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It was a day to remember! The weather was perfect, the mountain was spectacular, and the views on top incredible. This was my 2nd 14er, and my daughter's first.
I've been a planning this Colorado trip with my 13 year old daughter for several months and all the research and preparation was rewarded today. I was a little nervous after seeing the trip reports from the weekend with all the mud, snow, and high water in the Scott Gomer Creek.
The alarm went off at 4am and neither of us wanted to get up. We left Keystone at 4:30 and got to Georgetown by 5:10am. We were welcomed by "Road Closed" sign at the beginning of the Guanella Pass road. I knew about 8-11am and 1-3pm road closure, but somehow I missed Sun-Thu 9pm-6am closure. Even with the 45 minutes wait, we still got to the trailhead parking lot at 6:30am. We were the first car there and first ones on the trail that morning.
At the trailhead we get a first look at Mt. Bierstadt in the morning sun.
The trail at Scott Gomer Creek looks like this and the water is high.
Thanks to ScottfromParker report from the weekend we found this crossing 100 yards upstream. Couple jumps and we were over to the other side happy and dry!
There were some muddy spots, but with an early start the ground was still frozen.
Just out of the willows looking back at the trail.
Parking lot has few more cars now.
Coming over the ridge we see the peak up close
with the impressive Sawtooth next to it.
At about 12,300 feet we get the first look at Grays and Torreys
At 8:20am and 12,700 feet we reach the snow fields.
The snow is still hard enough to walk on top of it.
We no longer have the mountain to ourselves. Faster groups are
starting to catch us, but we push on.
Alex is starting to feel a little sick to her stomach, so we take a longer break and let her recover.
We are also both starting to feel the altitude and thin air. Breathing in Chicago sure does not feel like this.
We take 20 steps and rest for couple minutes.
Looking back at where we came from we are also checking out some
opportunities to glissade on the way down.
Only about 200 feet to go, we are pumped!
Alex is traversing the final ridge to the summit as great views
open up everywhere.
We spent 1 hour and 40 minutes slogging through snow,
but it's all worth it when we get to the top.
We reach the summit at 10am. It took us 3 1/2 hours to get to the top.
One more summit picture looking back the way we came from.
You can see the road to the trailhead.
Proof that we made it.
Alex's first 14er!!!!
The weather is perfect and we get 360 degree view of Colorado mountain ranges.
To the west I spot Mt. Holy Cross which is over 40 miles away.
To the north we get distant view of Longs Peak
As everyone decides to leave we hang back for few minutes and enjoy the solitude of the summit.
In this picture you can see Quandry on the very right and Mt. Harvard on the very left.
We had down at 10:40am and we take the quickest route down
by enjoying several short but fun glissades.
We're out of the snow in 30 minutes and back by the willows in less then an hour.
The trail at noon is definitely more muddy, but there are ways to step around it.
Back over Scott Gomer Creek and still staying dry!
She did it!
It took us just under 2 hours to get down and we were by the car at 12:30pm. We just made it out to Georgetown before the 1pm road closure.
We're tired but happy after an awesome day of climbing.
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
I hope your daughter is proud of her accomplishment. We have two daughters and they are not least interested. My wife and I leave from Chicago tomorrow and plan on Bierstadt Friday. Thanks for the report we were beginning to question if us newbies could do this with all the snow.
My daughter and I did Grays together a couple of years ago when she was 15. It‘s something nobody can ever take away. Good job, dad!
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