Mt. Bancroft

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 7/28/2024, By: andlours
Info: Lots of people around Loch Lomond but no one on the east ridge or southeast ridge. Rappel station for the notch was in great shape with fresh webbing and two cord slings. No signs of rodents chewing on any of the rap gear. I can confirm that a 40M rope is required. Climb out of the notch was fun and didnt feel like anything too difficult doing the direct route. There was one sling with an aluminum rappel ring on the other side of the notch. Overall, a really fun route. 

Route: Bancroft + Parry via Loch Lomand
Posted On: 6/20/2024, By: joannalee07
Info: Hiked Bancroft and Parry on 6/19 from Loch Lomand. The upper gate is still closed but there is minimal snow on the road to Loch Lomand. After that all snow is avoidable other than a few steps to get on the summit of Parry and a short glissade option at the end. Beautiful conditions and so many wildflowers! As a side note: Lake Caroline is still partially frozen but will probably be fully melted in the next week. My Garmin tracked 7.25 miles + 3400 feet elevation gain! Blog: https://www.coloradomountainpack.com/post/mount-bancroft-parry-peak 

Route: Loch Lomond
Posted On: 6/16/2024, By: sarahmariekirk
Info: Climbed Bancroft, Parry + Eva yesterday via Loch Lomond; the first gate is open on Steuart Road, but the second one is still closed. Trail conditions were fantastic, nearly full summer conditions. We wore trail runners start to finish and did not wear microspikes. There is one creek crossing that is ankle high, and we both got wet on the return (it felt nice actually). I enjoyed this approach after doing Flora 4x previously, it was more enjoyable and quieter than Berthoud Pass. Wildflowers are already starting to bloom up high. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 5/27/2024, By: chrishop
Info: Little snow on Steuart Rd up to the second gate. Firm snow from here to the ridge at 6 am with no post-holing in our boots. Starting the ridge about 7.30am the snow was great. Crampons stayed in the pack. Lots of snow on the ridge and plenty of exposure on the knife-edge sections. Strong looking anchors at the notch rappel. Added a sling. The snow bridge at the base was steep and completing the rappel/coming off the rope was the most uncomfortable part of the ridge for our group. Climb out of the notch was easy - one nut placed - and a solid looking belay anchor was in site at the top. Arguably the next class 4 scrambling pitch was more technical and difficult. We roped up and protected this too. Plain sailing to the top after this. Glad of snowshoes for the descent down the broad SE ridge and back to the road. 

Route: Loch Lomond
Posted On: 8/15/2023, By: angry
Info: Shared the summit with an ermine!! Bancroft > Parry > Eva Alpine start of 1pm. Out and back from Loch Lomond. Dry all the way. No summit register on the three peaks. 

Route: Rollins Pass to Berthoud Pass
Posted On: 7/15/2023, By: daway8
Info: Entire ridge run from near Rollins Pass to Berthoud Pass with its 5 13ers had only a couple trivial patches of snow to cross (unless you go out of your way to play on it). No special gear needed. Staying ridge proper going up to James from Rollins Pass provides some class 2 and maybe a little class 3 action vs the class 1 trail just below the ridge. James-Bancroft was a little disappointing - you could easily keep it class 2 by using the most natural, obvious route (possibly a few class 3 moves if you're short). Did have some class 3 & 4 adjacent to the trail for those wanting a little extra action, which was fun but too short. Would have to go out of your way to tackle the adjacent cliffs to get class 5 (but would have been a down climb going James to Bancroft). Looks a little gnarly from a distance but pretty trivial to bypass the difficulties if you wanted to. After Bancroft, the rest of the route to Berthoud Pass is just an endurance testing rollar coaster stroll. 

Route: Bancroft-Parry-Eva
Posted On: 6/11/2023, By: NittanyLion14er
Info: Rainbow rd open to within 1/4 mi Fall River Res. 5:30am start, solid snow to the 3 summits (no s-shoes or spikes used). Route stayed Class 2, with brief steeper snow section (Class 3, kick steps). Mix snow/bare rock on ridge to/btwn summits. After 8am, snow soft and glissaded down from Eva-Flora saddle, snow shoes from basin back to reservoir. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 5/8/2023, By: timewarp01
Info: Road is still snowed in with no close public parking in sight. You can drive most of the way up the nearby 'Glory Hole Rd' to park and do a short bushwhack to get on route. Great snow conditions today, saw some evidence of wet slides in the lower basins in the area but nothing in the Lake Caroline cirque. We opted to bypass the rappel by climbing the couloir directly into the notch. The snow was very supportive but pretty icy in sections. The climb out of the notch is dry and has great holds, and is then followed by several snow bridge crossings that were fairly exposed. The snow was solid when we got there around 7am, but was quickly softening in the sun. Highly recommend an early start until the snow bridges melt out. Upper mountain was a mix of dry rock and snow fields, and you can glissade for hundreds of feet back into the Caroline and Loch bowls. Awesome day! 

