6/15/2024 Route: Harvard and Columbia Traverse Posted On: 6/16/2024, By: apfox500 Info: This route is not safe with current conditions. Coming down from Harvard is fine, with a few small, avoidable snowfields until you get to the backside of the ridge. Here there are massive snowfields blocking the trail and without snowshoes you have to descend to the bottom of the basin and do some class 3/low class 4 scrambling up the talus to avoid the snow. Even with snowshoes the trail would take you into avalanche terrain with high exposure so you would need to get there very early in the day. I would not recommend doing this route for another couple of weeks unless you plan on going around the snow(added ~1000 extra ft of gain for me). With my extra add on, it took about 2.5 hours to get from Harvard to Columbia. Descended from Columbia via West slopes and was slushy, but not enough to warrant snowshoes. Especially if you hit the west slopes early enough in the day you wouldn't need snowshoes, and there isn't much snow beyond tree line anyways. |
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6/11/2024 Route: Southwest Couloir Posted On: 6/12/2024, By: Jcinco Info: Went up standard route and skied the SW couloir, which had coverage from nearly the ridge at 13,600 down to 11,300. I would have rather gone up the SW couloir because I wasnt sure it would be in and you dont really get a good view of the line on the standard approach. My original plan was Harvard but I didnt like the coverage on the south face for a ski and I felt that I didnt get an early enough start anyway, thus this was a plan B decision. Not a great freeze so the conditions were punchy, but I would have ideally dropped in about 30-45 minutes earlier on this aspect. Wasted a fair amount of time trying to link a mostly continuous ski down the ridge from the summit. Great underrated ski line. Ski options are dwindling fast in the surrounding peaks and youd be hard challenged to find that much vert at this point. W slopes are almost entirely snow free once out of the trees. |
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6/9/2024 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/10/2024, By: thbl4268 Info: The first 2 miles of the trail are completely dry and smooth sailing. Once you get to past the first 2 at around 11,250 feet, it turns into a brutal, unavoidable, post-holing, slush-fest for the following 2 miles until you reach about 11,900 feet. Once you get above tree line, the trail reappears, and it is pretty straightforward besides a few spots were the trail is still hidden by snow. I'm not sure if floatation would have helped below tree line, as the avalanche slush had multiple streams running underneath them, which made it tough. I highly recommend spikes and gaiters for the next few weeks if you're planning on summiting. |
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6/8/2024 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/8/2024, By: MountainBud Info: Left TH at 5am. First 2.5 miles are snow free. After that expect a lot of deep snow and post holing up within the tree sections until about 11,900 on the West face. Have the GPS of the trail downloaded as there isnt much of a trail once you turn off the main trail to go up Columbia. After a small snow field crossing around 11,900, the conditions are excellent to the summit with a little snow navigating the last 0.5 mile. Had micro spikes and poles (no other flotation). Back at the TH at 12pm. Snow looks to be melting quickly! |
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4/21/2024 Route: Southwest Couloir Posted On: 4/21/2024, By: asnellstrom Info: You can drive to the lower trailhead, maybe give it a week or so of warm temps to get to the upper. Hard snow with no floatation on the way in. Made it to the exit of the couloir by about 10:30. Ice axe and crampons needed to get up, and a fun glissade down. Decided to go down without the summit to beat the warm temps. Probably would have made the summit if we started at 5am instead of 6:30, or if we weren't too stubborn for snowshoes. Wasn't a total nightmare of post holing on the way out, but wasn't fun either... |
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3/10/2024 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 3/11/2024, By: the_hare Info: The foothills just beneath Columbia got less than 2in of snow but this part of the Sawatch looked completely plastered from 285. The road is packed down from snowmobile traffic, could park at the camping pull-offs a couple tenths of a mile from the 2WD parking at the national forest entrance. When I got to the CO Trail it looked like nobody had been up recently except for some moose a little higher up who made a sort of trench even continuing up the SE ridge. A party of people packed down the CO Trail to a nice bootpack while I was gone. The snow got a nice freeze/thaw cycle in after the recent storm so the sun-exposed