We climbed the Tour de Abyss clockwise via Bierstadt from Guanella pass. 14 miles, 5900 feet, 12 hours (5AM-5PM), 3 14ers. Perfect weather for a long day, with no risk of storms.
As far as snow, there is zero unavoidable snow on the entire route, including both the eastern ridge of Bierstadt and the Sawtooth. We brought spikes but did not use them. We did walk over a couple hard snow patches on the Sawtooth but they could be easily circumvented too.
On the Tour de Abyss Route itself: starting from Bierstadt, by far the toughest section of the Tour de Abyss loop is not the Sawtooth but the segment between Mt. Blue Sky and the summit of Bierstadt. Descending the gully from Mt. Blue Sky down toward abyss lake, so briefly mentioned in the route description, is a sea of loose choss and scree. There is no trail to speak of between Blue Sky and Bierstadt. We saw a total of 4-5 cairns on that entire section of route so route finding, especially while scrambling on the East Ridge, is more involved than on the generously-cairned Sawtooth.
It turned out to be a perfect, if long, day that involved nearly all types of 14er travel:
1. Engineered trails the size of small roads, supporting tens of thousands of feet per year on the ascent from Guanella pass.
2. Class 3 ridge scrambling on both Bierstadt East Ridge and the Sawtooth.
3. Loose, steep gully descent full of unstable talus and rivers of scree to drop down into the Abyss.
4. An abundance of talus hopping.
5. Fording a stream and boggy wetlands to cross Lake Fork below Abyss Lake by hopping on rocks and tufts of grass.
6. Almost no willow-whacking, happily.
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