Route: Loch Lomond
Posted On: 12/11/2022, By: jbealer
Info: We planned to sleep on the summit sat night. Parked on steward road, hiked up to the lake then headed left to the far left to get on to the ridge. 2 slopes are loaded that way, in fact that whole slope is in avy Terrain. We postholed trying to get to the ridge, it sucked, not sure SS would have helped and a 47lb pack made it worse. We ran out of time for the summit and called 12,200ft between 2 humps home for the night. We used no traction. Route to summit looked the same snow filled areas sinking between rocks. 

Route: South ridge
Posted On: 6/21/2022, By: Codyhill1991
Info: Went up Bancroft, Parry, and Eva from Loch Lomond. A few stretches of snow to cross but nothing to slow you down, no traction or anything required. Very muddy on the descent since everything is melting fast. East ridge is totally dry. 

Route: Berthoud Pass to Loch Lomond
Posted On: 5/28/2022, By: Carl_Healy
Info: Shuttle hiked across the Continental Divide from Berthoud Pass (Colorado Mines Peak) to Loch Lomond (Mt. Bancroft). For conditions between the other peaks see those respective updates. A note for all legs is that we carried spikes, snowshoes, crampons, and ice axes the whole way but never *really* needed them. Also gnarly cornices everywhere, and weather was surprisingly nice: temps in the 40s and winds often below 10 MPH until at least Parry Peak. The last leg of today's journey, Parry Peak A to Bancroft and down the Southeast Ridge to the Loch Lomond Trailhead, is where the excitement began. First a lot of snow on Parry Peak summit but seemingly no cornices to worry about, at least the way we went. A good bit of postholing, or at least plunge stepping, most of the ridge down. On particularly un-fun section was a 30 deg portion of the ridge with plenty of boulders and talus and deep snow (trapdoors abounded). Closer to the Loch Lomond reservoir we found an old 4WD road but descending to the reservoir proper the road disappeared in a slope of steep wet snow. Tried our best to avoid that but all below the ridge and around the reservoir was pretty deep snow with short trees and willows. We still didn't opt to put snowshoes on as there were dry sections here and there. On the road from the reservoir the snow was deep but there was enough of a boot pack that we didn't have any real postholing problems (even at 2 PM). Between the first and second seasonal closure gates the road dried up and we no longer had any problems. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 5/5/2022, By: 123tqb
Info: The entire approach would've been nice with snowshoes at first, but most of the snow below treeline completely melted. Route is well filled-in. 

Route: East ridge
Posted On: 8/22/2021, By: Alpinefroggy
Info: No snow, anchor in good condition. Lots of orographic clouds around and little convection. Road to the upper lake is pretty bad, need high clearance. Otherwise a really nice relatively short and stellar route. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 3/8/2021, By: Thevirtualsherpa
Info: Summited Bancroft via the east ridge on a beautiful day. -Parking options are rough, ended up parking in a closed road and walking an extra mile to the closed 4x4 approach -Nice snowmobile track to follow up to Loch Lomond -Lots of postholing, bushwacking and sugar snow to gain upper lake -Ridge is very mixed conditions with sugar snow, bulletproof snow, ice and rock -Rap station is in great condition, we used 60m rope with plenty to spare -Cross over to climb is a bit sketchy as its mostly a firm cornice with relatively little room to spare if you have more than 2 in your party. -Ended up placing one piece of pro for climb, very short pitch (20-25ft) but we felt like it was needed. -Rest of ridge has mix of class 3+ (sections of high 4 and low 5 if you want it) and mostly mixed climbing. A few cornices we were very careful to cross but no issues. -After gaining false summit we skirted around to the west ridge to avoid the southern facing slopes to gain the summit as they looked extremely faceted and wind blown and we did not want to chance any avi risk. -Descent was choose your own adventure but we choose a more direct line as snow levels were mostly low to avoid any avi risk. We followed old 4x4 road before having to bushwhack to again avoid heavily avi prone slopes. Other Notes -My partner used crampons for the whole ridge and descent, I did not - don't think that either option was the "right" decision as both had their pros and cons. Certainly helpful on descent though. -Carried but didn't use snowshoes, although we probably could have popped them on in a few places, but wasn't worth the hassle. Will be posting a full trail guide and video in the coming weeks. 

Route: East ridge
Posted On: 9/14/2020, By: jtfoss1
Info: No snow of any consequence requiring traction or axe. Fun little route with a lot of good scrambling. Several of our group climbed the 5.2 pitch without pro but we setup an anchor for two who weren't comfortable on one move. Tat in decent condition.