Mt. Bierstadt Trip Report 06/20/2007

Peak(s):	Mt. Bierstadt - 14,066 feet Mt. Blue Sky - 14,268 feet
Date Posted:	06/20/2007
Date Climbed:	06/20/2007
Author:	gregbrae

Bierstadt/Sawtooth/Evans
First, I apologize; I cannot get pics to download. I‘m assuming it‘s because my camera is > 5 megapixels. The pics are available at I will describe them in order. We started per Roach (pg 43) 3.19 from Evans Road, 11.4 miles up from Echo Lake. 1.Lake Fork of Scott Gomer Creek looking at Bierstadt‘s E ridge 2.Climbing E ridge, fun class 2-3 scrambling 3.Atop E Bierstadt ridge 4.Snowfield on E side of Sawtooth. We glissaded down a good portion of this. Some postholing but not bad. 5.Atop of ST prior to saddle 6.Looking back at Bierstadt 7.W. side of saddle. Remember, it‘s the second saddle that you cross over to the W side. Minimal snow on the ridge crest. 8.Small cornice crossed in 2nd saddle to gain W side 9.W side of saddle 10.These next two are the important ones. We didn‘t do anything today I‘d classify as "sketchy" however there was about a 10 foot section where a snow patch was covering the trail and it made me a little-?-well let‘s call it nervous. In the picture, you see three patches of snow starting in the upper L corner, the middle one is the one you have to cross. Pic 11 is a close up of this snow patch. Other than this spot the ST was in great condition. Last pic = cute little guy isn‘t he?!? Great day, perfect weather, Bierstadts E ridge was a lot of fun! I thought the ST looked much more intimidating looking at it from Evans to Bierstadt. Seeing the drop on the W side when looking back at it was amazing. Thankful we couldn‘t see the scale of that drop in that little section described above in 10. The W ridge of Evans was a lot longer and a lot more scrambling than I thought it was going to be.

Bierstadt/Sawtooth/Evans

First, I apologize; I cannot get pics to download. I‘m assuming it‘s because my camera is > 5 megapixels. The pics are available at

I will describe them in order. We started per Roach (pg 43) 3.19 from Evans Road, 11.4 miles up from Echo Lake.
1.Lake Fork of Scott Gomer Creek looking at Bierstadt‘s E ridge
2.Climbing E ridge, fun class 2-3 scrambling
3.Atop E Bierstadt ridge
4.Snowfield on E side of Sawtooth. We glissaded down a good portion of this. Some postholing but not bad.
5.Atop of ST prior to saddle
6.Looking back at Bierstadt
7.W. side of saddle. Remember, it‘s the second saddle that you cross over to the W side. Minimal snow on the ridge crest.
8.Small cornice crossed in 2nd saddle to gain W side
9.W side of saddle
10.These next two are the important ones. We didn‘t do anything today I‘d classify as "sketchy" however there was about a 10 foot section where a snow patch was covering the trail and it made me a little-?-well let‘s call it nervous. In the picture, you see three patches of snow starting in the upper L corner, the middle one is the one you have to cross. Pic 11 is a close up of this snow patch. Other than this spot the ST was in great condition. Last pic = cute little guy isn‘t he?!? Great day, perfect weather, Bierstadts E ridge was a lot of fun! I thought the ST looked much more intimidating looking at it from Evans to Bierstadt. Seeing the drop on the W side when looking back at it was amazing. Thankful we couldn‘t see the scale of that drop in that little section described above in 10. The W ridge of Evans was a lot longer and a lot more scrambling than I thought it was going to be.

Comments or Questions

Alpine	Nice shots 6/21/2007 2:18pm Enjoyed your photo galleries. Thanks for sharing.
gregbrae	in regards to Sawtooth, Evans to Bier 11/30/2010 5:28pm Not sure if you are planning on starting @ Guanella Pass. Evans W Ridge took a lot longer than I thought. Nothing difficult but at the same time a lot of time consuming scrambling, especially to do it twice. The Sawtooth from that direction (going towards Bierstadt) is just the mind game of seeing the exposure before you are on it. Coming from Bierstadt, you know you are exposed but you cannot see the extent of it. This for some reason made me more comfortable, Ha! It was probably just me, but looking back at that ledge in those last two pics after we were through freaked me out a little. We never had to get onto that snow patch but it pushed us closer to the ledge on some loose scree. Good luck, you will love it! It was a very fun trip, even though we ”cheated” a bit and drove up Evans road to 11,???. I'd also recommend Bierstadt's E ridge to anyone. Very fun!
gwright	Appreciate the TR 2/5/2011 12:22am Greg thanks for the TR. It gives me solid info for my upcoming trip beginning this sat. We leave Athens, Ga. on the 23rd and hope to climb Evans on the 27th. Maybe by then that little patch of snow will be gone, or at least a bit smaller. Great photos. Tell me a bit about what you saw as the reverse traverse. Fr. Evans to Bierstadt. You mentioned a little bit, but can you offer any more. That is the direction I plan to take.

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