#mountbierstadt

11/20/16

This is not just the story of Mount Bierstadt, but also how Leo and I purchased our new, traveling home: Betty White the Sprinter. Leo and I had been making preparations to head off for the adventure of a lifetime, traveling around North America in a van and climbing mountains. We had been searching for the perfect van for a couple months, when we finally found an amazing van for a reasonable price in Colorado.

It was the weekend before Thanksgiving, so we both took the whole week off. Leo already had plans to spend Thanksgiving with his Mom in Austin, so after we both went to get the van together, he would fly to Austin, and I’d drive the van back solo to San Francisco (with a stop along the way to see friends climbing in Sedona).

Flying to Colorado!

Leo and I flew to Denver Friday night, spent the night at an Airbnb, and then grabbed a ride the next morning to meet Dave (the van owner and builder) and Betty, at Dave’s shop. Betty was even better in person than we were expecting. We were sold. We went to the bank, signed the paperwork, and were officially van-owners. Welcome to #vanlife!

Meeting Betty for the first time!

We spent the rest of the day running some errands, and then went to a delicious Friendsgiving at a friend’s house near Boulder. At the end of the night, we drove up to the trailhead for Mount Bierstadt. There was no way we were going to spend a few days in Colorado and not climb a 14er. It was my first time in the state, and I was itching to get up high!

My friend Ryan had suggested Bierstadt — it’s one of the easiest CO 14ers, but given that it was shoulder season, that’s what made sense. The road to the trailhead was still fully open, so we’d only have to do 2.4k feet of elevation gain and three mi each way. Given that I hadn’t been hiking much recently, and we had no idea if the snow conditions would be miserable (and we had essentially no snow gear with us), this seemed like a great option.

We spent our first night in the van at the trailhead (Guanella Pass), at 11.7k ft. No biggie. Thankfully, we weren’t cold at all. What did prove to be a problem though was the wind: it was insanely windy all night, and I could barely sleep. The van just kept rocking back and forth continually. Leo and I planned to get up as soon as the sun rose so we could just get the heck out of there, and drive out in the light. (The road *had* had some snow/ice on it, so we figured in the daylight would be better).

Betty at the trailhead. (Photo by Leo).

But then, we got up around 8am, and the winds had died down a little! And the sun was out! Okay… We figured we could start hiking a little and see how it went. It looked like there was surprisingly little snow coverage, so we might be able to give the summit a go anyways. We packed up some snacks and water, and set off.

Yes, there are going to be a lot of photos of Betty. (Photo by Leo).

As we started, there was very little snow coverage, and we were fully able to follow the class 1 trail. It heads downhill slightly into an open area, and then starts to switchback up the peak. While we had been one of only two cars when we pulled up late the night before, there were now at least 10 in the parking lot. Turns out easy CO 14ers are quite popular — who would have guessed? ;) So, as we headed down the trail, we frequently passed people or saw others coming down.

It was definitely cold and windy, but still reasonable. As the trail began to climb, the snow became more frequent. Any sort of traction devices though would have definitely been overkill, which we were happy to see. Towards the top, there was a bit of a scramble, which was slightly annoying with the snow, but caused no actual issues.

On the summit ridge.

A couple hours after leaving, we were at the summit! It was incredibly up there, so we quickly took a requisite selfie, and then started to head back down the mountain. I had packed my huge parka, which I gladly put on before heading back down.

Very cold summit selfie.

Less cold on the way down.

The downhill went quickly, and before long we were back at the van. We put our gear away and got ready to drive out. This is when things got interesting. Leo started up the car no problem, but as soon as he put it in drive, it died. It felt like the car had stalled or something. Okay… let’s try it again. Same thing. Okay… let’s try putting it in reverse. Same thing.  Uh oh. Was something wrong? Betty had had a brand new transmission installed only 5 days before… and we were worried something was pretty broken.

To make matters worse, a big storm was supposed to roll in that night. And the road that we had taken to the trailhead would likely close for the entire winter season as a result. And AAA won’t tow you if a road is officially closed. And we had no cell service at the trailhead.

It was about 2pm, and I felt like we needed to move fast to make sure we could get Betty down from the mountain. We asked a hiker who had just gotten back to the parking lot if he’d be willing to give us a ride back to the nearest town, which is 10mi down the road. He graciously said yes, and a few minutes later, we were headed back to cell service. He dropped us off at a coffee shop, and Leo and I set about trying to fix this situation.

I called AAA while Leo called Dave, to let him know we were having problems. Dave said we could definitely take Betty back to the shop where the transmission was installed to have it looked at — great. I was dealing with AAA to make sure we could actually get Betty there, but I kept having setbacks. Is the car registered to you? No — we just bought it yesterday, Saturday, in CO, and we live in CA. Does the car have plates? No, in CO, the plates stay with the original owner, and we could only get temporary plates the next day once the DMV was open. Did we have the title to the van? No, Dave had had a loan on the van, so the bank still had the title, and we’d only receive it in a week or two. Oy vey.

AAA said they would only tow the vehicle if we got plates. Dave, however, was busy running his own errands, and could only bring us the plates in about two hours — but at least he would bring them to us, which we beyond appreciated. AAA said this was okay — and they’d call us a tow truck then. Great! So, it looks like we’d hopefully be able to get Betty off the mountain after all.

Leo and I walked around the tiny town, Georgetown, checking out the various touristy stores and having a bite to eat while we waited for Dave to bring the plates and the tow truck to show up. Dave got there maybe 15 mins before the tow truck, so I drove back up the pass with Dave while Leo waited for the tow truck.

While driving up to Betty, Dave asked me for more information about what had happened. We told him the car started fine, but it just would die every time it went into drive or reverse. Well… turns out Dave had had this same problem a number of times when it was very cold. All he had to do was run the engine for a while to let it warm up, and then it would be fine. Oh… Apparently this is a thing with diesel vehicles, which Leo and I had no idea about, since we had never owned a diesel. Woops… Dave bet this was going to be the problem. When we showed up at Betty, he turned on the engine to get it going, while he did some other basic inspections on the transmission. He had brought some tools to check the fluid levels, as well as the computer that can read out any error codes from the engine. A few minutes later, Leo and the tow truck driver showed up.

The tow truck driver was getting ready to tow Betty, but Dave asked him if he could have a few more minutes to see if she’d work. Lo-and-behold, when Dave put Betty in drive, it worked just fine. Wow. Oh well… At least the van worked!

Betty almost getting towed. Exciting stuff.

The three vehicles all caravanned back down the road. Leo and I had to use one of our free AAA tows on the ordeal, but at least everything was fine. We had been expecting the worst. We were super thankful of Dave’s help, and his humor in the whole thing. We felt bad that we had wasted his time, but so it goes. He said he freaked out the first time the same thing happened to him, but he had had service at the time, so he was just able to Google it. So it goes.