Peak(s):	Mt. Neva - 12814
Date Posted:	07/29/2012
Modified:	08/01/2022
Date Climbed:	07/28/2012
Author:	CarpeDM

Mt Neva - North Ridge
Stats Resources: Dave Cooper's "Colorado Scrambles", Gerry Roach's "Colorado's Indian Peaks" (after the fact only), Derek's trip report Mileage: Roach says 8.6, Cooper says 9, my GPS was closer to Cooper Gain: Roach says 2,870, Cooper says 3,400, my GPS was closer to Cooper Class: Roach and Cooper say class 4, who am I to argue? Rock quality: Excellent Approach I found myself with a free morning on Saturday and with an itch to do some more scrambling. It had to be near home, so I could leave the dog behind, and to make sure I got back in time for a BBQ. The North Ridge of Mt Neva had been on my short list for a while, so I checked out what Dave Cooper's "Colorado Scrambles" had to say. I also saw Derek's trip report. But I didn't take good notes or commit much to memory; I knew very well how to get to the Fourth of July Trailhead and the start of the ridge. I felt like I could figure out the rest as I went along. About 3 miles up from the trailhead, past the mine, you reach Arapaho Pass. From here, take a left onto the Caribou Pass trail. Ramble on past Lake Dorothy, and good trail will soon deposit you onto the ridge. Ridge Overview I'll divide the ridge into three sections. Section 1 goes from the start to the second deep notch. This section lets you know what you're in for. The exposure hits you pretty early. I tried to stay ridge direct the whole way, but there were a couple of points where I was annoyed at having to downclimb off the ridge. One was probably near the second, deeper notch in this pic (left edge), but I honestly can't remember for sure. For the most part, whenever you need to climb off the ridge, your best bet will be to the east (climber's left). Section 1 - the Intro The second section goes from the second deep notch, past the crux, and past the scrambling that is past the crux. It intensifies what section 1 has to offer and contains the hardest climbing of the day. All the way up, I had been staring at that streak of smooth, dark gray rock and the deep notch where it meets the ridgeline thinking, How am I going to get past that? Cooper and Roach both call this route class 4 because of this crux. Once I got on it, I thought a better description would be "exposed 3+." But what's the difference really? Let's just say I didn't regret my decision to go solo on this one. Section 2 - the Crux In the third section, the difficulties are over. There is one little bitty catwalk type of area with the loosest rock of the day, but it's hardly worth mentioning. In the pic below, from the low point at the middle up to the summit is literally about 3 minutes walk. But given the easy walk to the summit, I was pleasantly surprised by the airy nature of the summit block itself. Section 3 - the Outro Climbing the Ridge As I approached the ridge, I noticed that there were two pairs of climbers ahead of me. That let me get some decent pics for illustration. A climber on the ridge From the ridge, anticipating the crux A zoomed view shows 3 of the 4 climbers ahead of me The first pair starting up the crux In the pic below, pay attention to the highlighted orange/pink rock. According to the second pair of climbers, this first pair of climbers angled up to the right and to the top of the near side of the notch, then downclimbed into the notch, and up out of it. I took a different line: From the position of the lower climber, I took a route that angled up to the left. Then I crossed the grassy ledges, angled up into the gully below the notch, then climbed out of the gully up and to the left of the orange/pink rock. Notice the orange/pink rock Here's a pic from closer to the gully crossing. Angle left of the orange/pink rock The second pair of climbers let me go ahead, which gave me a chance to get pics looking back as they climbed the crux. They