Early yesterday morning I took a drive to a parking lot that sits about 1.8 miles from the summit of Guanella Pass in Georgetown, Colorado. The reason I did not drive the extra 1.8 miles is because Guanella Pass Road was closed for the winter until today and I just couldn’t wait another day to climb the mighty Mt. Bierstadt.
Bierstadt stands 14,065 feet above sea level and it is named after the most popular painter of the American West during the 19th century, Albert Bierstadt. The trail from the Guanella Pass Summit is about 7.1 miles round trip with 2800 feet of elevation gain during that hike. My decision to not wait until today gave me about 4 extra miles of walking along a steep paved road and another 1000 or so feet of elevation to climb.
Despite the additional miles and elevation, I found this hike to be fairly easy. It helped that I had perfect weather and started early so all that snow was just starting to get slushy as I made my way down the mountain. It took me about 4.5 hours to complete the entire 11 miles.
One noteworthy thing for me is that this is the first 14er I’ve hiked where I just kind of casually walked up the hill and didn’t feel like I was really having to push myself to make it to the top. My training in the winter seems to have paid off and I’m ready to get to the top of more of these mountains.
