Fail 2

Joel was dying to get out to the mountains last weekend, so after scouring the internet, he decided our best bet was to head back out to Mt Bierstadt (site of my first altitude sickness occurrence and failure to summit in July). The pass to get there was closed due to a late summer rock slide, so we had to head in the back way. I would like to give props to our little Sentra, as we only had one issue driving in the snow.

We started on the trail and passed this area that was a pretty lake in the summer.

Next, we crossed a little frozen creek that was, of course, not frozen in the summer.

Things started to get rough when we arrived on the exposed part of the trail…and I say “trail” lightly. There was no trail. We were plowing through foot-deep snow trying to head in the right direction. The wind was whistling, and our fingers and toes were numb. Since we didn’t have all the proper equipment (boots, gaiters, additional sunscreen), we decided to turn around. It was a good hike, but we’re thinking mountain climbing in the winter might not be for us! Here is the view where we turned around:

Here’s a view from where we parked (you may want to click it to make it bigger). Left to right: Mt. Evans, the Sawtooth, and Mt Bierstadt. Can you believe people climb up one, traverse the other two and head down in one day? Yes, Joel wants to try this one day of course.