11/13/2016 Route: Harvard Columbia Traverse Posted On: 11/13/2016, By: quinnwolf Info: Little snow until the talus field below the "rabbit". Then between 0 and 6 inches from there the rest of way. About half the traverse had some snow (enough to get in the way, but not enough to be dangerous as long as you watch where you step). I carried traction, but never used it. Followed somebody's previous tracks through the snow which helped a lot. It looks like this will change drastically on Thursday though, finally. |
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10/22/2016 Route: From Frenchman's Creek TH Posted On: 10/23/2016, By: Count40 Info: Summer conditions. Those few patches of snow easily avoidable. There was no need for traction. Just a note about this class 1/2 route (did not spot it elsewhere): from 4WD, at 10300 ft TH 10 miles return, add 3.2 return for 2WD TH at 9300 ft If driving in at night, you might mistake the 4WD turnoff (it looks like a turn-off, on the left, not like a continuation of the same road) for just another camping spot. Just watch the odometer mileage, as per Roach. 4WD stretch to be respected, narrow, without many chances to move out of the way. Portion runs along narrow wooded ridge. Jeep Wrangler likes it, with care, but Subaru not so much (NOT at all, actually). Quite a bit of hunting going on in the area. You will know either by camps close to 2WD or 4WD THs, or by horse packs. Orange colors would not hurt. |
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9/8/2016 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 9/9/2016, By: BB Info: Started at Colorado Trail trailhead going north toward Harvard Lakes. Follow the CT trail up through the first two switchback turns. Not far up the third leg of switchbacks, look for a large cairn on left side of trail -- the SE ridge trail begins here. For the most part, this trail is well marked with small cairns all the way to timberline. In spots the trail can be lost, such as where downfall hides it. Except for the lower section and a couple other spots, the trail is just off the top of the ridgeline on the north side; if you lose it, look there for cairns. Trail ends at timberline. From there the entire SE ridge route is straightforward, just follow the ridge line; a few knobs can be contoured around. Nothing more technical than a few stretches of talus (no snow at all on this day). It is long, however, and you are well above treeline for a couple miles, making any quick retreat from lightning difficult (not a cloud in the sky on this day). Beautiful climb. |
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8/31/2016 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 8/31/2016, By: bmcqueen Info: After a brief wintermission, Harvard and Columbia are pretty close to back to summer conditions. A touch of snow up high on each, but nothing that made us even consider getting the spikes out of the packs today. Traverse is pretty much dry. We did the lower, less technical and less time consuming version and still took us 3:24 from Columbia summit to Harvard summit. |
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8/14/2016 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 8/16/2016, By: MonGoose Info: Just in case you were wondering, Columbia's West Slopes still suck. Although CFI is working hard on a multi-year project to completely reroute the trail, the new trail won't be open for a few more years. Until then the standard trail remains the same. As you climb up the nasty gully, make sure to cut right (south) to the shoulder around 12,500'. I was amazed at the number of people who tried to climb straight up the entire gully. |
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7/9/2016 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 7/11/2016, By: thebeave7 Info: Climbed directly from the first switchback after the river crossing up the South ridge. Steep but completely snowfree. No snow on the ridge or that we could see on the standard trail up either. Dropped the traverse toward Harvard, crossed upper Frenchman Creek at the 12600ft mark in the talus, snow is a non-issue and all can be easily avoided. As of 7/9 there were good strong waterflows at 1300ft on both the Columbia and Harvard side of the traverses if you need to refill water. Flowers are popping on the Southeast face of Harvard, beautiful weekend up there. |
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7/3/2016 Route: NE Slopes/East Ridge Posted On: 7/5/2016, By: Deege Info: Via Frenchman's Creek TH. (See TH Rpt for 7/3/16). Route is dry and snow free. Routing and trail conditions still mostly as described in 9/17/14 trip report by tdliles. Good trail from 4wd TH up Frenchman's Creek to treeline and upper basin, with a few meanderings at and after the upper meadow due to tree fall. (Look for cairn on the right to re-enter the trees at west end of meadow.) Trail becomes faint in the willows in upper basin, but can be detected ascending ridge to the south of the basin. Trail disappears ascending to east ridge. There is no discernible trail across the east ridge, but routing is obvious. Fun scramble for last 100 yds on summit block. Attempted traverse to Harvard, but weather and time dictated otherwise (which is why we chose Frenchman approach if we needed to bail). Descended gully (with some snow) from low point on traverse and met up with Harvard trail on north side of Frenchman's Creek. The willows/marsh in the upper basin is inundated, so stay high on the north (Harvard) or south (Columbia) sides of basin until reaching the choke at the bottom of the upper basin. Long day: 14 miles RT. 4a start and back to car (.7 miles above 2wd TH) at 1p. |
