Mt. Harvard

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 12/22/2024, By: Themanisme
Info: Parked 1.5 miles from the TH skinned to about 12,000' standard trail looked mixed snow/rock the face was 40% rock and trail was 70% loose sugar 30% concrete slab where wind exposed The weather was great !! Lets Go !! 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 11/2/2024, By: bigfoot1
Info: snowy and drifty above 13k ft, pretty deep postholes. there should be a packed down path now, at least 5 people went up and down today. no tracks going up to columbia from any trail. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 10/25/2024, By: wanderlust073
Info: TLDR: some snow and ice but nothing crazy, just enough to slow things down quite a bit. With the sun and warmth, this should all keep getting better by the day till the next storm. Intermittent stretches of packed snow/ice the first mile or two of the trail. Very, very slick in the morning and still pretty slick in the afternoon (shaded areas). There are a few downed trees laying over the trail, only one of which requires any sort of effort to get over. An ice dam is building at the stream crossing at 4.5mi/11750ft. The rocks were covered with ice in the morning and the surrounding sections of trail were flooded/iced over. Ten yards upstream through the willows is a narrow section with rocks that can be easily hopped. Mainly nuisance snow below 12k. Ankle deep for the most part, and the trail is easy to follow. Coming down in the afternoon there was a fair amount of melt. Miles of trail are squishy mud under the sun. Above 12k the snow is more of a mixed bag. Primarily trudging along sinking in not quite to the top of your boots, but depending on where the wind loaded things I'd have a random postholes knee deep or (rarely) mid thigh. The trail had been completely obscured. I ended up kicking steps in and taking a direct route up to the ridge for most of the last mile. Coming back down with the advantage of the bird's eye view and a few hours of sun vaporizing things, the trail was easier to make out and I was happy to stick to it - so anyone getting out yet this weekend should hopefully have a decent boot track to follow assuming the trail doesn't end up completely revealed by the sun. Waterproof boots and gaiters are your friends. Spikes aren't necessary but would certainly speed things up through the ice stretches. Some goats hanging around on the ridge. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 10/15/2024, By: shoenfeld13
Info: No snow whatsoever. Great conditions overall. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 9/30/2024, By: loriburroughs
Info: Perfect conditions! Fall colors on point! No snow at all except some tiny pockets on the summit, but nothing to be prepared for. The bull moose is still active and was spotted on the trail at 5am by another hiker, just fyi. Around high 30s before the sun is up and mid 50s with the sun which felt hot while moving! The final pitch you really should take your time- class 3 for sure on the left side but honestly couldnt find the class 2, so I guess its on the right side? Not hard at all, but if you have a dog, definitely try to find the easier route unless you have someone that can help get them up and down :-) 

Route: Harvard and Columbia Traverse
Posted On: 8/31/2024, By: Troyister
Info: Great day completing the Harvard-Columbia Traverse. My Garmin log in at 15.9 miles and 6100 feet of elevation gain. The trailhead was full at 3:15 AM when I arrived and I got a last spot (to be expected on the Sat of Labor day weekend with perfect weather). I drove my Honda Accord Sport with no problems just took it easy, and saw numerous other sedans at the trailhead. The creeks are running strong so water is available frequently in the Horn Fork Basin. For the Traverse there is a intermittent trail. The route is fairly obvious if you do your research first and know what to look for, I did check my Gaia Maps a couple of times to verify. The key point is how far to down climb before turn south to Columbia. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 7/29/2024, By: catward77
Info: Amazing evening on Harvard! Took just over 4 hours to summit, right in time for a 14er sunset all to ourselves. Very brief section at the final push felt a tiny bit more technical than easy class 2 but experienced hikers shouldn't find it hard at all. Took about 3 hours to descend in the dark. Perfect sunset, ridiculous stars & milky way... 10/10 evening hike! 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 7/28/2024, By: gmarcotte
Info: Saw a moose around 6am right near the first set of tent spaces in Horn Fork basin. Recent AllTrails reports suggest it's been hanging around in that area recently, so be aware. Didn't cause any problems, but another group said it was showing some territorial signs. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 7/23/2024, By: hsfedina
Info: Technically, did first 2+ miles the night before and camped. Trail in 100% condition everywhere. Easy to follow up to about 13,600. Lost the trail on final ascent but could see summit and everyone up there so no big dealjust went up. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 7/11/2024, By: Ariella6
Info: Trail mostly dry. Some spots where it is muddy. Walk through it not on the fragile alpine plants. The area that is recommended for bouldering to top is still snow covered but found another way up. So many wildflowers right now! This was definitely super beautiful! 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 6/30/2024, By: tlgold1990
Info: Lots of mud and water on the trail. Some of the creek crossings are high and it's hard to cross the rocks without getting your shoes wet. A couple snow fields leading up to the ridge, did not use microspikes but after it's warmed up, you will be sliding a bit. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 6/27/2024, By: laforge296
Info: Mount Harvard has several snow crossings as of 6/25/24. Some can be avoided, no spikes necessary. I did lose the trail several times due to the snow so be careful. Parts of the trail are very wet, muddy, and sloppy. It was a beautiful hike and the rock scramble at the top was spectacular. Be safe. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 6/16/2024, By: apfox500
Info: The beginning part of the hike is pretty clear, with snowfields starting around 11,200', increasing in size as you continue up. Most of the snow you can go around and find the trail after if you really need to. The peak itself is clear of snow. I didn't bring snowshoes and for the ascent they weren't needed, for the decent they might be nice to help with the slush but you would be taking them on and off so often. I started from horn fork basin around 6:30 and summitted in two hours. Would recommend bringing gaiters, but micro spikes/yak-tracks wouldn't be helpful. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 6/9/2024, By: Zleisure
Info: Bring snowshoes. Booted from start to ~10.9k. Between 10.4-10.8k trail is quite wet/a stream from all the runoff. Snowshoed 10.9k, when snow starts in trees, to base of the scree ~12.6k. Booted from base of scree to shoulder (12.6k->13k). Snowshowed: 13k->13.7k. Booted 13.7k to summit. Started at 4:17am, just over 5 hrs to summit. Snow is melting out and can be supportive in some spots through the trees and even in the basin above treeline, but you should definitely bring snowshoes, esp for the way out when it's a posthole/slushfest. By 9am, the snow along the steep section ~13.4-13.8k was already corn/soft. I was happy to have poles on the way down as it was so soft and slippery between 13.4-13.8k. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 6/3/2024, By: wmanke13
Info: Left N Cottonwood Creek TH around 5:15. Intermittent snow (mostly dry though) from TH to about 10,800 where it became continuous. Trail is fully snow covered from ~10,800 to the first steep section up the shoulder where there are some dry patches of trail. From the top of the shoulder through the next steep section to the ridge, pretty much continuous snow. Once you hit the ridge, intermittent snow to the top. I thought the summit pitch was a blast, and did not seem frightening in the slightest, even with snow mixed in. Summitted a little after 9:30. Descent was fine until I got to the bottom of the shoulder, and included a great glissade. From there to treeline, it was a postholing nightmare without snowshoes. Despite condition report on 5/27, I highly recommend bringing snowshoes if you plan on being above treeline after 9:00-9:30. Surprisingly, snow was more supportive in the trees than above them (better packed trail I suppose). Shoutout to the 4 snowshoers who passed me and consolidated a path for me when I needed it most, and congrats on your summit. To the two skiers, I hope you two made it and had a fun, safe ride down. I posted a couple cool photos of yall.