Mount Bancroft's East Ridge

It's been a good month! At the end of March, I climbed James Peak with Julien in the southern Indian Peaks. It as a very mellow walk-up, but, on the way up, we spotted a nifty-looking ridge route up the adjacent, slightly lower Mount Bancroft. It looked snowy and sharp with a couple of vertical sections to overcome.

In the subsequent month, I did quite a lot of training including a killer ascent of Chiefs Head in RMNP with over 5000' of vertical gain. I was feeling strong and spicy when Bancroft's East Ridge again crossed my radar, this time courtesy of Jared Workman, a collegue of mine. He had ascended the ridge with a party of three the weekend before and reported that it was in awesome condition. Consolidated snow ridges, 3rd-class scrambling, a short rappel and a short pitch of technical climbing. Fair enough!

I put out a general call for partners and came up with four; Chris and Andy with whom I had climbed several ambitious mountains before, as well as Mike and Marella who came well-recommended.

We rendesvoused at the exit on Sunday morning and made our way to the Loch Lomond trailhead. High-clearance vehicles can proceed all the Loch in the summer, but this early in the season, the road is closed by snow. No problem. The additional two miles of hiking looked easy enough and the weather and company were good. We set off in high spirits along the mostly-clear road.

Andy on approach with our first view of Bancroft and the East Ridge

Climbing above Loch Lomond

By 9am we reached the open meadows below the Loch and got our first view of our objective. From due-east, the foreshortened ridge didn't look like much and the actual rounded summit of Bancroft was hard to make out amongst lower sub-summits. We ran into two snowboarders, Zach and Martin, and their dog Huggy-Bear on their way to descend the broad, snowy bowl on the east face. We made quick progress up above the Loch to a bench below the start of the ridge at 11,900'. We'd climbed 1500' already, half of the day's goal, and hiked three miles in about two hours. Everyone was feeling spry and good. The weather couldn't be better.

Faced with the ridge, we changed into helmets and harnesses, traded ice axes for treking poles, and started up the snow ramp to the ridge-crest. Surmounting a short climb, we found ourselves on a narrow snowy crest angling up into the sky. Fabulous! As we progressed, the ridge got narrower and the drop-offs to either side became longer and steeper. Soon I realized one of my life-long goals; traversing a razor-sharp snow crest in a beautiful alpine setting. Spectacular snow ridges were interspersed with more plebian rocky scrambles. We proceeded in high spirits.

Andy and I starting the route

Chris on the lower ridge

After about an hour of this, we encountered the technical crux of the route. Spying a length of purple webbing left by Jared's party eight days before, we unlimbered one of the ropes and I rappelled into the notch. The notch was another razor-sharp snow crest no more than 20' long with steep drops down couloirs on either side. Balancing here was tricky and I finally ended up straddling the ridge while I untangled the rope and got situated. Andy descended next with the second rope and we set about finding a way out of the notch while the other three rappelled.

Marella raps out of the sun and into the Notch

Zach and Martin's amazing photo from the valley below taken at the same time. Andy is below and Mike and Chris wait their turn above.

The up-hill wall of the notch was only about half the height of the rappel, but looked a lot steeper from below than it had from above. Given the vertical cliff, small holds, loose rock, and unforgiving drop-offs on either side, I quickly abandoned my plans to free-solo the pitch and we deployed the second rope. In theory, the pitch is 20' of 5.2 climbing, but in heavy boots and pack, it was mighty spicy. I placed two nuts in a nice finger crack before pulling up onto a large block and setting up a belay. Andy came up followed by the rest of the team.

Now committed, we continued on more of the same alternating snow ridges and rocky scrambles. A hundred yards later, we crossed the widest and sharpest snow ridge thus far and encountered the second crux of the route. The snow ended in a mild bergshrund, a gap about six feet across between snow and rock. Above this, the rock became vertical for perhaps 20'. To the right and left, the snow dropped precipitously down to the valley's below. However, on the right were a pair of chimneys that looked a bit easier and less committing than the direct headwall. I climbed into the 'shrund and made a delicate step into the first chimney. The rock here was wet and loose, but the exposure was low and I quickly gained the top of the wall. Chris and Andy opted for the second chimney and traversed quite a bit of steep snow to get there. As they moved, chunks of snow broke loose on the slope quickly developing into impressive sunwheels before breaking apart. Seeing this, Mike and Marella opted for the closer chimney.

Marella, Mike, and Andy traversing the final snow ridge before the second crux.

Andy climbs through the second crux

From here, we spent another hour and a quarter climbing steep, chunky ridge and gaining elevation steadily. The exposure was never as high as it had been in the two cruxes and the lovely snow ridges were gone. Just as the arduous climb up the ridge was getting old, we emerged onto a grassy slope and the false summit at 13,000'. The view north to James Peak was impressive. We gratefully traded out of harnesses and back into hiking gear before making our way a quarter mile across level snow and tundra to the summit.

Andy scrambling along the upper ridge

Finally, crossing the flats below the summit

To our surprise, Zach, Martin and Huggy Bear were still on the summit when we got there. A good, social time was had, snacks consumed and photos taken as we savored our triumph. To the east, the weather looked distinctly alarming. I had originally planned to head down the broad southeast ridge on tundra, but Zach and Martin were going to ski the central bowl, so we accompanied them to film their antics. It turned out to be a good thing as we got in a great glissade and dropped 1000' in about fifteen minutes. From here, the ridge looked much more imposing than it did on the approach. We did two more glissades down to Loch Lomond as the weather deteriorated above 12,000'.

Victory is ours!

Mike in full-glissade

The East Ridge from the south.

The last two miles back to the car were sore and painful, as all such retreats are, but we were completely stoked at the awesome conditions and amazing ridge we'd climbed. We made it back to the cars at 4:30 and adjourned to Idaho Springs for a great deal of food and requisite beer.

What a fantastic trip! It was great to get Chris and Andy together for a trip; they seemed to have a lot in common from impending fatherhood to a past of semi-elite road cycling. It was similarly great to finally do something with Mike and Marella who I have previously only known in non-outdoors venues. My initial misgivings about having a team of five were groundless and we worked well together as a team. I'd do it again in a heartbeat! Finally, this trip was proof that even a relatively modest summit such as Bancroft that appears gentle and benign can harbor a really stellar technical challenge. Thanks to Jared for alerting me to this route and thanks to the rest of the team for making the trip run so smoothly. Thanks also to Zach and Martin for sending us the amazing photos they took of us up on the ridge.

The Wilderness Journal

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