followed a line similar to mine. Climbers following my path Shortly after the crux, there was a cairn or two, and it looked like you could bypass the ridge on the right (west) side (blue arrow). Instead, I didn't want to miss more scrambling, so I climbed back up onto the ridge (red). Red leads to the last good ridge scrambling After a little more ridge scrambling, this little catwalk appeared. It was the loosest rock of the day - it reminded me a little of Elk rock. For maybe a few feet, it was also relatively narrow, but not really a problem. I believe this is an exit for one of Neva's couloirs. Then, past the next little bump, it's smooth sailing to a nice summit block. The mini "catwalk" and the stroll to the summit The Bushwhack From the summit, I had been contemplating going back over to tag the orphaned 13er Old Baldy, or possibly heading over to high 12er Jasper. I decided to just bushwhack back over to the Arapaho Pass trail and see how I felt about adding Old Baldy - and see if the weather might permit it. I knew from Derek's report that I could descend to the saddle between Neva and Jasper and follow a scree-filled gully down between a couple of lakes. From the summit, I could see the lakes, but had to take on faith that the gully descent wouldn't be too bad. From the summit, I couldn't see the descent gully But I could see the lakes The gully descent turned out to be quite tame. From there, I got a little side-tracked toward some picture-taking. That plus the fact that the bushwhack took longer than I thought it would made me decide to save Old Baldy for another time. Just a word on the bushwhack: it's not difficult, but I wandered a little to avoid some marshy areas. To give you one view that has a comparison, I stole Derek's GPX file, merged it with mine, and added a yellow line to represent the rough path that Cooper recommends. I'm sure any of these routes would work just fine. The black dots are Derek's route; the open circles are mine. Views Along the way, I stopped to take in some expansive views... Lake Dorothy Fog to the west Apache and Navajo Iroquois and Apache Arapahos, Old Baldy, and basin As well as to revel in the small things... 7/28/2018 Update Needing a short trip again as I'm getting back in shape after an ankle sprain, I repeated this route Saturday - coincidentally, on the 6th anniversary of my first trip. New impressions based on the 2nd trip: 1) I varied the route at the crux. This time, I took the shaded dihedral that's to the right of the upper climber in image #10 and then downclimbed into the notch. It was solidly in the class 4 range - probably a bit more difficult than my original route, but still on high quality rock. 2) I also stayed on the ridge crest before the red arrows in image #14 - just for a little more scrambling. 3) I was struck by how quickly the ridge went. The scrambling sections are pretty short. A decent portion of the ridge is closer to ridge walking than actual scrambling, but you can dial up or down on the scrambling and exposure with your route selection. All in all, I think this route is a pretty good entry to scrambling (and to bushwhacking on your way back). 4) Priuses and similar can get to the trailhead - just probably not to the actual parking lot that's above the outhouse - although road conditions here can change so seek out newer info before going. 7/23/2022 Update A Trailhead Update: Apparently, they are now closing traffic and running shuttles from the school that's just off of the Peak-to-Peak highway when the Hessie and Fourth of July parking lots are full (at least on weekends). Just before 7am on 7/23/22, not only were the TH lots full, but the school lot was pretty close to full, too. I was told shuttles run about every 20 minutes. My GPS Tracks on Google Maps (made from a .GPX file upload): Login required to view this map... Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Mt Neva - North Ridge

