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Mount Eva 13,130'; Parry Peak 13,391'; Mt Bancroft 13,250' Date: October 20, 2007 TH / Route: Fall River Reservoir TH Loop Mileage / Elevation: 6.87 miles; 3,410' Team Members: shanahan96 (Jamie Princo); Chicago Transplant (Mike Rodenak); jamienellis (Jamie Nellis)
Jamie and I met Mike at the St Mary's / Alice exit off I-70 at 7:15ish Saturday morning. After an unseasonably warm fall, the winds of change were definitely blowing this morning! The forecast was actually correct this weekend as the storm that was blowing in on Saturday would indeed deliver the first snowfall of the season to Denver / Boulder the following morning.
Our original plan was to hike Eva, Parry, Bancroft, James Peak with a car shuttle. We dropped Mike's vehicle off at the St. Mary's Glacier TH (our proposed end point) and drove in my car to the Fall River Reservoir TH. The dirt road to the TH is 3.2 miles. The road was mellow as far as 4WD roads are concerned. (IMHO something along the lines of a Subaru would do just fine on this road).
None of us felt the need for an alpine start this morning as we took our time getting geared up while listening to the winds howl outside the car. As of late Friday night the forecast was calling for sustained winds at 45 mph with gusts of 70mph. And we chose this day for ridge running! Great!
We finally got on the trail at the crack of Nine o'clock. From the TH we headed for the saddle between Witter Peak (12,884') and Mt Eva via Chinns Lake Basin.
Our ascent route from the beginning of the trail.
Jamie & Mike competing in the Rock Throwing Olympics at Chinns Lake.
The snow depth varied from mid-calf in the trees below the lake to your occasional waist deep posthole in the basin above the lake.
My trekking pole fully extended in Mike's human-size post-hole.
Making our way up the basin.
A closer view of the slope & our route leading up to the saddle.
We stopped for a snack break below the saddle @ ~12,700' knowing that once we reached the ridge the wind was going to be relentless. Yep, it was!
Upon reaching Eva's summit we hid behind the radio tower building to put on our balaclavas & goggles. Our faces felt like they were being sandblasted by the wind. It was blowing so hard that it was difficult to stand or walk straight. The Jamies on Eva's summit.
From here we made a dash for Parry's summit. The most 'technically' difficult portion of the day was the class 2 coming off of Eva's summit.
Our route up Parry from Eva.
We found a marginal break from the wind on Parry's summit behind a cornice and were finally able to carry on a conversation with each other. At this point we all agreed to scratch James Peak from the day's agenda. Battling those winds was taking a lot out of us! We decided just to head back to my car after grabbing Bancroft‘s summit.
Bancroft from Parry.
We descended Bancroft's SE Ridge back to the TH.
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
Thanks Jamie, and Jamie... and Mike... For those of us that may not be too excited by the inexorable gloom of winter, it is nice to live vicariously through you brave souls. I think you should do a new TV series this winter, ”Man vs. Wind”.
Thanks for inviting me to tag along! It was an interesting weather day, much colder than I had expected. I guess we are getting to the point in the year when we have to start getting used to that
Nice job up there guys, nothing like a little wind blasting to round out a full day. A good warmup for your winter climbs to come. Only 8 weeks until the solstice! While you were up there I was in shorts and a t-shirt on the 3rd Flatiron. Looks like I need to get my skis ready soon though.
prakash, get used to it! i've been having that feeling the past month or so that we're going to have one heckuva winter coming snow-wise. now is just the tip of the iceberg 8)
Yep! Ready or not...winter is definitely on it's way up in the hills. I'm with you Steve...getting excited about some ski days soon! KeithK, stayed tuned. We'll try to make it a weekly program. I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to get it scripted while sitting in I-70 ski traffic on Sunday evenings.
I haven't read the trip reports in a few days. I was reading Roach's IPW book tonight, and thought that Eva, Bancroft, Parry, and James Peak looked like interesting peaks. Concidentally, I found your report not long after I put Roach's book down! Thanks for posting, and congratulations on surviving the snow to grab some nice summits.
thanks for putting that up. oh yeah, for the record, i whooped mike in the ”rock throwing olympics”.
jamie
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For those of us that may not be too excited by the inexorable gloom of winter, it is nice to live vicariously through you brave souls. I think you should do a new TV series this winter, ”Man vs. Wind”.
KeithK, stayed tuned. We'll try to make it a weekly program. 