Mount Bierstadt

Sunrise September 12, 2026

I’ve been wanting to get out on a sunrise summit, and Mount Bierstadt seemed like a great option. This is one of the easier 14ers close to home that I thought would make for a great sunrise opportunity. Back in 2012, I did a winter season climb of Mount Bierstadt, so I have familiarity with the area which was important to me for a solo sunrise hike. The trailhead for this hike is Guanella Pass, which you can use Google Maps to get directions to. This is a fully paved road, so access is easy, but parking is strictly enforced.

Given this is a Colorado 14er, there is a lot of information available to prepare for the hike. 14ers.com is, in my opinion, the best resource available if you are looking for any information on Colorado 14ers.

For this write-up, I have modified my format a bit since there is so much information available for Mount Bierstadt. I wanted to speak to my approach to sunrise summits. I’ve done sunrise summits during different seasons from winter to summer. One thing is constant, both are cold. This approach I am presenting can be applied to all seasons. But something to keep in mind, is that gear selection in highly dependent on season and conditions.

Approach to Sunrise Summits

Plan Your Route >> Do the proper research to know your intended route.

        >> Trailhead
        >> Route Length
        >> Elevation Gained
        >> Class of the Route

As mentioned before, the 14ers.com website is excellent for information gathering for Mount Bierstadt or other 14ers, as well as many 13ers. I also use GAIA GPS, and Google Earth to plan my route where I can evaluate GXP or KML tracks to get a good sense of the route beforehand.

Build a Timeline >> There is a bit that goes into this, so I have presented this in stages.

What time is sunrise? There are lot of places to look for this information, I used Map Logs, but you can get this from most weather apps. For this trip, the sunrise time was reported to be 6:41 a.m. I recommend planning to summit 30 minutes prior to sunrise. Now, I know my goal will be to summit by 6:10 a.m. 

What is your pace? Not only your pace, but the pace of those in your party. This will let you know when you need to start so you can estimate the time it will take to make the summit. For myself, I think of this in vertical feet rather than miles. I plan to average 1,000 feet per hour. Determine this rate for you and add in a buffer.

From my personal experience, my body is not used to working this hard at these hours, especially with limited sleep. Plan for challenges and do your best to adjust. I personally have a hard time eating and drinking in regular intervals on these pre-dawn hikes. Additionally, elevation may be harder for some people in your party. Consider these factors and prepare yourself mentally for these challenges, then add a time buffer of at least another half-hour to an hour to summit. For this climb, the elevation gain is reported at >2,500 feet. For my pace, I accounted for at least 2.5 hours to summit, so I added a buffer of half hour and planned for 3 hours from trailhead to summit.

How long to get to the Trailhead? This is really a two-part question. How long does it take you to wake up, get gear to your vehicle, then get on the road? Then how long is the drive to the trailhead? Plan on being a bit groggy, since you are likely running on limited sleep. Knowing that, have everything prepped, right down to the pre-brew timer on the coffee pot. I typically plan for 30 minutes to get up and on the road. Once on the road, I had planned for a 1.5-hour drive to the trailhead. I have now accounted for 2 hours for this section, from wake-up to arrive at the trailhead. The big pieces of the timeline have now come together.

Timeline Summary

• Summit time goal: 6:10 a.m.
• Hike time: 3 hours >> Leave trailhead by 3:10 a.m.
• Rise and Drive to Trailhead: 2 hours >> 1:10 a.m.

Know The Conditions >> For any hike you do, the conditions are likely the most important consideration. If summer conditions are expected, that makes things more manageable. Hopefully I have illustrated the importance of building the timeline prior to evaluating conditions. Now you will know what time you expect to be at what elevation on the route. My preferred weather forecast is to use the NOAA National Weather Service Pinpoint forecast. Here you can locate your objective and you can start to evaluate the forecast. This is how I evaluate weather using this site.

Find the peak you are going to hike on the map, where selecting it will refresh the page. Look at the Hourly Weather Forecast graph. There is a lot of data to consider: wind chill, temperature, gusts, surface wind, precipitation and more. Note the elevation for these data and relate to the timeline you have constructed - start time to summit time - to evaluate the weather patterns. For this trip, the skies were expected to be clear, with temperatures in the mid 30’s, with wind chill near freezing. You can use this information to make gear selection.

Gear >> My rule of thumb is that old line “hope for the best, but prepare for the worst”. The last thing you want is to be turned around because you did not adequately prepare for the conditions. These are my gear choices for this hike:

• Primary Gear: 30 L Pack, Trekking Poles, 1.5 L Water Bladder, Headlamp, Garmin In-Reach, First Aid Kit, Cell Phone
• Feet: Trail Shoes, Light Hiking Sock
• Legs: Alpine Pant, Belt
• Upper Body: Medium Base Layer, Fleece Hoodie, Shell Jacket, Puffy Vest
• Accessories: Beanie, Buff, Medium Fleece Gloves, Sunglasses, Ball Cap
• Fuel: Protein Bar, Trail Mix, Gummy Bears, Cookies, Coffee

Stars Over Mount Bierstadt

A lot goes into planning all of this for a sunrise hike. Once I had the route, timeline, and gear figured out I prepped everything the night before so I had an easy transition from wake-up to getting on the road.

