6/30/2023 Route: South Slopes Posted On: 6/30/2023, By: edmdais1 Info: Still lots of lingering snow banks up to 12k in the Horn Fork Basin where I got into a thunderstorm at 8am and turned back. LOTS of mud through the willows. |
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6/24/2023 Route: Harvard and Columbia Traverse Posted On: 6/24/2023, By: Logan5280 Info: Harvard-Columbia traverse is in excellent condition right now. Today, I ascended Columbia via SE ridge, traversed to Harvard, descended through Horn Fork Basin, then did the road walk back to Harvard Lakes TH. I started at 6:30, made quick work of the Colorado Trail section, and easily founded the SE ridge cairned turn. Route finding isn't terrible in the woods with daylight, but I lost trail segments here and there. Above tree line, the ridge is quite long, but the rock quality is excellent, and any remaining snow patches are avoidable. Easy going to Columbia summit from there. The traverse is great right now because many of the loose scree slopes are still covered in snow, making for easy glissading/microspiking. The initial Columbia headwall is mostly dry except for one large-ish snowfield, but the rock is loose and annoying as usual. From there, snowfields descended into the basin, to a dry section at the bottom of the slope on the Harvard side. This slope was mostly dry, except for a few small snowfields. Even with warm temps, the post holing was surprisingly minimal. I made the Harvard ridge more complicated than it needed to be by ascended the easternmost tower, which was fun class 3 but unnecessary. A few snow-infused talus sections led to the Harvard summit. From Harvard, there are on and off snowfields down to a little below 11k; nothing crazy, but gaiters would still be advised. There's a nice glissade from the beginning of the ridge down to the big cairn. Intermittent snowfields led back down to dry trail around 10.7k. Ended up being about 9:20 roundtrip, 16-18ish miles, and 7k vert. See Columbia report for photos. Shoutout to the marmot that jump-scared me on the ridge. |
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6/24/2023 Route: South Slopes Posted On: 6/24/2023, By: Miles P Info: Trail is wet and snowy after the first mile or two - almost all the way up. If going early when all is still frozen the snow fields up top are very slick - take metal traction (I used micro spikes) and poles. Wished Id had an axe. Great glissading down. If you find a Garmin GPS up there please PM me. I lost mine today within 1000 feet of summit on my way down. |
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6/22/2023 Route: South Slopes Posted On: 6/22/2023, By: bribaker2001 Info: Very wet trail conditions! Trail was essentially a flowing flood/stream from 10,600' to the very top, with significant melt occurring after 10:00am. Significant snow drifts in the forest starting around 11,000', which made trail finding difficult on the way in, and very postholey/slushy on the way out. Significant snowfields starting around 11,700'; several ice bridges held as I was heading out, yet I did see a couple collapse just after I crossed. Bear Lake still mostly frozen. Made it to the top of Harvard with poles and microspikes; took about 5 hours to summit. Snow gaiters and waterproof shoes/socks recommended! Still plenty of snow visible on the north/east side of the Columbia/Harvard Traverse. |
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6/17/2023 Route: South Slopes Posted On: 6/17/2023, By: Logan5280 Info: It's pretty sloppy down low and wintery up high. See TR for photos: https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=22087 |
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5/5/2023 Route: South Slopes Posted On: 5/8/2023, By: FrankP Info: Skied Harvard and Columbia on Friday. I was able to park about half miles below N. Cottonwood Trailhead. I tried trail shoes for the first quarter mile past the trailhead but quickly switched to skins as the snow in the forest did not get a hard freeze. As reported in a previous post, lots of moose poop everywhere. Started hiking at 2:45am. My biggest concern was startling a moose in the hours-long march through the dark forest. My brain played many tricks on me in the shadows but ultimately never saw anything but squirrels. The South Face of Harvard was firm, but had a nice half inch of carvable snow that made it quite fun. Southwest Gully on Columbia was glory corn all the way down. Egress was a long sufferfest of mushy forest soup. |
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4/15/2023 Route: South Face Posted On: 4/16/2023, By: emtkhumbu Info: 5600 ft vertical, 16 miles round trip. parked roughly a mile short on 365. variable snow, some powder atop crust, and lots of shark fins. snowpack felt solid throughout for the ski down. ~11.5 hours round trip, started at 5 AM. wish we started earlier! |
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1/21/2023 Route: NE Ridge Posted On: 1/22/2023, By: RobLowe Info: Pine Creek approach to minimize avalanche risk. Road isn't drivable about .8 miles below trailhead. 6 miles to the turn up the NE ridge. Just under 4 miles on the ridge. Nick used traction, I did not. We both skinned up Pine Creek. 19.7 miles round trip. Still a $1 fee per person. Ran into Chris Fish, looks very strong and love his strategy for this FKT attempt. Keep it going, Chris! |
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1/21/2023 Route: Harvard and Columbia Traverse Posted On: 1/21/2023, By: Chrisfish25 Info: Windy. Flotation on approach/ in between traverse & exit.rabbit ears looked enticing but the winds were sustained 50ish on Columbia.. almost getting blown over. Easy avy terrain navigation for now. Went out Pine Creek because I knew 2 people were coming up that way to approach Harvard. Thanks for the skinner Rob & Nick! |
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10/29/2022 Route: South Slopes Posted On: 10/30/2022, By: Veory Info: A trail is currently broken in through the snow up to the summit ridge, snow ranges from a few inches to several feet deep along the route. Take the south ridge to the summit and not the slopes, which had chest height powder when I descended them for fun. |
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10/16/2022 Route: South Slopes Posted On: 10/17/2022, By: Strugglr Info: No snow at all on the trail all the way up to Harvard. Small patches of snow on the ridge over to Columbia but nothing that caused any slowing or impact at all. No snow on the downhill from Columbia peak. |
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10/12/2022 Route: South Slopes Posted On: 10/13/2022, By: olgav100 Info: No snow, windy ridge. |
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10/1/2022 Route: South Slopes Posted On: 10/1/2022, By: swilson753 Info: Fall is here! 1/4"-1/2" of fresh snow on everything above 12.5k early this morning on the ascent. It melted by the time we descended (around 11), but more rain/snow was coming down in the afternoon. Microspikes were helpful on the summit boulder field and on the initial part of the descent. With more freeze-thaw cycles in the near future, I highly recommend traction. |
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9/24/2022 Route: Harvard and Columbia Traverse Posted On: 9/25/2022, By: dogsandguitars12 Info: Perfect weather day. Light breeze, clear skies, no clouds. No snow on route, some tiny patches remain on northern facing terrain. Around creeks was icy in the early AM. Great trail all the way up Harvard. Traverse went better than expected, just a long day. Route finding is easy and trivial due to the abundance of cairns. Talus is relatively sound compared to other talus piles. The trail above 13k on Columbia is still very bad, makes for a slow descent. The trail was good down low on Columbia. Low traffic for a Saturday it seemed, saw less than 20 people all day although the TH was somewhat busy. My Corolla made it to the TH with ease. |
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9/18/2022 Route: South Slopes Posted On: 9/18/2022, By: mmbakken Info: No snow anywhere on route, dry trail conditions persist. Lots of fall color, aspen are starting to turn. |
