossed the scree gully. We took one of the many diagonal ramps it looked like you could take and soon we had exited the Sawtooth. Pretty neat route but there was not as much exposure as I thought there would be. Only one part was a little freaky. We headed up to meet the West Ridge of Evans and continued on up to the summit. Boy, the West Ridge is long! Evans was a fun summit. In a weird way, I actually liked that there were so many people around. Also, it lead to a little bit of humor. I mumbled that it had been a long day, and a lady asked me why it was such a long day, "It's only 11:30." She then asked me if I had come all the way from one of the false summits of Evans by pointing and asked if I had gone to the top of that too. WHen I showed her where Bierstadt was she nearly collapsed and proceeded to treat me the rest of the time like a climbing legend. We finally decided to start down around 12:45 and we planned on going down the West Ridge. I probably should have looked at the route down as I had Roach's book with me but we just headed down. Eventually, we realized among the boulders in between Spalding and Evans that we were too far left and needed to go right, down a steep couloir. We went down this couloir. Near the bottom there are some cliffs about 300 ft. high. My dad and I got seperated and took completely different ways down. I couldn't find him for quite awhile and was getting pretty worried. Finally, we met up as a tiny trail leads you out through the willows and back towards the cars. Real soon, however, we found ourselves on no trail at all, and our feet sinking into mud and water. We decided to head up and go around the curve in the slope and then we'd head down again when we were straight on with the cars. We had no idea that a small trail stays near the creek, but I'm pretty sure it does (still don't know). Of course we got seperated again as I was a little anxious to get down. The route down became very frustrating as we were walking sideways along a slope with very uneven terrain and a bunch of obstacles. The willows are nothing to mess around with. I was walking down and then walking up and then down and then over, all the time avoiding trees and picking my way along a route that avoided the impenetrable bushes that are part of the willows. Finally, I saw two guys below me that looked like they were on a tiny trail and I fought my way through the bushes over to where I had seen them. Eventually, I saw my dad coming down also and directed him to the trail. We got back to the trailhead around 5:15pm, pretty darn tired. Two people there asked my dad for a picture with them, saying that he was the first "REAL" hiker they had ever seen. Pretty hilarious. We were tired but glad to be back. |
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