Tour de Abyss loop

An awesome loop, and for me the preferable way to do the Sawtooth instead of the route from Bierstadt trailhead. The scrambling up the east ridge of Bierstadt was a true joy, honestly after how much fun that was the Sawtooth was kind of a letdown.

Here's all the info I usually look for when I'm trying to research these routes:

• 6:00am start
• 7 hours 15 minutes total activity time
• Clocked 6.75 miles with 3,300" elevation gain
• Wore my Sportiva Mutants (a sticky trail running shoe) and felt very comfortable
• Parked at the first big switchback on the way up to Evans. Take a look at my uploaded gpx to see exactly where I mean. No other cars there at 6:00am on a Sunday during a holiday weekend which surprised me. Room for a decent amount of cars there, maybe 5-7. When we got done around 1:00pm there was one other car there with us
• We were able to drive up at 6:00am without having to register or pay and were able to park at that switchback without having a registration
• Saw no one on East ridge. Lots of people on Bierstadt and Evans summits. Saw probably about 5 people along the Sawtooth
• There is pretty much no trail. The descent from Evans down to the valley is your standard s**** loose gully. No fun. The traverse over the valley is easy. The climb up to the Bierstadt ridge is steep (800 feet of climbing in .6 miles) but solid ground and easy to see so no route finding problems. Once on the east ridge we did some what I would call "difficult class 3" moves with limited exposure and some route finding needed, I used 14ers.com Bierstadt - East Ridge description and photos. The Sawtooth is more well traveled so less route finding and limited to pretty standard class 3
• So if you're used to scrambling you'll find the Bierstadt ridge to be no problem. If you're new to scrambling, you might find it intimidating

Our Journey:

I've always wanted to do the Sawtooth, and since I recently added the four "great traverses" to my bucket list I was really itching to do the Sawtooth as a warmup run to the Mt Wilson / El Diente traverse I had planned. I chose the Tour de Abyss route because I didn't want the extra mileage doing the standard Sawtooth route from Bierstadt, and the east ridge of Bierstadt providing some additional scrambling and route finding practice.

I couldn't really sleep the night before so only ended up getting four hours of sleep, but I'm always grateful to my friends who are willing to get a super early start with me. Only passed a biker or two in the lower part of the road, still pretty early and too cold for a bunch of bikers. I was so surprised when we got to Evans that there were hardly any cars, and not a single car in our planned parking spot? I kept rechecking our beta to make sure we were right about the parking situation. I'm just used to 14ers, especially front range 14ers, being packed to the brim with people at all hours. Especially on a holiday weekend. I guess Tour de Abyss is the right route to do if you don't want to encounter a ton of people on some popular peaks!

The descent down to the valley was your standard loose steep gully. The kind of loose steep gully I don't particularly enjoy doing, but you gotta do it. There was some minor debate on which gully we should descend, I think you probably could have had a few options but you can check my gpx for the exact one we chose.

There's no trail crossing the valley between Evans and Bierstadt, but your target is easy to see so easy to pick your line across. Our feet got a little wet crossing the marshes but we were able to cross the water just fine. Had to put sunscreen on once we got to the base of the ridge as you can see the sun was starting to peep over.

The hike up to the ridge was tough - 800 feet in .6 miles. But solid ground so way preferable to the loose gully we descended. Put on our helmets once we got to the ridge.

Once we got to the ridge scramble, I was absolutely enamored with this route. The scrambling on the east ridge of Bierstadt is a solid class 3 and a true joy. Not a lot of exposure, fun moves, just a really good time.

We took a brief break on Bierstadt to eat a snack and admire the view, then finally on to the famous Sawtooth! I've done both Bierstadt and Evans twice before (Evans once on the bike), so I was really excited to get this new experience.

We descended down Bierstadt, carefully crossing a small snow field with some exposure since we had neither spikes nor poles.

Honestly, after how fun the east ridge scramble was, the Sawtooth for me personally was a bit of a letdown. There weren't a ton of fun scrambling moves. Lots of loose stuff to work through which isn't my favorite. To its credit it is well traveled, so not as much route finding needed. Clearly cairned and easy to follow.

We didn't spend a ton of time at the Evans summit, there were a lot of people and some rain visible. Took a few pics and descended on down. We cut the road switchbacks, hope that was ok. I was so tired after a big run the day before and very little sleep so my friend was kind enough to drive us home.

Hope that helps, happy adventuring.