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Start Time: ~8 am
Bierstadt Summit: ~9:20 am
Sawtooth Summit: ~11:15 am
Evans Summit: ~ 1:00 pm (Taking it Easy at this point)
When we started our Trip, we didn't anticipate how long it would take to make our full circle. Our plan was to summit Bierstadt via the East Ridge approach and then take the Sawtooth traverse to Evans.
Which we did!
At roughly 13,300' on the Mt. Evans road, there is a switch back that marks the beginning of our root. From there we hiked down a gully full of loose scree and cliffs (we went down the gully right before the gully that we were supposed to take for this route).
The gully we ended up descending 1358
At the bottom we crossed the marshy valley to get to Bierstadt's East ridge. We thought we would save some time by heading for the low point in between the second 13,000' point and Point 13,641'. It probably took us longer than it would have if we had just done it the standard way... There was a lot of fun class 3 scrambling along this route though.
Looking up the east ridge and Point 13,641'
Next we gained the ridge and Made our way up Point 13,641'.
Point 13,641'
The ridge to Bierstadt took a lot longer to cross than we thought it would, but we were on the summit pretty soon. We didn't stay on the summit for too long, but talked with two very nice ladies who took our picture before descending to the Sawtooth traverse.
ridge to Bierstadt On the summit of Bierstadt
The Sawtooth was awesome, because it had the best climbing so far. The class 3 section before you get to the ramp was a lot of fun to climb.
looking back T climbing up the Class 3 Section Me climbing up Derek's turn More Class 3
The ramp up to the Sawtooth was the sketchiest part of our whole trip. It's loose and it's steep. If you are careful though, this part shouldn't give you any problems.
The Sawtooth Ramp some exposure....
Next, it was up to the summit of the Sawtooth. We were a little over halfway done at this point.
On the Sawtooth Looking down the Sawtooth
The final push up to Evans was long and full of false summits, but we had fun the whole way up. We stayed on the ridge the entire time. We stopped on West Evans for a minute, and then made the final push.
The summit of Evans was crowded (as usual), but not as bad as I would have thought (still too many people). We took our summit shots and then hiked down to the car again.
Summit of Evans Thought it was a cool shot.
It was a great day to be up in this area. The weather was great the whole hike and the scenery was beautiful. We had a great day that included a not so standard route up Bierstadt, a fun traverse, and an honorable summit of Evans (no driving to the top for us).
Thanks for reading!
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
Good job guys. Some great pics. A friend and I were thinking of doing this hike in a few weeks. Which way did you descend Evans to get back to your starting point. I've seen a couple of ways and am trying to find out the best way. Thanks!!!!
I did this route last July--a lot of fun but pretty intense. Looks like you had a great day, and your photos brought back a lot of memories. Glad you had good weather.
@hikeaddict- Thanks! We actually had a friend who didn't want to hike who waited with the car atop Mt. Evans...It was nice to not have to down hike after all that.
@Exiled -It definitely did get intense in some areas, we probably ventured off into some class 4 a few times.
I just did this route up bierstadt a week before you...your pictures of the sawtooth make me regret not doing that too. Good trip report.
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