The road up to the Mt. Bierstadt trailhead was under construction. The construction crew was taking people up the dirt road with a lead vehicle and I had to queue for about an hour before my turn. As I sat in the car with the windows down, listening to the light rainfall, a group of about 6 vehicles came around the bend, down from the pass. All of the vehicles were four wheel drive or all wheel drive. I noticed the cars in front of and behind me in line were also off-road capable. As I started up the steep switchbacks of the pass I asked a construction worker if I would make it to the top. The answer was delivered with skillful ambiguity, "Yeah, you should make it." The next hour was creeping and sliding up the muddy road with no guardrail and an impressive sheer drop-off. Near the top of the pass, the rain had turned to sleet and the campsite greeted me with darkness. I managed to sleep until about 5am when the cold and wet were too much to handle. This made it easy to get an early start for what was to be my first 14er, Mt. Bierstadt.
Lake near the trailhead.
Many people were hiking the trail, I met a group of 5 from Kentucky!
Still far from the top, this is the trail, more or less.
I was greeted by the local mountain dwellers, Marmots and Pikas.
Many people taking a break at the top, after ascending ~4000'
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