Hiking Bierstadt is popular for three main reasons...first, the climb is fairly easy (respective to other 14ers, at least), and an excellent trail marks the entire route. Second, it's barely 90 minutes from Denver, and third, the trailhead access atop Guanella Pass is exceedingly easy to get to. Guanella Pass connects Georgetown and I-70 to US 285 at Grant. Just follow the signs from either Georgetown or Grant and drive to the top of the pass. The road is paved to start at either side, but becomes dirt on either side of the pass for several miles. Still, it's well-kept, and just about any car should be able to make it. There is ample parking atop the pass, and you really can't miss it.

In the dead of winter, we weren't sure what to expect in the way of road conditions on Guanella Pass, and we were pleasantly surprised to find that it had been plowed all the way from Georgetown to the summit of the pass, where the Bierstadt trailhead begins. We parked it right about 7:30am, and noted the temperature....1 below zero! Brrrrr! Luckily, the almost-always-present winds around Guanella were actually calm, otherwise the wind chill would have made it far too cold to climb. The snow coverage was sketchy...the west slopes were largely windswept (another nice feature of the standard route on Bierstadt is that the entire route is visible from the trailhead) all the way to the summit.

So, we left the ski gear in the truck, layered up & took snowshoes (just in case), and headed out into the bright, clear, cold morning. The first section of the hike is actually a gradual downhill through the Guanella Pass Willows - a huge willow-populated mud bog that has seen more than its share of abuse from hikers over the years. A few years ago, the Colorado 14er Initiative came in and actually constructed wooden bridges over the more abused parts of the Willows section of the hike. On the surface, that might seem like a desecration of the wilderness, but in fact it helps maintain a single trail and minimizes the impact to the surrounding area (which used to be a crisscross of improvised trails). After a small stream crossing (which was, of course, frozen solid), the trail begins to climb the moderate slopes towards Bierstadt, and gradually steepens as you approach the ridgeline just south of the summit. From the ridgeline, the summit is a mild rock-scramble to the north for a couple hundred yards.

We made fairly good time up the mountain...just about two and a half hours. The temperatures remained cold, even as the sun gradually rose over the ridgeline. After a couple minutes to rest at the top of the ridge, we finished up the last small stretch to the summit itself, where a slight breeze was blowing, taking the cold temperatures and giving them a serious bite. Based on the fact I couldn't remove my hand from my glove long enough to try to open the canister where the register was located before it went numb, I'd say the temperature was about -10 to -20 degrees...cold enough to prevent my digital camera from working, at least.

A quick rest on the summit, and we were off again, retracing the route down. We ran into a total of 7 other people on this climb (compared to a couple hundred on any given summer weekend), so it was a nice, peaceful hike...and the prospect of a hot pizza at Beau Jo's in Idaho Springs definitely kept us focused on the way down!!