Mt. Bierstadt is one of the
14ers, as they are called, in the Rockies. It's 14,060 feet at the peak (that's 4286 meters) and located in the Mount Evans Wilderness. It's above the tree line so you'll note the lack of trees. Quite beautiful. Not easy for sure but you know how I roll, I huffed and puffed and made my way to the top. Frank & James got just a bit higher but then we had to run to escape the hail and potential lightning storm. It took me about 3.5 hours to get to the top and 2.5 hours to the bottom. Going up proved to be a challenge as I felt like my heart was going to explode which is, according to Dr. Frank, your body lying to you saying that you are out of oxygen. Something like that.
The hike starts at about 11,541 feet and then slowly but steadily you gain all those thousands of feet! Roundtrip it was about 7.4 miles (11.9 kms). Hard work but totally worth it!
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| Mt. Bierstadt and 14,000 feet |
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| Ready for Mt. Bierstadt and 14,000 feet!! |
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| The scenery on the hike to Mt. Bierstadt is beautiful! |
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| So freakin' happy even if my heart felt like it may explode! |
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| Some yelled about how lightning storms are the number one cause of death on mountain tops and everyone ran. I was , no joke, the last person going UP at the point. That storm never came over to us, though. |
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| Do you see the storm that's a brewin'? |
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| A pile of rocks never looked this intimidating. |
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| View Mt. Bierstadt and 14,000 feet with a cairn in the foreground. |
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| Taking one of my many breaks. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. |
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| The other side - only visible if ya get to the top! |
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| The boys made it a bit higher than I did. |
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| It began to hail on our way down. That's hail balls next to flowers! So neat. |
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| Aw, hiking makes everyone so happy and like close friends =) |
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| Yellow bellied marmot! |
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| So proud of ourselves even if Frank doesn't look it. |
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| Post lightning everything lights up! |
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| This little guy. |
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| There it is that thorny edge towards the middle. Mt. Bierstadt! |
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Six hours later - COMPLETE! Take that Mt. Bierstadt!
And I was 8 minutes faster than the boys finally. |
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| Georgetown, CO. |
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| Georgetown, CO. |
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| Georgetown, CO |
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| Georgetown, CO - Dasha's dream house. |
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| Georgetown, CO - A purple house! There were many in this town. |
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| Georgetown, CO |
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| Georgetown, CO - Closed Public School from 1874. They don't make them like this anymore. |
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| Georgetown, CO - everything looks cooler with mountains in the background. |
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| Georgetown, CO |
good job getting to the top and beating those boys! :) proud of you friend! and beautiful photos too! X
ReplyDeleteThanks! I only beat them going down though. They won by 30-45 minutes to the top.
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