Direct East Face  5.7 Easy Snow

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Type:  Snow, Alpine, 4 pitches, 600 feet, Grade III Consensus:  5.7 [details] FA:  Unknown Season:  Late Spring to Fall Submitted By:  Dougald MacDonald on Jun 28, 2008 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (2) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

BETA PHOTO: Mt. Neva's east face in early June 2004. There was...

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Description 

The steep east face of Neva is mostly chossy but has one narrow strip of relatively solid golden granite. Happily, this good rock forms the longest route on the face. Paul Gagner and I climbed it in four long pitches, followed by a short bit of steep snow to the top. Neither of us was wearing climbing shoes, but the difficulty on our line seemed to be around 5.6 or 5.7. Harder variations are possible. Or, one could skirt most of the harder passages by deviating right or left onto chossy ledges and gullies. We stuck as close as possible to the central rib and found some lovely face and crack climbing, including a cool arete section on the third pitch. There's definitely some loose rock, but it's not bad at all by Indian Peaks standards, and it would clean up with traffic.

The 1974 AAJ describes a route just to the right of our line, up the "southernmost of three dihedrals." Undoubtedly there have been other ascents. Mountaineers who enjoy moderate alpine-y routes like the Spiral Route on Notchtop or the Inwood Arete on Quandary would love this climb. It's climbable anytime from the road opening until early fall, but probably at its best in June, when there's still lots of snow around to give it an alpine ambiance and to cover some of the junk left and right of the rib. However, a large cornice may loom above the face in early season. We felt this would fall to the left of our line if it broke, but make your own judgment.

To see more photos, visit themountainworld.blogspot.com/2008/06/hooky-on-neva.html.

Location 

Follow the trail to Arapahoe Pass until about half a mile below the pass, then cut left across the basin below the Lake Dorothy cirque, turn the corner, and ascend to the base of the face. There is much snow in early season.

Protection 

Light rock rack. Ice axe and maybe crampons through snow season.

Photos of Direct East Face Slideshow

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BETA PHOTO: A foreshortened view of the route and how my partn...	BETA PHOTO: Myself belaying atop the final bit of P2 and under...	BETA PHOTO: Looking down the last half of P3. Bhoto by Brian ...
Me atop P3.	BETA PHOTO: Looking up P4 which was the steepest and best on t...