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6/17/2016 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/18/2016, By: momndaughter Info: We climbed Columbia and traversed over to Harvard yesterday. Columbia is in summer conditions with only one little patch of snow at the base of the gully. The traverse, however, is covered in snow. The suggested route at the base of the slope is all snow and too steep to cross so we had to drop much lower and do a lot of bouldering to get across. Added a lot of time to our trip (worse than picture looks, of course). I would definitely never do that traverse again until the snow is gone. |
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6/11/2016 Route: East Ridge from Three Elk Creek Posted On: 6/12/2016, By: stoopdude Info: Hiked Mt Columbia from Three Elk Creek. Beautiful route. Full-on summer conditions. There were three tiny snowfield crossings just below the summit, but they will be avoidable or gone within days. Harvard and Horn Fork basin appear to be quite snowed-in still. |
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6/3/2016 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 6/4/2016, By: jdcoleman Info: Approached Columbia from the Southeast Ridge, started at 4:30am and summitted at 10:00am. Saw two other groups coming up from Horn Fork Creek, I was the only climber who did the SE Ridge that morning, and by the looks of tracks most likely only one other small party had gone that route since the last snow (week and a half ago?). It was an overcast morning, so snow held strong later than usual - only slight mush starting around 1030 on my descent. Had crampons and ice axe just in case, but never put them on I just hiked in boots across the snow with trekking poles + snow shields to disperse weight. The easiest part of the climb was on these high snow drifts - highway in the sky. On the descent, the slight mush-melt was made for easy heel-plunging, so I didn't mind it. I never had to posthole on the SE Ridge, but two groups coming up the standard route on HF Creek said they got slammed with it for about an hour and a half on the way up, dreading it on the way down. Very thankful for the overcast skies, I can't imagine the hike would have been as easy without it having summitted so late - get up there earlier than I did. SE Ridge is long - very long. Overall, fantastic hike. Go get it. |
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5/29/2016 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 5/30/2016, By: Sglm14 Info: Great day to bag Columbia. Good amount of snow on the trail to the talus field but we did okay with microspikes. Past the talus field there were only patches of snow and were avoidable. Snow from the ridge to the summit. Some postholing on our way back but it wasn't that bad. |
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5/22/2016 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 5/22/2016, By: tylerrust413 Info: Snow is mostly avoidable until you get above treeline. Above the trees, it's pretty much solid snow all the way to the summit. Conditions were sunny but windy on the way up, so the snow stayed frozen until about 11 am. Snow was softening and provided the occasional posthole on the descent, but we never felt the need to use snowshoes. |
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5/14/2016 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 5/15/2016, By: spiderman Info: Climbed SE ridge. Snow starts around 10,800'. It is best to stay on the bare, more south-facing side of the ridge to avoid post holing in the trees. The snow was solid above treeline and we didn't need snowshoes. Microspikes and an ice axe were necessary as we traversed around the face of of one of the ridge bumps. The ice axes were never needed for the rest of the trip. On the way down in the late afternoon, we found a section around 11,900' elevation that had deep/wet wind-blown snow that showed signs that it could have a minor slide. |
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3/5/2016 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 3/5/2016, By: Unknown Info: Snowshoes are a must from just above the Colorado Trail junction to the tree line. We stashed snowshoes just above the tree line. The snow in the AM was solid(ish), but the afternoon was an entirely different story with very soft snow. You will posthole even with snowshoes, but it'd be a nightmare without snowshoes. Be aware the SE ridge is a very long ridge and you'll be above the tree line for the majority of your day. Not a great route if it's a windy forecast. |
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2/20/2016 Route: Image from Yale Posted On: 2/20/2016, By: JQDivide Info: Photo from Yale |
