Mt. Bierstadt – West Slopes – Solo Winter Ascent

Date: February 5, 2002
Elevation: 14,060′
Rank: 38th
Route: West Slopes, Grade I, Class 2, 6.0 miles, 2770ft vert.
GPS: N 39° 34.966′ W 105° 40.083′
Team: Matt Esser (Toid)

Pre-climb: If there is such a thing as doing a 14er spontaneously, this would be it. Sitting at work during the graveyard shift, I got the itch to go climb something. The weather was supposed to be near perfect and I hadn’t been in a while. After work was over, I drove home, grabbed my pack and left.

Climb: Before we begin, imagine the following scenario. You wake up four hours before your shift at work begins on Friday morning (so say at 4am), and then go to work and stay all the way until 5pm. Then, you decide you are going to go climb a 14er. That’s basically what I decided to do after work on Tuesday. If you notice in my times below, my descent time is the same as my ascent time. That’s pretty pathetic. But then again, I was feeling pretty pathetic on the way down…sleep had caught up to me.

This climb is straightforward. Getting there is pretty easy. Just go up Guanella Pass. This time of year it *is* plowed, but it’s super cold. My thermometer on my Blazer read -12F. Yeah, I can’t imagine what it would be like on the summit, because this temp is at the base. *sigh*

According to Roach, the willows are hard to get through. I found that the snow in February is really good snow and made it really easy to walk through, and as long as you don’t go right after a snowstorm you don’t need snowshoes. It is what you call cruchy snow, or styrofoam snow, it’s good stuff. I actually was jogging this part of the trail, it’s downhill for the first little bit, and then it starts the rapid incline. Once the incline started I can assure you that I wasn’t jogging, however I made it up to the top only taking one break! Coming down was a different story.

After eating at the top and signing the summit log, I checked my watch, it said noon and so I only stayed 30 minutes and then started down. It was a really nice day, perfect summit day weather. Not a cloud in the sky and no wind. At the top there are a lot of rocks to go over, and finding the path down was easier than finding the path up I thought. Very few cairns mark the path, however I’m sure when this mountain get’s really busy in summer you wouldn’t need them. Once you reach the ridge, there is a good path from there though.

On the way down I was taking breaks and I could tell that I wanted to sleep. I could tell I was getting sunburned and I had a headache not to mention I was starting to grow low on water. However, this time not only did I take the right amount and not lose any nalgenes, I had an extra supply of H2O in my Blazer for when I returned to it. Eventually after taking one step after another I made it back and I came home and slept for a long time. Now I’m writing this

I had hoped to maybe do the Sawtooth, but I guess I will just have to save that for another time, maybe after I have had some more sleep. The views from the top are awesome…this mountain is well worth it and not technically difficult at all and really short, I recommend it as a winter climb, I heard it was busy in the summer.

Drive: 1.5h
Ascent: 2.5h
Summit: 30 min
Descent: 2.5h
Drive: 1.5h
Total: 5.5h