Stats

Resources: Dave Cooper's "Colorado Scrambles", Gerry Roach's "Colorado's Indian Peaks" (after the fact only), Derek's trip report

Mileage: Roach says 8.6, Cooper says 9, my GPS was closer to Cooper

Gain: Roach says 2,870, Cooper says 3,400, my GPS was closer to Cooper

Class: Roach and Cooper say class 4, who am I to argue?

Rock quality: Excellent

Approach

I found myself with a free morning on Saturday and with an itch to do some more scrambling. It had to be near home, so I could leave the dog behind, and to make sure I got back in time for a BBQ.

The North Ridge of Mt Neva had been on my short list for a while, so I checked out what Dave Cooper's "Colorado Scrambles" had to say. I also saw Derek's trip report. But I didn't take good notes or commit much to memory; I knew very well how to get to the Fourth of July Trailhead and the start of the ridge. I felt like I could figure out the rest as I went along.

About 3 miles up from the trailhead, past the mine, you reach Arapaho Pass. From here, take a left onto the Caribou Pass trail. Ramble on past Lake Dorothy, and good trail will soon deposit you onto the ridge.

Ridge Overview

I'll divide the ridge into three sections.

Section 1 goes from the start to the second deep notch. This section lets you know what you're in for. The exposure hits you pretty early. I tried to stay ridge direct the whole way, but there were a couple of points where I was annoyed at having to downclimb off the ridge. One was probably near the second, deeper notch in this pic (left edge), but I honestly can't remember for sure. For the most part, whenever you need to climb off the ridge, your best bet will be to the east (climber's left).

The second section goes from the second deep notch, past the crux, and past the scrambling that is past the crux. It intensifies what section 1 has to offer and contains the hardest climbing of the day. All the way up, I had been staring at that streak of smooth, dark gray rock and the deep notch where it meets the ridgeline thinking, How am I going to get past that? Cooper and Roach both call this route class 4 because of this crux. Once I got on it, I thought a better description would be "exposed 3+." But what's the difference really? Let's just say I didn't regret my decision to go solo on this one.

In the third section, the difficulties are over. There is one little bitty catwalk type of area with the loosest rock of the day, but it's hardly worth mentioning. In the pic below, from the low point at the middle up to the summit is literally about 3 minutes walk. But given the easy walk to the summit, I was pleasantly surprised by the airy nature of the summit block itself.

Climbing the Ridge

As I approached the ridge, I noticed that there were two pairs of climbers ahead of me. That let me get some decent pics for illustration.

A zoomed view shows 3 of the 4 climbers ahead of me

In the pic below, pay attention to the highlighted orange/pink rock. According to the second pair of climbers, this first pair of climbers angled up to the right and to the top of the near side of the notch, then downclimbed into the notch, and up out of it. I took a different line: From the position of the lower climber, I took a route that angled up to the left. Then I crossed the grassy ledges, angled up into the gully below the notch, then climbed out of the gully up and to the left of the orange/pink rock.

Here's a pic from closer to the gully crossing.

The second pair of climbers let me go ahead, which gave me a chance to get pics looking back as they climbed the crux. They followed a line similar to mine.

Shortly after the crux, there was a cairn or two, and it looked like you could bypass the ridge on the right (west) side (blue arrow). Instead, I didn't want to miss more scrambling, so I climbed back up onto the ridge (red).

Red leads to the last good ridge scrambling

After a little more ridge scrambling, this little catwalk appeared. It was the loosest rock of the day - it reminded me a little of Elk rock. For maybe a few feet, it was also relatively narrow, but not really a problem. I believe this is an exit for one of Neva's couloirs. Then, past the next little bump, it's smooth sailing to a nice summit block.

The mini "catwalk" and the stroll to the summit

The Bushwhack

From the summit, I had been contemplating going back over to tag the orphaned 13er Old Baldy, or possibly heading over to high 12er Jasper. I decided to just bushwhack back over to the Arapaho Pass trail and see how I felt about adding Old Baldy - and see if the weather might permit it.

I knew from Derek's report that I could descend to the saddle between Neva and Jasper and follow a scree-filled gully down between a couple of lakes. From the summit, I could see the lakes, but had to take on faith that the gully descent wouldn't be too bad.

From the summit, I couldn't see the descent gully

The gully descent turned out to be quite tame. From there, I got a little side-tracked toward some picture-taking. That plus the fact that the bushwhack took longer than I thought it would made me decide to save Old Baldy for another time.

Just a word on the bushwhack: it's not difficult, but I wandered a little to avoid some marshy areas. To give you one view that has a comparison, I stole Derek's GPX file, merged it with mine, and added a yellow line to represent the rough path that Cooper recommends. I'm sure any of these routes would work just fine. The black dots are Derek's route; the open circles are mine.

Views

Along the way, I stopped to take in some expansive views...

As well as to revel in the small things...

