Pike National Forest - 2010
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Mt. Bierstadt is one of four mountains laying immediately west of Denver in the Front Range. The others are Mt. Evans, Torry Peak, and Grays Peak. I arrived at Denver International Airport with a group of mountaineers. After renting a large Chevrolet Suburban, we headed out a night in Winter to reach a campground near the peak. We tried the Guanella Pass south from I-70. Unfortunately, it was closed due to snow. Along the way, our driver picked up a speeding ticket in one of the ski towns. Eventually, we reached a campsite near the peak. It might have been Geneva Park south of the trailhead. It was well into the night when we went to sleep.
We started a little later than I would have liked but reached the trailhead early in the morning. We parked south of the trailhead and initially started our ascent from the road. It was relatively easy hiking. There was a low-lying section that might have been swampy that had a lot of young willows. One needed to be careful not to fall into the pockets of those young trees. Once on the ridge, it was a fairly consistent, long, continuous ascent up the mountain. At 3pm, we still hadn't reached the summit, and I was concerned about the time we would summit and the conditions of our entailing retreat. The risk was greater of myself going down alone than staying with the rest of the group. Three of us summited at 4:30pm, and at least two others did not. After taking some photographs and videos, we all headed down. While the downward was fairly easy and fast, we unfortunately returned to the willow field at the wrong time. Once darkness occurred, spotting the correct locations to traverse the willow field was very difficult. Numerous times, we post-holed into the air pockets of the trees and our progress was very slow. Eventually, we passed this obstacle. A few hours later we reached our vehicles. We were all very hungry and anxious for a good meal that night.
The next two days, we day hiked in the area. Nothing too difficult, but fun days spent in Winter in the mountains.