How to get there:
We left Interstate 70 at exit 238 (just west of Idaho Springs),
took Fall River Road to the road (4WD?) that (in summer) goes
up to Fall River Trailhead. This road continues (more or less)
straight ahead where the Fall River Road makes its second
very sharp turn (hairpin type) to the right. The road
can be driven a short distance in winter, but chains and
a 4WD are strongly suggested. Route description:
We made this climb in January on cross country skies. First, ski
along the (snow covered) road that heads up to Fall River
Trailhead. The road forks about one mile before the Trailhead,
there is an old, rusty sign indicating Chinns Lake if one takes
the left fork (the right one leads to the Trailhead). The road
to Chinns lake is a continuous, gradual climb all the way, very
nice on cross country skies. We skied right across Chinns Lake and
just after this the second lake called Sherwin lake. From
here one ascends the slopes on the west end until a more level
area is reached. Contour a bit to the right while maintaining or
gently increase the elevation. After another flat section you
are at the very end of Chinns Lake Basin. From here we climbed
on the right hand side (The Mount Eva side) of the very lowest
line towards the saddle between Mount Eva and Witter Peak.
Skiing up here is quite easy, the slope is not very steep and
it was
absolutely avalanche safe when we were there. (Quite limited
amounts of snow, plenty of rock outcrops etc.)
Our final "zig-zag" (the way one skies with waxed skies without
skins) climbed to the Continental Divide about half-way between
the low saddle and the summit of Mount Eva. The Divide was
wind blown almost without snow so we left the skis here at
about 3900 m and completed the climb on foot along a very
gentle slope passing a collapsed metal tower structure to the summit.
The return ski followed the path of ascent. Comments:
I did this trip with my 11 year old son Pål Jørgen. We left the
car around 0830, rested at the summit around 1300 and were back at the
car sometime before 1500. The weather started out nicely, but clouds and
snow closed in on us shortly after reaching the Chinns Lake Basin.
I encountered a "crevasse fall" into some trees high in the basin, Pål
broke trail past some 30 cm pine "bushes". They turned out to be
about 2.5 meter trees. The snow had accumulated near the tops and formed
a 30-40 cm layer with 2 meters of open air space hidden between the
trunks and branches below. It was absolutely impossible to see that the snow
cover followed the tree-tops instead of the ground. I broke through to
my arm-pits, feet and skis still kicking in "free air" below. Quite a
surprising experience, it took me considerable time to crawl out to
safer ground with backpack, skies and poles in quite a disarray.
The fallen steel structure (marked as a tower on some maps) should
really be removed by the organization that put it there in the
first place. This is really polution of our mountains.
It was just as cold and windy (and snowy) on the summit as one might
expect a 4000 meter mountain to be in the month of January. The trail
register revealed that the last climber visited Mount Eva in mid-October,
the next visit might very well not happen until late spring or summer.