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Tour D'Abyss (Bierstadt East Ridge, Sawtooth, Evans)
It had been a little 14er hiatus since we had our second baby, but with my incredible wife ready to get back on the horse only 5 months after giving birth, and all-star sister watching our 2 kiddos, we took a swing at the quick and fun Tour D'Abyss scramble: Bierstadt East Ridge, Sawtooth, Evans.
The route is basically split into a few sections, which keeps things interesting. Beside each section are our times, which I hope is helpful:
Leave Car, Descend the gully (5:12am-5:45am)
We parked at the first BIG switchback, and took a 15 minute nap until there was a bit of light on the horizon. We didn't have any trouble finding the right gully (use my GPX for help). The gully was somewhat steep and loose, but everything always goes fast in the dark.
Cross the basin (5:45am-6:15am)
By the time we reached the bottom of the gully, the light was just filtering into the gully. Our feet were wet pretty much immediately with streams running throughout the gully, but we brought extra pairs of socks just in case this was true. We headed to cross the stream on the south side; I'm not sure if this was smart, but we had to do a small amount of rock hopping and willow 'schwacking...maybe 5 minutes. Aside from more wet feet, it was not a big deal, and the light was awesome on the sawtooth across the basin.
Ascend E Ridge (6:15am-7:30am)
Not a lot to say here - it's steep, but has nice views of the Sawtooth and Mt. Evans. No real loose rock, jus grassy ledges which we were thankful for! The sun came up just as we crested the ridge.
Go across the ridge to Bierstadt Summit (7:30am-8:30am)
Helmets On! Boy, did we LOVE this scramble! It is super enjoyable class three, with easy route finding. The second half of the ridge is just class 1/2 up to the Bierstadt summit, but the first half is all fun. You'll love it! Plus, we didn't see a SINGLE other person until the party on the top of Bierstadt.
Summit Bierstadt, Cross Sawtooth (8:30am-10:10am)
Dropping down to the Sawtooth (and away from the crowds) was fun, with a couple awkward longer moves for my short legs but not much exposure to speak of. Once we got to the higher pinnacles we got slightly off route, but enjoyed the scramble over the top of a pinnacle, and the gendarme was a also lots of fun. It looks like far more exposure from below than once you are on it. At the final ledge at the end of the Sawtooth, we took the high route (on the right), which seemed to be far less scree, but either has very little real exposure in our opinion. You'd have to TOTALLY lose control to run into an issue.
Ascend Evans (10:10am-11:15am)
Yep, this is tedious, and kind of sucks. It eventually got a bit crowded, and we were very aware that the fun part of the day was over.
Summit Evans, Descend to Car (11:15am-11:45am)
We hoped to avoid the walk back down (~800-900ft) to the car by hitchiking, but after the first few refusals we just decided to walk it. The weather was great, it was a short day, and we were feeling good.
Back at Car: (11:47am)
My GPS Tracks on Google Maps (made from a .GPX file upload):
Awesome day. I did almost this same exact trip earlier this summer, and it was definitely a good time. Thankfully, we found someone who was nice enough to give us a ride down back to the car!
Great TR...I did this route last year, and it was excellent. Your pictures really capture the beauty and ruggedness of the route - brought me right back there! It's almost a "choose your own adventure" along both the Bierstadt ridge, and the Sawtooth before the ledges. Also, I too hitchhiked off Evans...made the day much more enjoyable. You may need to work on your technique :lol:
Thank you! This was an accent account of East ridge and sawtooth! Makes me excited for my climb!
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