I ended up setting my alarm to wake me at 1:30 a.m., but was woken a few minutes earlier when I heard the coffee pot had finished brewing. I zapped a pre-made breakfast burrito in the microwave, grabbed my coffee and was on the road by 1:40 a.m. The drive went by quickly. The roads were clear at this hour, but the winding road from Georgetown up to Guanella Pass could really use some paint or reflectors. In the pitch black it was hard to see your position on the road making the switchback turns. I made it to the trailhead just after 3:00 a.m. The trailhead was alive, and the lot I parked in was more than half full. I could see lots of people getting ready to head out and there were already others on route, which I could see by their headlamps. I knew there would be others, but I didn’t anticipate this much activity for an early hike like this. I quickly got ready and was on the trail just before 3:15 a.m.

I started out just wearing my base layer and beanie and wasn’t too chilled, so the temperature was reasonable and there wasn’t any wind. The start of this hike is interesting where from the trailhead, you start by dropping in elevation going through a willows section and crossing a creek. There are lots of boardwalks for what I imagine different seasons save you from a mud slog.

Headlamps on Route

My first hour covered almost 2 miles and about 800 vertical feet. I was feeling pretty good at this point, starting to gain in elevation after getting through the willows. The stars were quite amazing. I took several stops trying to capture the stars and a bit of the Milky Way. I continued on and kept monitoring my progress with the GAIA App. This second stretch was definitely getting tougher. A lot more vertical was covered with less mileage. I kept a good eye on my progress here knowing I didn’t want to be lingering around a cold summit too early before sunrise. The wind was increasing, and becoming more constant the further up the mountain I went.

My second break was at the 2-hour mark and I was at about 13,600 feet. The wind was chilling, so it was time to put on another layer - my fleece hoodie. I chatted with a gentleman from Illinois for a bit knowing I was on track with my timeline. Starting on this final stretch I started to slow the pace knowing I had lots of time, but I’m sure a lot of that was me starting to run low on energy as well. I’m horrible at re-fueling at this time of day and did not fuel up at any point from the trailhead to summit.

This third section turns to class 2, where there is a lot of boulder hopping and route finding. The glow of orange could be seen on the horizon, but it was still quite dark. Still using my headlamp, I was able to slowly navigate this section, trying to stay near what I thought was the ridge crest most of the way. I made the summit just before 6:00 a.m.

Me on the Summit

At first, I couldn’t see anyone else on the summit. There was a climber close behind me that I hadn’t noticed until I started looking all around to see if I was on the summit or not. I said “I guess this is it”, and we chuckled a bit. I pulled out my GPS and saw I was in fact on the summit. It took me about 2 hours and 45 minutes to summit. I was more than happy with that pace.

I found a spot out of the wind to sit and have a much-deserved coffee and a cookie. Sunrise itself was still more than half hour off, so it was time to pull out the puffy vest. There were soon about 15 others up there. We all had great conversations and was one of my better 14er summit experiences. The colors were changing quickly with colors of blue in-between the valleys far off to the reds and oranges of the horizon. This is an experience I wish for all of you; it really humbles you and makes you realize the beauty that is right in our backyards.

Right about sunrise it was time to gear up and start heading back. I couldn’t feel my fingers at this point, wishing I had some warmer gloves with me. I took a photo of the sunrising over the crest of Mount Blue Sky, then was back on route down the mountain. I think no matter how warm you plan for these sunrise hikes, you will still be a bit chilled, so keep that in mind if you are preparing for a similar hike.

The Sawtooth

There were hoards of people on their way up, like ants on a hill. Most of the hike down was in the shadow of the mountain, where the sun didn’t really hit me till I made it all the way down to the willows. Heading down I ran into a gentleman I chatted with on the summit and we walked the rest of the way down together talking about everything from mountains, to fly fishing, to college football. It just goes to show you never know what kind of connections you will find in the mountains.

I made it back to the trailhead about 8:45 a.m. What a great experience. I’ve only done a few sunrise hikes. This is a great mountain if you plan for this type of hike. If you’re looking for solitude, look elsewhere, you definitely won’t find that here. Even though the trail was full, I thought the people I met were fantastic. It was a really great experience, and it’s been almost seven years since I have been on a summit of a 14er, so it was nice to be back in the thin air. These types of hikes aren’t easy. Proper preparation, including the metal aspect of expected challenges, will aid in positive outcomes. I look forward to my continued efforts to get back into the mountains, and I hope those of you reading this find something here that helps you get into the mountains to have as great of an experience as I had today.

Hike Date: September 12, 2026
Starting Elevation: 11,630 feet
Mount Bierstadt Elevation: 14,062 feet
Total Ascent: 2,636 feet
Class: 2
Total Distance: 7.14 miles
Total Time: 5 hours, 28 minutes
Moving Time: 4 hours, 35 minutes
Stopped Time: 53 minutes
GAIA Link: Mount Bierstadt
*All data is tracked using the GAIA app