Ascent of Bandimere Ridge on 2018-06-10| Other People: | Solo Ascent
Only Party on Mountain | | Date: | Sunday, June 10, 2018 | | Ascent Type: | Successful Summit Attained | | Peak: | Bandimere Ridge | | Location: | USA-Colorado | | Elevation: | 6283 ft / 1915 m |
Ascent Trip ReportThis was my third time doing this peak but first time doing it from the east. From the west they are working hard on making a nice trail system that makes the hike quite easy. The trail does not extend all the way to the Town of Morrison yet. I thought it might be fun to park at the small parking area off Mt. Vernon Ave. and use the climbers trail you see all the people going up to boulder the sandstone above. I parked and hiked down the road to the obvious climber's use trail. It is steep trail class 2 up to the cliff bands. I saw two guys stacking their rope after a day of class 5 rock climbing. There is white chalk all over the rocks above. My goal was to hike below the sandstone bad and find a safe class 3 route up in the area of where all the technical rock is located. I found a few places that looked promising easy class 3 but each time there was at least one small crux move of class 4 or 5. I had my smooth boots on and a large pack I did not want to get stuck, so I kept searching for a route. I found an area, where the sandstone gave way to slate peeling off. I thought this hogback was all shale and sandstone, but this one area has thin plates of back slate material and it is real tricky. There was a tricky class 4 route there but I did not like it with my boots and pack so i kept heading north.
I did not want to go too far north as the sandstone blocks begin to disintegrate to where the faults provide some easy class 3 routes and i was looking for that "just right" hard enough climb but safe and in my comfort zone. Finally sandwiched between some lower class 5 walls, I found a route that was class 3+. Some exposure but excellent hand holds and the leg motions where big but not spider man looking. Finally on top of the ridge but now I realized, Bandimere Peak was a long ways away and I totally misjudged how many false peaks there are. This scrambling was all 2+ and easy 3 but to avoid harder places there was a lot of up and downs. Sometimes 15 feet or more. I reached point 6274 and thought I was there but no, just another false summit. There must be ten along this route.
So I stopped and watched the drag racers below for about 20 minutes. Many loud cars below. The new trail is now constructed up to point 6274. This point is not in the peakbagger database, presumably because it is not 100 feet of prominence. It was so like the other 9 false peaks, I was not interested in giving it some sort of status either. Finally using the new trail now over to Bandimere Peak and short scramble up to the peak, I then made a beeline down to the road off the ridge. The brush was thick and I had to step over a thicket of gamble oaks at one point but once finding the paved road i hiked back to my truck and visted the ice cream place next door where a milkshake was just what I needed. |
| Summary Total Data | | Total Elevation Gain: | 723 ft / 220 m | | Total Elevation Loss: | 190 ft / 57 m | | Round-Trip Distance: | 2.2 mi / 3.5 km | | Grade/Class: | 2,2+, 3, 3+ | | Quality: | 5 (on a subjective 1-10 scale) | | Route Conditions: | Road Hike, Unmaintained Trail, Bushwhack, Scramble | | Weather: | 83F HOT | | Ascent Statistics | | Gain on way in: | 723 ft / 220 m | | Gain Breakdown: | Net: 533 ft / 163 m; Extra: 190 ft / 57m | | Loss on way in: | 190 ft / 57 m | | Distance: | 1 mi / 1.6 km | | Route: | East ridge scramble to ridge | | Start Trailhead: | Parking off Mt Vernon Ave 5750 ft / 1752 m | | Descent Statistics | | Distance: | 1.2 mi / 1.9 km | | Route: | bushwhack | Ascent Part of Trip: Denver-26
Complete Trip Sequence:
Total Trip Gain: 2123 ft / 647 m Total Trip Loss: 1560 ft / 476 m |
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