Today I successfully scaled my first 14er of Colorado, Mount Bierstadt. The official elevation is 14,060 feet. Definitely not the highest 14er out there, but a great hike none the less, and an even better view at the summit! The day got started at 3 am in the morning so we could be at the trail head at Guanella Pass by 5:30 AM. I laid out everything i was going to pack for the hike the night before which made the morning not so hectic, and erased the possibility of forgetting something important! Myself, Julie Reagan, and John Klaphke met at Safeway at 4:15 and picked up Free Mondello by 4:40. We arrived at the trail head by around 5:45 so just on time. The sun was just on the verge of coming over the mountains when we arrived, the view was stunning. We waited for Ryan McFadden and his buddy Jack and started the hike at 6 A.M. The first part of the hike has a very good warm-up for the hike to come. The beginning is relatively flat so it gives your body time to wake up and get warm to make the accent. We made it to the summit in about 2 hours and 45 minutes. The last 200 feet were a scramble with big boulders, still a very easy section of the climb. As far as the altitude goes my body remained relatively unaffected except when we reached an elevation of approximately 12,500 feet. At that point I was in the middle of convo and couldn't remember what the hell we were talking about or what i had just said moments before, definitely an effect of the altitude. Once we continued the altitude never affected me, very surprising. I was expecting to be out of breath every couple of feet near the summit, but that was never the case. I would get a little winded after a couple strong moves over and around the big boulders near the summit but that feeling was something I have felt at much lower altitudes. Over our stay at the summit we met some really cool people up there. A couple from chicago, a local 60 year old hippy from the Denver area, and another couple from the Denver area in which the guy had previously hiked a 20,000 foot summit in equador. The views on the summit were impeccable. You could see out hundreds of miles in all directions, and on all sides you could see hundreds of other Colorado peaks all around. The weather was great, the air was crisp, the feeling was nirvana. We planned on crossing the Sawtooth saddle in order to reach the summit of Evans as well, but once at the summit we were not a hundred percent confident of the route and part of the group was not interested to we decided to call it a day. We started the descent and after about an hour of slowly making our way down, i got bored. I decided the only way to cure that was to run the rest of the way down, turned out to be a great idea. I made it down to the bottom with a total hike time of 5 hours and 5 minutes. The run really caped the workout and satisfied my need to get a full workout in. I don't know what it is about hiking but the feeling that i get when i reach the summit of my trail totally consumes me. The result is complete happiness and satisfaction. I only achieve that feeling when I am standing on top of a mountain, definitely a healthy way to attain my happiness. The outdoors provide me with a relatively inexpensive way to achieve solidarity and state of pure satisfaction! I will definitely return to that hike in the future and cross the sawtooth on over to Mount Evans!
Purchases made for the hike:
Cloud walker camelbak- 2 Liter reservoir- 64.99. Worth every penny at the moment.
Pair of hiking socks- No blisters, breathable socks, stayed dry. satisfied- probably not worth the money
Items Packed:
2 cliff bars: Only one consumed
3 GU energy Gels: 2 Consumed (start of hike and at the summit)
2 turkey sandwiches: First one consumed at summit, not to bad. Second consumed at bottom, terrible. Never going to make a sandwhich with lunch meat again unless i can keep it cool. Advice from free, make a peanut butter and honey sandwhich.
2 Liters of water- Consumed
2 extra water bottles- Unopened
32 oz. Gatorade- Not fully consumed, but still vital!
Gloves-Used momentarily
Rain Coat-Never used, always needs to be packed though
Sweat pants- not used, debatable
Sunglasses- useful
Toilet Paper- mandatory
Items to be packed next time:
Water less hand sanitizer
Overall mostly everything that i packed was absolutely necessary considering we were planning on crossing over to Mount Evans. Since we decided not to my resources were plentiful, but i feel as though would have been sufficient if we decided to continue on to Mount Evans. If only going to one summit of a 14er a Gatorade and my camelbak bladder are the only liquids required. Great experience, will continue to climb and hopefully gain some skills to where a class 3 is not even questionable, but i feel as though i could easily get through a class 3 right now as it is. The question will be if i want to take the next step and learn how to use ropes and caribeaners in order to hike up class 4 and class 5 routes. Not likely, but who knows! Great group to hike with, each person has a different personality from completely different backgrounds which makes for uniqueness instead of dull conversation.
