Our First 14'er

What's a 14'er? Well, in Colorado it usually refers to a mountain that is taller that 14,000 ft. There are more than 50 of them here in this state. Alan has big plans for us to conquer a few of these during this summer and thought it's time for us to do a practice run on an easy one - Mt Bierstadt - 14060 ft

In order to avoid afternoon thunderstorms, we got an early start. We met up at 6:30 am, drove to Georgetown and probably took our first steps on the trail at about 8: 15 am.


Beautiful spring flowers along the way..

We made good time in the first part of the hike because it was downhill! And then the climbing starts. The trail was actually really beautiful as it is nicely maintained and was overflowing with spring flowers. Although it was tempting to stop and take tons of pictures, most of us resisted and plowed on.


Trails lush with greens and dotted with flowers and Damith&Sabrina

We made it up to our first ridge and looked back and was fairly impressed at how far we've come and we can see our destination ahead!! We wound our way across a slightly uphilly meadow and finally came to the final climb to ridge. It was a good workout making it up for Uyen and I because of the increasing altitude. And due to time constraints we were not wasting much time resting.


Uphill going towards the last ridge

By this time Steffen had dissappeared onto the ridge while Damith and Sabrina who were always trailing just a little behind us were no where to be seen. Soon we reached our last bit to the top, which required a little big of rock scrambling.


One last push to the top

And with whatever determination left, rock by rock, we finally made it to the top! Woo hoo!! It was a zoo up there. It was almost difficult to feel too proud of your achievement when the place is packed with people, even old people!!!


Four of who made it up. Steffen was there for more than 1/2 hr before we got up.

So, after some photos and a quick snack. We started our descent. As the pressure of making it up was over, we took some time to take pictures of some nice view from up there and also some of the tundra flowers.


Views of surrounding mountains and tundra flowers..

Again with my bad knees, i was soon left behind by Steffen and Uyen. But after 2 hrs, we got back to our car and went to reward ourselves with food in Georgetown. But it seems like Georgetown is not really known for food.. :(


How I look after the hike. Not too bad, eh?

Anyways, i was happy that i made it all the way to the top because i was one of the weakest hiking member. Sabrina, it turned out was a little affected by the altitude, and had to turn around with Damith.