Bancroft
Much like Captain Ahab’s obsession with a certain white whale, I had visions of Mount Bancroft haunting my dreams. This Monday I was able to finally quench my thirst.
But I am getting ahead of myself.
Date – May 17th 2011
The Crew – Fox, Becky, Jimmy, Josh Kirk, and myself
The plan – A spring ascent of Mount Bancroft
Outcome – You’ll see
The idea of an ascent of Mount Bancroft was proposed to me by Josh Fox (REI Outreach Coordinator) when I inquired about class 3 or 4 climbs.
Wait, you don’t know what class 3 or 4 climbing is? Ok I’ll break it down for you:
Class 1 – Hiking on a trail or the parking lot at the mall. A fall here is embarrassing and I will laugh at you.
Class 2 – off trail (but not lost) hiking. A fall here will hurt.
Class 3 – “scrambling” or beginning to climb, you are using handholds for movement but you don’t have to look hard to find them. A fall here will not end in death but will ruin your day
Class 4 – not only are you using your hands for all upward and forward movement but you have to ssek out and test every hold. A fall could end in death.
Class 5 – Rock Climbing, you use a rope because if you fall I will go through your pack and steal your stuff……oh and you die.
Bancroft combines class 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 climbing.
Plans were instantly put together for a May ascent. Bags were packed, inadequate summer tents were brought, and by 7am, we were on our way. The drive to Mount Bancroft is short and sweet and we arrived at the road to the trailhead in about an hour. Due to it being May in Colorado the ground was covered in a weird cold substance sometimes referred to as snow. Without any discussion Fox guns his (unknown to us) non 4x4 truck down the snow covered 4x4 road to the trailhead. Roughly, 100 yards later our chariot has comfortably settled to its doors in the aforementioned snow.
Sigh…….
8 hours later (6 of which involved arduous digging), a very nice man from Scorpion Towing pulled us from our icy grave. A big thanks to Becky for having AAA. We licked our wounds at Tommyknockers in Idaho Springs and we all vowed to never speak to Fox again.
Fast-forward to August 15th 2011
7am – Jimmy, Fox (ok we spoke to him again), and myself arrive at the scene of the May incident. No snow to be seen but the road is rough so we park 2 miles further away than originally planned. Becky had camped at Loch Lomond the night before and we met up with her around 8am. I couldn’t help but point out that our destination was nowhere to be found.
We slowly worked our way (with no trail) up the slopes to Bancroft’s east ridge.
At this point, we were unsure if we would continue due to the fog but we figured we would hop along the ridge for a while and play it by ear. After some fun class 4 climbing (a total oxymoron), we happened upon the notch in the ridge that would require us to rappel. Oh, did I forget to mention on top of miles of class 4 climbing this mountain includes an 80ft rappel and a free climb of 40 ft, 5.2 rated vertical face. So out came the rope and harnesses, and down we went.
The climb up the 5.2 face was not as bad as I thought. Although I did have a hard time on the last move which had a lot of exposure. Fox had to talk me up it. After regaining the ridge from the notch, we simply had 2 hours of sustained class 4 climbing along the ridge before the summit. There were times were a slip could have ended very badly and to make matters worse there was a lot of loose rock. After many prayers, swears, and muttering “I’m never climbing a mountain again” we arrived on the summit.
The descent was nasty. All off trail class 2 hiking with loose rock that varied from boulder size to pebbles. I was very happy when we got down to the road.
I took some video with my new Contour helmet camera. It was my first time using it so the video is not the best.
I can’t say this hike left me comfortable on class 4 routes, but it did leave me with the confidence to know I can complete them. After all, when one gets comfortable the level of attention drops and mistakes can happen. I’ll take a pounding heartbeat, shortness of breath, and shaking limbs over a fall off the mountain any day.
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