7/28/2018 Update

Needing a short trip again as I'm getting back in shape after an ankle sprain, I repeated this route Saturday - coincidentally, on the 6th anniversary of my first trip. New impressions based on the 2nd trip:

1) I varied the route at the crux. This time, I took the shaded dihedral that's to the right of the upper climber in image #10 and then downclimbed into the notch. It was solidly in the class 4 range - probably a bit more difficult than my original route, but still on high quality rock.

2) I also stayed on the ridge crest before the red arrows in image #14 - just for a little more scrambling.

3) I was struck by how quickly the ridge went. The scrambling sections are pretty short. A decent portion of the ridge is closer to ridge walking than actual scrambling, but you can dial up or down on the scrambling and exposure with your route selection. All in all, I think this route is a pretty good entry to scrambling (and to bushwhacking on your way back).

4) Priuses and similar can get to the trailhead - just probably not to the actual parking lot that's above the outhouse - although road conditions here can change so seek out newer info before going.

7/23/2022 Update

A Trailhead Update: Apparently, they are now closing traffic and running shuttles from the school that's just off of the Peak-to-Peak highway when the Hessie and Fourth of July parking lots are full (at least on weekends). Just before 7am on 7/23/22, not only were the TH lots full, but the school lot was pretty close to full, too. I was told shuttles run about every 20 minutes.

My GPS Tracks on Google Maps (made from a .GPX file upload):

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

dmccool	Sweet report, Dave 7/29/2012 9:29pm Love the detailed descriptions. Good to see you getting after it my man!
AndYouSeeMe	Looks like I'll be follwing you this time arou 7/29/2012 10:32pm Awesome report Dave, your pics are always so amazing. Hoping for this sometime this week as I am house/pet sitting in Boulder and need to have a short, close day. Glad the tables get to turn and I will be following you around this time Looking forward to hiking with you and Okie again soon.
Matt	Great TR 7/30/2012 2:59pm Loads of beta. Nice pics (with arrows!). Well-written goodness.
clemsonmtneer	Nice 7/30/2012 4:38pm Awesome job of documenting the route, and great pictures. Thanks for posting.
Derek	Nice detail! 7/30/2012 11:51pm Thanks for posting, I'm sure it will be helpful to those attempting this route in the future. Sure is a fun route! That yellow (orange?) rock band is something else when you get close, isn't it? --D
CarpeDM	Thanks, all! 7/31/2012 6:11am Dan, I'm still getting out there; just haven't been summiting anything that needed a trip report. When I saw only one report for this route, I figured a second wouldn't be overkill. Aaron, well, it's good of you young whipper-snappers to let the old farts get up front once in a while. I think you'll enjoy Neva. But you might need to add Jasper, the Arapaho traverse and Old Baldy to keep you busy for more than a couple of hours. Matt, I was just thinking that we still haven't actually hiked together, and that I want to change that soon. Clemson, Thanks. The 3 sections are really just a construct in my head, but it seems to make sense for documenting the route. I don't expect that the report will get a ton of hits, but I hope it helps to highlight a great route. Derek, yeah, that was a blast! I'm kinda surprised that yours was the only report for the route. That distinctive streak of rock inside the smooth, dark gray rock was really cool; I'd like to hear from one of the geologists on here about how that happens.
emcee smith	Makes me sick! 7/31/2012 11:23am Good to see you out and reporting back in.
d_baker	Good work, Dave 8/1/2012 1:01am Nice job with your report on a fun route!
k-berger	Perfect Timing 8/1/2012 2:29am Heading up there on Saturday, very useful report, thank you!!
RyanSchilling	Nice report 1/29/2013 2:46am I like your organizational style. Makes for a different experience reading your TR.
little_castaldo	Thank you for the info! 7/9/2020 7:37am Thank you for your trip report - my partner and I climbed Neva this past weekend, and your report was super helpful in getting us prepared. Just thought I'd share that the information is still helping people! Take care, Ashley
DeTour	STILL a great TR 4/21/2022 9:57pm And a nice resource for a guy hoping to get up close and personal with Neva this summer. Thank you!

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