Sep 15, 2018 — After doing North Arapaho Peak a bit ago, I sort of fell in love with bagging a bunch of peaks in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, and the Mt. Neva to Mt. Jasper traverse seemed like a great time from what I've read. However, I couldn't find a clear, interesting route down from Jasper Peak without backtracking or bushwhacking over marshland, so I was convinced I'd do some exploring and route-find down to the Diamond Lake Trial to make this a less-contrived-feeling loop.
From the Fourth of July Trailhead, head up to Arapaho Pass and continue onward up the north ridge of Mt. Neva. There's some fun Class 3 moves along the ridge, and eventually you get to the base of what looks like a 50-foot sheer cliff, the crux. As you approach, you'll see the climbing looks much more reasonable than it had initially. Much of the time, Class 4 is loose and dangerous and sometimes not that much fun, but this was certainly not that. The route up was solid rock scrambling, and quite intuitive. The last fifteen feet includes some true exposure, but it's definitely only Class 4. I'd say this is a great Class 4 intro for anyone looking to get started on scarier stuff. From the top of the crux, continue on Class 2 to Mt. Neva's summit, and then head along the ridge to Mt. Jasper, with one Class 2+ move along the way.
From Mt. Jasper, enjoy the views of the ridge from Mt. Neva to the north, and the absurd number of lakes all around. From here, it was a conflict of the heart for me deciding which way to go start route-finding down - I felt there were three options. The longer, official Devil's Thumb Trail was one option, which I could pick up after heading south from Mt. Jasper, but that would add a ton of miles. The second option would be to take the ridge to the northeast of Mt. Jasper and drop into the cirque east of Mt. Japser, where there's apparently the remains of a plane crash, as well as a small lake, and find a way back to the trail. The third, and the option I chose, was to follow the ridge east of Mt. Jasper and hopefully (!) find a viable scramble down to Upper Dimaond Lake. Turns out it was totally doable (Class 2). From Upper Diamond Lake, hug the south side of the cirque until you find a social trail leading east to Diamond Lake, which is a super popular trail. This leads back to the trailhead.
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