Peaks Climbed: Mount Neva & Mount Jasper

Peak Heights: 12,814' / 12,923'

Route: N Ridge / NE Ridge

Difficulty: Class 4

Location: Indian Peaks Wilderness, Colorado

Trailhead: Fourth of July

Mileage & Gain: 10 mi & 4,000 ft RT

Date Climbed: June 29, 2018

Mount Neva's north ridge had been on my to-do list for many years. It was the last of the classic IPW routes I had yet to tick off. Piper had already climbed it, but was keen on exploring Jasper's northeast ridge (which I had already done before). By making a loop out of the two there would be something new for everyone.

This ended up being a great little outing conveniently close to home. Neva's north ridge has some fun scrambling and routefinding over really good rock. And while Jasper's northeast ridge can be kept third class, there are more interesting variations possible.

The descent from the basin south of the Jasper's northeast ridge to the Diamond Lake Trail was slightly problematic. There were some unavoidable snow slopes and the snow was fairly hard still. Stupidly, neither of us brought an ice axe, and we resorted to each wearing ONE of the microspikes I luckily had along. Note to self: always bring an ice axe through at least June in the IPW!