Mount Bierstadt

Mount Bierstadt

Mount Bierstadt was named after Albert Bierstadt, a nineteenth-century landscape artist who first visited the American West as a member of a Rocky Mountains Survey Team in 1859. Bierstadt’s resulting works soon catapulted him to fame, and he spent most of the rest of his life painting a series of dramatic landscapes of the West. Today he is recognized as one of the greatest American artists of all time. It is fitting that one of Colorado’s fourteeners should be named after him. Serious mountaineers often climb Bierstadt in combination with Mount Evans. The double ascent requires a traverse from Bier stadt to Evans across a formidable looking ridge that includes a step cal led the Saw tooth. There is a great view of Bierstadt and the Sawtooth from the Guan ella Pass Trail head, but unfortunately Mount Evans is hidden behind the ridge and can’t be seen from that perspective. The traverse between the two peaks doesn’t look any easier when viewed from the top of Bierstadt, but it is actually not as technically difficult as it appears. It is usually rated as a class-3 climb.

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