Scramble – Tour d'Abyss (incl Mts Bierstadt, Blue Sky)

Sunday July 14th, Idaho Springs Park n Ride, Idaho Springs, 6am

-> MOVED TO SUNDAY JULY 14th 

Scramble to two 14ers and a classic class 3 scramble!

From Echo Lake, drive over 11 miles up the Mt. Blue Sky road (Colorado 5) to a corner at 13,300' with a small parking area; this will be our trailhead.

From the trailhead, descend a few hundred feet down to the low point of the hike. Round the south-east side of Echo Lake. From there, start ascending the south-east flank of Mt Bierstadt. Follow the ridge headed northwest to Mt Bierstadt's summit on good quality (so I hear) class 3 rock. Once at the summit of 14er Mt Bierstadt, we'll take a break for breakfast. After breakfast, we'll make our way across the Sawtooth ridge. Sawtooth is a fairly good quality class 3 scramble to a ramp that takes you up to the saddle between Mts Spalding and Blue Sky. From there it is about 3/4 mile to the summit of Mt Blue Sky, and just a bit longer back to our cars. The stats are fairly unimpressive: 3000' of gain and less than 6 miles round trip. However, this is primarily an off trail hike with a lot of rock scrambling and some navigational challenges.