"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn."
John Muir
Colorado encompasses fifty-four fourteeners, which are mountains with summits greater than fourteen-thousand feet. One of those fourteeners is Mount Bierstadt at 14,060 feet above sea level. David and I, our friends Brian, Fred and John climbed Mount Bierstadt on Saturday, September 11, 2004.
It is important to note that Bierstadt was the third fourteener for John, who had already climbed Long's Peak and Pike's Peak. Bierstadt was the second fourteener for Brian who also has climbed Long's Peak. Bierstadt was, however, Brian's third ascent of a fourteener having ascended Bierstadt three weeks prior to our ascent. For the rest of us, this was our first fourteener.
I cannot say there was something symbolic about our ascent on 9/11; some intent to do something special in memory of those who lost their lives on 9/11. No, it just happened that was the day we chose to ascend; to make the trek to the top of Mount Bierstadt.
The ascent of Mount Bierstadt -- amongst the other fourteeners -- is considered to be of moderate difficulty.
The mountain was named after a German landscape artist who became known and quite popular in Colorado in the latter part of the nineteenth century.
The plan for the ascent involved meeting at a Park and Ride on I70 at no later than 4:30 a.m. where John and Fred would join David and I and Brian in the Explorer to make the trip to Georgetown and Guanella Pass above where we would find the trailhead to Mount Bierstadt. John and Fred were waiting for us when we turned into the Park and Ride. John and Fred quickly transferred their backpacks into the Explorer and we were on our way.
(You may remember that John and Fred had a commitment ceremony earlier in the year. And, they had-- several days prior to our ascent of Bierstadt -- just returned from Southern Decadence in New Orleans. I had told John before they left for Southern Decadence that he surely needed to obtain some gris-gris to keep he and Fred safe and sound on their journey to and from the Big Easy. Gris-gris -- pronounced gree-gree, John informed me, "It's French," he said -- is part of Voodoo lore and is simply a little bag full of God knows what that is supposed to protect you from the evil spirits or give you sexual prowess or keep your ex away from you or, really, whatever magic you might require from Voodoo.)
Georgetown is a small mountain former mining community on the edge of the Arapahoe National Forest. It is a quaint, well-kept little town that draws thousands of tourists during the warmer months.
We took the Georgetown turnoff and maneuvered through the narrow streets to the road leading to Guanella Pass. The road -- ill-kept asphalt in the beginning -- eventually became a dirt road which the Explorer navigated with ease.
We reached the trailhead by 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, 9/11. It was totally dark, with a sliver of moon and Venus shining above, reflecting their seductive illumination as we strapped on our packs, locked the Explorer and began our ascent of Bierstadt.
Although Bierstadt is considered a moderate fourteener I can tell you that Bierstadt is a chore; that the trail is extremely pitched, somewhat like the roof of our old painted lady, our 1893 Victorian whose roof is pitched drastically steep. But, in spite of the frequent rest stops -- (respiration at 110%, breathing in all those elusive, thin, oxygen molecules) -- we made the summit in two and one-half hours. Not bad.
Interestingly, from the base of Bierstadt, the summit looks smooth, oval, a half-circle. But, one-hundred or more yards from the summit, the terrain becomes upjutting huge, sharp-edged boulders -- granitic igneous intrusive -- that necessarily need to be navigated carefully. These rocks are estimated to be 1.7 billion years old. Wow!
More information on the geologic makeup of Bierstadt, as well as a detailed description of what the ascent entails can be seen at this site.
We made it to the summit at about 8:15 a.m. The wind was ripping across the west face of the mountain. We huddled on the east face of the mountain and enjoyed some trail mix and water; beef jerkey and the incredible sights of the Front Range of the Colorado Rockies. We were silent mostly, there at the summit; each of us with our own thoughts; our own sentiments about scaling a Colorado fourteener.
On the summit, John gave me two sacks of gris-gris he had brought back from New Orleans: one for protection, the other labeled sexual. I chided him for keeping the protection gris-gris until we had made the summit. But, then, perhaps the magic of the gris-gris had protected us all as we made our way up the mountain.
And, if any of us happened to remember -- as we paused on the summit of Mount Bierstadt -- those who passed from us on a prior 9/11, we didn't give voice to it. But, the onus, the weight, the memory of that time, three years prior, haunted each of us as we stared into the wonderful, incredible, pristine space that fanned out below the summit of Bierstadt. God bless them all.
We descended quickly. We were home by noon.
There is something about scaling a fourteener that is, perhaps, as significant, as intensely meaningful as catching the perfect wave or finishing the greatest race, or beating the best opponent or tying up the best business deal of your lifetime. It is intensely significant. It is intensely satisfying. It is ... kewl.
Now, on to other fourteeners. God speed to us all who make the effort to scale these magnificent juts of nature's majesty; nature's caprice.
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