Bergen Peak

Bergen Peak - Front Range, Colorado

It's been a long while since I have been able to get out on peak, so I made a plans to climb Bergen Peak. My old climbing buddy Mike recommended this earlier in the fall, but since the length of the hike is almost 10 miles I just put it off.

Bergen is located near the town of Evergreen, CO. This is only about a 40 minute drive from home, so not to bad for getting up a good sized peak. The weather reports around here are so shoddy, you basically just go to climb and see what happens. It was supposed to be a 30% chance of rain/snow and turned out to be a blue sky day with mild winds. Not too bad, I was able to go without the fleece on the way up then put on while coming down.

The trail up was great, mostly in the woods of aspen and lodge pole pine. Probably 60% of the trail was covered in snow and ice. On the way up I didn't use any traction, but for the trip down I put on the micro spikes to avoid any idiotic injuries. The trail was about 5 miles each way, so that was fun watching my footing most of the day. On a few occasions I ran into some deer and they took pleasure in scarring the crap out of me.

It took about about 2.5hrs to summit. I set a goal to be there by noon and arrived minutes before. I was impressed to say the least. It was a good climb over 2,000ft, just very long which I tend to avoid.

The summit was covered in trees, but there were gaps that looked over towards the Evans group of 14ers and the sun was out so that was nice. I spent a bit writing and having lunch, then went out looking for a geocache. I looked for two up there and assume they are either below the snow or gone.

The way down was uneventful, just strolled down the mountain feeling all the aches from not getting out recently. Overall it was a good day out in the hills. The plan is to do a 13er tomorrow, we will see how that goes.

Date: 3/19/2012

Starting Elevation: 7,606ft

Summit Elevation: 9,708ft

Distance: 9.7miles

Time: 5hrs