Mt. Neva 7/4/14

Colorado peak questions, condition requests and other info.
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AlexeyD
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Mt. Neva 7/4/14

Post by AlexeyD »

Climbed Neva from Fourth of July trailhead via Phoebe Couloir. Getting to Phoebe involved traversing along a weird cornice-type thing perpendicular to the main bowl (hard to describe - see photo below), and then traversing the bowl for a few hundred feet, at one point climbing down 15-20 feet to avoid a rock and moat. Phoebe itself, along with Desdemonda, are very well filled in, though Desdemonda was still corniced at the top. Juliet was starting to melt out near the middle. Snow was getting pretty soft by about 9 AM. Saw some skiers who were apparently intending to come down Desdemonda, cornice notwithstanding. In general the right side of the bowl has better snow coverage and should probably be good for at least a few more weeks.

On a side note, we ended up traversing south along the divide all the way to Devils Thumb Pass, tagging Jasper Peak along the way, and then connected the dots via the Diamond Lake trail to get back to the FOJ TH. Total distance ended up being around 17-18 miles, per GPS (which of course is not very accurate in the trees). Be warned that the portion of the trail along the north-facing slopes above and east of Diamond Lake is almost entirely buried under snow and very difficult to follow - map and GPS were very useful!

Image

Cornice-like snow formation below Phoebe
ketaylor
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Re: Mt. Neva 7/4/14

Post by ketaylor »

Hello,
I'm interested in doing neva this weekend. Do you think Phoebe would have enough snow to still do a ski descent? Or would the other couloir would be the better option?
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Re: Mt. Neva 7/4/14

Post by colokeith »

Another angle of the same cornice structure earier this year.
Image
Neva is a cool mountain!
To climb is to push yourself in a way you might not normally imagine is possible. If your stamina, skill, and luck are sound you will get to stand on top. ... I realized that with climbing, I'd found something that nourished my soul and could forge me into a better version myself - Jim Davidson
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Re: Mt. Neva 7/4/14

Post by skik2000 »

How was the N Ridge of Neva to the summit?
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AlexeyD
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Re: Mt. Neva 7/4/14

Post by AlexeyD »

skik2000 wrote:How was the N Ridge of Neva to the summit?
Ridge itself was entirely snow-free. We removed crampons at the top of Phoebe and didn't put them on for the rest of the day.

There was snow on the E side of the ridge, but it didn't look like there was a continuous line directly from the summit down into the bowl even then - much less now.
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Re: Mt. Neva 7/4/14

Post by AlexeyD »

ketaylor wrote:Hello,
I'm interested in doing neva this weekend. Do you think Phoebe would have enough snow to still do a ski descent? Or would the other couloir would be the better option?
Based on what we saw nearly 3 weeks ago, my guess is that Phoebe would be your best bet. Don't know if even that is skiable any more, though.
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Re: Mt. Neva 7/4/14

Post by skik2000 »

Is Phoebe lookers right or lookers left of summit from the A Pass Trail?
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Re: Mt. Neva 7/4/14

Post by AlexeyD »

skik2000 wrote:Is Phoebe lookers right or lookers left of summit from the A Pass Trail?
Lookers right. It's the rightmost of the major couloirs on the NE face. Here's a useful photo (not mine, and not from this year):

Image
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Re: Mt. Neva 7/4/14

Post by ketaylor »

Thanks for the good beta! We climbed Pheobe with no skis, and just hiked around to Jasper and glisaded down. Not quite as long as your route but it was pretty good. It might be in for one or two more weeks at most.
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Re: Mt. Neva 7/4/14

Post by AlexeyD »

ketaylor wrote:Thanks for the good beta! We climbed Pheobe with no skis, and just hiked around to Jasper and glisaded down. Not quite as long as your route but it was pretty good. It might be in for one or two more weeks at most.
Glad you enjoyed it! We were originally contemplating a descent off Jasper too; how did that go for you?
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Re: Mt. Neva 7/4/14

Post by AlexeyD »

Had a nice look at the Neva cirque while doing the Arapaho traverse on Sat. Looks like Desdemonda is the only line that is still continuous all the way to the ridge.

Amazingly, there's still quite a bit of snow in the south-facing Skywalker Couloir on S. Arapaho. Certainly not continuous, and not something I'd want to do at this point, but nonetheless surprising.
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