"Made the trip with a friend from town. Luckily she brought running spikes and poles. Managed to get to the top in 1:56, which we are pretty proud of considering this was my second ascent and her first. Super windy close to the top but a lot calmer on the actual summit. We were glad we started around 6. It started getting busy as we were headed back down." — amybowen09 • Jun 27, 2019

"Started well before sunrise with the intention of reaching the summit in time to watch it. We were close. The going was a little slower than anticipated due to one of our party not feeling 100%. Still an awesome day!" — Kevin • Sep 2, 2017

"Started at sunrise. Obstacles included crossing a flooded stream and battling chilly wind gusts. Sun came out at the top and turned out to be a beautiful day. Took a little less than an hour to descend. This was my 2nd summit!" — melissakwriter • Jul 15, 2017

"My first winter fourteener! I can't stress enough how much more difficult this was than I ever expected. We started at about 5 am, made summit around 2:30 or 3 pm, and made it back to the car around 6 or 7 pm. A very long day! There was a pretty solid trench for a lot of it, but in places the wind had completely covered it so people had made their own new routes. Without snowshoes this would have been nearly impossible in some places. We made tons of wrong turns and bad route finding decisions on the way up that added tons of extra time to our accent. Following other people's tracks proved to be a huge mistake in several cases. The way down went a lot smoother and we made it down in much better time, reaching the summer trail head just as it was getting dark. It was a beautiful clear day and there was no wind at all on the way up, not even at the summit. The wind picked up a little bit on our way down, but still was not to bad. This climb kicked the crap out of me, and was a very humbling experience. We made a lot of mistakes, but fortunately none that led to any life threatening situations. In different circumstances they could have been. I learned a lot from this climb and gained..." — IanWright • Jan 27, 2016

"Cyril and I spent the night at ground zero in the pickup. Woke up and began the ascent at around 7:00 AM. Made the summit in about 3-4 hours and continued on through The Sawtooth. Descended through Hidden Valley and made it back to the pickup around 4:00 PM. " — ACDelco • Sep 26, 2015

"This was mountain 1 of 5 for the day. We hit the trail at about 4 am. On the way up Mount Bierstadt we ran into someone we had met a week earlier wile climbing Grays and Torreys. After a short conversation we discovered that he and his friend (Andrew and Julio) had the same goals for the day, and decided to climb across The Sawtooth to Mount Evans together. They were amazing climbing companions and I suspect that we will climb many more mountains together in the future. On the descent from The Sawtooth ridge traverse you end up in the valley below The Sawtooth. This valley had mile after mile of muddy bog through overgrown willows that were overgrown to a point where the trail often disappears. There are countless places where the trail splits off with all but one option being a dead end. I felt like a mouse in a maze except our maze had knee deep mud the whole way. We ended up doing a lot of bushwhacking. Eventually it meets up with the official trail to Mount Beirstadt. We finally made it back to the car after doing more than 16 miles, and backtracking dozens of times through the bog, by around 11pm. An amazing and challenging hike with wonderful people that I won't soon forget. ..." — IanWright • Aug 23, 2015

"Had a buddy, Eduard Rasenack, come to town. He wanted to hike a 14er so up we went. He is from sea level and really struggled, but he made the summit! This was my 3rd 14er summit in a week and I was also tired." — Brandon-Shinsplint- • Jul 15, 2015

"After climbing Evans the day before I was stoked to climb Bierstadt. The day was bright and sunny, and weather was good. I was amazed at how windy and cold the summit was. I was glad I had brought rain gear to use as a wind brake. " — Brandon-Shinsplint- • Jul 12, 2015

"After an innocuous day up at altitude, we were poised to hike our first 14er of the trip, just two days after arriving at Denver. Mount Bierstadt is one of the closest to Denver, just an hour away, and we had dinner plans later in the evening with Lauren’s cousins so we figured it was the right call. Maybe not, as it turned out. I’ve climbed my fair share of mountains in the past five or so years, so this was business as usual for me. But ever since I was stricken with altitude sickness last year, I wanted to make sure that I properly acclimatized, lest I be stricken with it again. Ascending up to 12000 feet yesterday proved to be tiring, but no adverse symptoms manifested. I was convinced that this was ample acclimation to my surroundings, but I assumed wrong. The day commenced at 5:45 AM, with a quick drive to the trailhead. We were on our way up the mountain around 7:30, and the parking lot was full despite the fact that it was a Friday. Hikers with sneakers and inadequate layers were rampant, and we figured that a great deal of these people wouldn’t summit because of the below freezing wind chills closer to the top. The going was easy, for the most part. We took infreq..." — justinraphaelson • Jul 10, 2015

"After attempting to sleep in the car during a snowstorm near the top of Guanella Pass, my brother and I began our hike at 4:10am. The snow conditions were pretty bad not just for boots but for snowshoes as well, but we made the decision to continue anyway. Because of this, the going was extremely slow, but we finally reached the summit at 10:15am. We had originally planned to traverse the Sawtooth over to Evans, but the snow conditions were too dicey, so we descended Bierstadt, returning to the trailhead at 1:40pm." — Globetrotter87 • May 30, 2015