After Torrey got bit by another dog on a Friday morning run and Helen and I had to scrap our original plans, I responded to an internet posting looking for partners to join a loop hike of 4 peaks centered around James Peak. James is the focal point of a relatively new wilderness area and shields the well-known St Marys Glacier at its base. Plus, I hadn’t been to that portion of Colorado yet. Sign me up!
Doug, Kevin and I met at a park and ride lot outside of Denver and then continued up to the town of Alice were we parked below the glacier. Kevin had organized this outing and had visited the glacier for skiing numerous times. He directed our steps up the network of roads and paths. Around sunrise we were starting up the glacier.
Once above the glacier we exited onto a flat, alpine expanse below James Peak. We also had unobstructed views of Mount Bancroft, our next goal after James.
As we hiked up the east slopes of James I admired the sharp east ridge on Mount Bancroft. A steep notch splits up the scrambling on the ridge and requires a rappel and technical climb back out of the gap. It’s a route that I’ve had my eye on for some time now.
We could also see the famous Superstar couloir on James – the top of which was melted out now. As we walked along the ridge we also spotted a couloir that looked “in”. I later identified it as the Starlight couloir. Immediately, I thought about returning tomorrow to climb it.
Once on the summit of James we took a break and examined the route from here to Bancroft. This section would have the only scrambling (class 3) on our route – most of which was trail-less terrain without scrambling (class 2).
Once we left James we found a few snowfields to cross before reaching the Bancroft-James saddle.
As we picked our way downward we admired the view of Ice Lake and the obvious receded glacier that had formed this tarn.
The scrambling we found was often avoidable by dropping down further, but I enjoyed sticking to the ridge crest as much as possible to increase the difficulty.
Once we reached the low point of the saddle we had easy, but steep, grassy slopes to hike. Once we were above the east ridge we had a choice of continuing on talus or hiking through a snow patch. Kevin and I chose the snow.
Bancroft isn’t truly a separate summit, it’s shorter than its neighbor Parry Peak, and the saddle drop between them is less than 300 feet (the standard in Colorado for being a separate summit). Still, the mountain looked very impressive on its own from the east, as we’d find out later in the day.
From Bancroft we had a quick hike to reach Parry’s top where a large cairn marked the continental divide. Looking at our last objective, Mount Eva, we spotted some ski tracks on the far side of the snowpatch running east from the Parry-Eva saddle. It seemed a long way to haul your skis for 4 or 5 turns.
Once on Mount Eva we took a long lunch break and discussed how to descend. Kevin and I were eager to glissade the route of the ski tracks down to some unnamed lakes. Doug was a little less sure of his snow and ice experience to relish the thought of a steep glissade. So he opted to descend Eva’s east ridge to a grassy slope he could safely take to the lakes. I hope I’ll always know my own limits in the presence of others as well as Doug.
Splitting up, Kevin and I back tracked towards Parry and then edged around the snow field to enter below a cornice. Then we traversed across the snow so that our fall line would take us past and not into some rocks.
Kevin wondered what this slope angle was, so I took a minute to fish out my compass and measured it at 58 degrees! Thankfully, the snow was soft enough that I could control my speed with my boots and ice axe once I started down. The run out of this slope was also safe, with the angle easing off and leveling out. I was able to stop without braking and turned around to witness Kevin’s descent.
We shortly caught up to Doug at a beautiful lake.
From the lake we began descending the valley by staying high on the north side with the plan to wrap around Bancroft’s east ridges.
Once we descended far enough to reach tree line the route finding grew more difficult. We followed various deer paths through the woods – provided they seemed to be going the direction we wanted. Eventually, we decided to ascend upwards, trusting that we’d reached the end of the southeast ridge of Bancroft. Or at least gotten around all the steep cliffs.
With a little terrain reading and a few compass checks we ended up about where we wanted to be. Kevin’s GPS confirmed what our ears told us: a four wheel drive path was nearby.
Once on the path, we hiked up to the Loch Lomond reservoir and then faced a steep hike back to the level tundra below James Peak.
From here we could see why Bancroft was named even if it wasn’t a significant summit.
We had to take a wide route around wet ground hosting thick willow plants, then we were able to reach St Marys Glacier again. We quickly descended that snowfield, boot skiing when ever possible until we reached the lake.
A short downhill hike brought us back to our car and cold beer. After 10 hours and 45 minutes of hiking and climbing those drinks tasted wonderful.
Complete Photo Album
Also see Doug’s Trip Report
Very nice! Glad to see you guys got out there and that the weather cooperated. For reference, the Bancroft East Ridge is marvelous in the spring and the little notch adds just the right amount of spice.
Awesome hike! Nice glissade Kevin. Looks like a perfect Colorado day.