My 1st Fourteener in Colorado

The centerpieces of the Colorado Rockies are 54 mountain peaks over 14,000 feet, or “Fourteeners,” as they are affectionately referred to by climbers. I decided to solo climb on in the middle of the winter and below is my trip report as posted on the official 14ers.com website.

As you may be able to tell from my nickname, I am from the East Coast, and this is my first attempt at a 14er in CO. I successfully climbed Mt. Bierstadt last Tuesday January 20th, 2009. Luckily, it was during your little Colorado heat wave. I am guessing temps during my day hike ranged from 30 first thing in the morning to 45 degrees around noon.

I picked this 14’er hoping it would be on the easy side and successful for a newbie going solo in the winter like myself.

My alarm clock went off at 4am and I left Denver at 4:21am. Thru Georgetown, I easily navigated the empty yet; very muddy sometimes one lane Guanella Pass to the road closed sign and parked. I was the only one around for miles it seemed. Plus, this early in the morning, the road construction did not present any issues except a few sections of one lane of road. The return later in the afternoon was a little different story…

I brought my small day pack with snowshoes/poles and no other climb equip. In fact I never even had to throw on the snowshoes. However, the poles came in handy. The approx. 2 mile walk along Guanella Pass to the actually trail head was simple on the snow covered road and navigating the ‘willows’ was just as simple.

I could see the summit from the TH and essential followed existing footsteps in the snow from others for almost 4 hours, reaching the summit around 11:00am. As I ascended, the snow got sparser and footing rockier. The final 200ft of elevation gain was probably the steepest of the day. The sky was crystal clear with a beautiful panoramic view of whatever mountains where around me. At the top, I celebrated my first CO 14er, took a panorama photo and headed down. 2.5 hours later, I was back at my car completely exhausted!

Ah, the trip back down Guanella Pass was a bit longer. I got stopped at a temporary road closed sign with a half dozen other vehicles for 1 hr and 5 minutes! Finally at 3pm, the flagman let us through! I slept almost the entire wait time, so it was not a big deal. Although, i ended up hitting a ton of rush hour traffic through Denver which i may not have hit, if i didn‘t have to wait.

Anyway, it was a successful day in my book!!