An Alpine Experience: Taking My Nephew Up Mount Bancroft's East Ridge for His First Technical Climb

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I had been wanting to get out and do something that was a bit more technical and engaging. That isn’t to to say that going out with my 6 year old boys and teaching them the ropes (sometimes literally) isn’t engaging. But that’s engaging as a Dad. There is very little opportunity for me to really lean into the climb, myself. So, when my wife was exchanging text messages with my nephew, Jace, and he expressed an interest on going on his first technical climb, I crossed my fingers and hoped for a good weather window.

We got one… ish. The chance of rain was miniscule, so that was good. But we had low hanging clouds and very high winds. I was almost blown over on the approach to the climb.

Jace and I were having a conversation about the risks of high winds and exposed ridges right at the bottom of the ridge. It was there that we noticed that the summit and the east ridge were somewhat protecting us from the wind that was blowing from west to east. So, we decided to go up a ways and re-evaluate.

Once on the ridge, itself, conditions were just tolerable enough. Much higher winds, and we really would have been risking getting thrown off the mountain.

As it was, Jace was an enthusiastic and composed partner. I hadn’t climbing with him in many, many years… when he was a little kids. Now, he’s growing into a man, and it was cool to see him thrive on the tough conditions.

It wasn’t exactly the ideal way to experience one’s first rappel and one’s first roped climb, but he did both was grace. That first time leaning back over a cliff never feels quite right, and even less so with the wind howling and blowing you around. But he moved his way carefully but purposefully down into the notch.

The climb out goes easy: 5.2 or 5.3 climbing, but it’s still a thing that commands your attention with wind and gloves on. Again, no complaints, just a “will do” fortitude.

The weather stayed uncomfortable for the whole climb, not breaking until we were headed down the class 2 standard route. But one more gust almost lifted us off our feet to remind us that nature is in charge.

On a gear testing front, this was my first time out in the Blue Ice Choucas Pro harness, and it did the job. Crazy light. 134 grams (4.72 ounces) in my size small. I didn’t even know it was there until I put a rope on it. It hung my very minimalist alpine rack very well, but that was all rock pro. I’ll be taking it out on a few more alpine routes that require screws and such to see how they carry.

All, in all, a great day, and I’m looking forward to getting out with Jace, again.