Three 14ers in two days!!!

What a wonderful Christmas vacation we had, in the not-so-distant Georgetown!
Our goal was to stay someplace close-ish, where we could have access to some 14ers. Turns out that Georgetown is a great place for 14er proximity.
What wasn't so great was the lodging and food...but the beautiful weather and great conditions on the mountains more than made up for it!

We got on the trail for Mt. Bierstadt at about 8:45am, the day after Christmas, and after fussing with snowshoes vs. crampons we were at the official trailhead by roughly 10am. Note, in the winter you have to hike almost two miles more each way to reach the trailhead, due to the road being unplowed.



Hal on the way to the trailhead for Mt. Bierstadt

We were able to route-find in snowshoes from trail marker to trail marker until we reached the base of the mountain. Then we switched to crampons (micro spikes), which were amazing. We highly recommend this brand: Kahtoola Microspikes.
About an hour later we were negotiating the final pile of rocks, then gained the summit. Mt. Bierstadt stands at 14,060 ft.  The wind was blowing at the top, making for a quick lunch. The descent was a blast and took about half the amount of time as the ascent. It seems easier to descend in the winter and snow than in the loose rock of the summer...


The summit of Bierstadt!

We finally arrived back at the truck 6 1/2 hours and 10.25 miles later. I must admit that I think doing these 14ers in the winter adds about double the effort as climbing them in the summer! I was exhausted by the time we were done and happy to see the end.

 

 

The one redeeming factor of the hotel was the functioning hot tub! As long as we didn't look too closely at the water we were sitting in, all was well...
Soaking in a tub after any long, hard activity is probably one of the best recovery tools we've found-that, and/or an ice bath.

Looking at the weather forecast, we decided that it would be in our best interest to climb Grays Peak and Torreys Peak the very next day, prompting an early bedtime.
We started an hour earlier and had a three mile trek on a frozen road to reach the Grays/Torreys trailhead. That added at least an hour each way to our overall time. It's definitely key to remember to add hours to your trip time when attempting these peaks in the winter.

The trail leading to the base of the two peaks was much different than the previous day-we were hiking up a valley, with another huge shoulder of a mountain to our right, and the two 14ers in front. One of my favorite things about doing all these 14ers is that each one has been completely different in terms of scenery, ascent, and views. Even when they are close together, they feel miles apart!

This climb was more dangerous in regard to avalanches-we went right through two areas that had slid within the past week. We exercised caution and reached the base of Grays and swapped snowshoes for microspikes. The trail switchbacked to the summit of Grays, at 14,270 ft. The weather was so excellent and warm that we were able to sit and eat lunch and even ditch our heavy jackets. The sky was so clear that we could see all the way north to Long's Peak and all the way south to Pike's Peak! On such a calm, crystal day you really do feel as if you're on top of the world. And seeing everything blanketed in a layer of snow was unparalleled. We highly recommend doing any of these trails in the winter, even if you don't want to go to the summit.

Summit of Grays Peak

After lunch it was a quick descent to the saddle connecting the two peaks and then right up the side of Torreys. The trail pretty much went straight up, and I was feeling the effects of the altitude and the combined days of hiking. Hal had to encourage me to the top, which was fortunately only about 5 minutes away! Snap a quick photo on top of Torreys, 14,267 ft., to commemorate our 15th 14er, and then back down the mountain. I perked up after drinking some sugar water and loved gliding/sliding/running down the snowy slope. Eight hours and 14 miles later we reached the truck. Repeat hot tub soak and early bed time. Wake up the next day feeling a strange combination of elation/depression. Elated to have had such good weather and such a great time being up so high, depressed that we weren't doing any more...

Summit of Torreys Peak, our 15th 14er!

Fortunately there are a total of about 54 official 14ers in Colorado (this number varies depending on whom you ask), and we still have 39 to go! Something to look forward to!

If anybody has any questions about trail conditions, trailheads, etc. please post in the comments and we'll try to help! Another great resource for the Colorado 14ers is http://www.14ers.com/.