snowfields on more southern aspects of the ridge were hard and sturdy in the morning. I sidehilled along the ridge to link up these snowfields that I ascended vertically. The lodge pole stand after 10,800ft had the most tedious snow, thick sticky powder. I aimed west for a S-facing exposed rib loaded with frozen drifts to more easily ascend to the rocky outcropping at 11,400 ft. I skirted the bumps ahead until treeline to the left/south since they had patchy and thin snow. I followed coyote and then a herd of elk tracks through the bumps above treeline, they knew some good shortcuts! Had to bring snowshoes all the way up to 13,100ft for one final ascent up a wind-affected snowy ridge. Ridge proper on the upper cirque has some wind-affected snow features that were sometimes supportive, sometimes not. For the most part I found sidehilling to the left fastest but sometimes ridge proper was better. Commanding views of Yale to the south all day. Little wind forecast and experienced, picked up after dark though. |
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2/19/2024 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 2/20/2024, By: shapovalovm Info: The red-shaded slope at the 1st switchback on Colorado trail is mostly dry, nothing to worry about. Snowshoes required from the start of the ridge to treeline at ~12k, but as the previous report said, there's still some postholing in a few places past that, just not enough to justify carrying snowshoes. I tried to reenforce the trench, but it would often disappear under the new snow, so I lost it a bunch of times and basically ended up with a few new variations. Despite a lot of snow on the ridge just below the treeline, I haven't noticed any signs of instability. Above treeline: at ~12200 I stashed snowshoes and went in just boots (no spikes). It's mostly rock with some sections of wind-blown snow here and there. I kept going up and down and according to my watch I lost/gained way more elevation than expected. This ridge is endless and is very exposed. The forecast said 25-30mph wind with 40-60mph gusts (depending who you trust) and it was absolutely abysmal, so my advice: try to go there in way better wind forecast. It will be way more enjoyable. For me this one fell into the same category as winter Yale: endless ridge in horrible wind. TH: made it to a winter pull off, ~1.2m from the TH in an Accord, no problem. Past that I counted at least 3 very obvious spots where people got stuck, so use your judgement. |
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2/11/2024 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 2/11/2024, By: wintersage Info: I was able to park 0.5mi from the TH before the snow on the road got too deep. From the TH, we followed a very faint trench from before the weekend storm to 12k feet. That trench is now quite revived. Stashed snowshoes after reaching the ridge line, however, there was still a lot of deep postholing along the ridge due to recent snowfall and snowdrifts. The day started out with just enough wind to make the cold sting, but by the afternoon the wind picked up significantly more than forecasted and we dealt with blowing snow and limited visibility. Sunny though, which was nice. |
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11/15/2023 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 11/16/2023, By: Fred C Dobbs Info: This route is very much still open, I ended up stashing my snowshoes and I didn't even use spikes on the descent, but it was a dry day. Probably a better choice than the standard route at this point. Snow patches on the ridge and in the treeline. Snow cornices starting to form but can be avoided easily. FCD |
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11/6/2023 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 11/7/2023, By: ProfetaP Info: The mountain is in great condition. There is some snow between 11-12k but it is not very deep (I never put on microspikes) and some of it melted by the time I was on the way down. Once you get to the ridge walk, the left side is practically clear of snow until you reach the summit. Just be careful on the right side (you shouldn't be there anyway) but there are many snow cornices and you do not know when it will drop off. I went on Monday when there were 35+ winds and It was not the most enjoyable time because once you pass 12k feet, you are getting smacked with the wind constantly and there is no coverage except an occasional big rock. |
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9/26/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 9/26/2023, By: Ariella6 Info: Tuesday 9/26/2023 Quiet day on trail. Only saw a few other people on our journey. Trail is dry and in summer conditions. |
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9/20/2023 Route: Harvard and Columbia Traverse Posted On: 9/21/2023, By: NativeTransplant Info: Did Harvard - Columbia Traverse on 9/20/2023 via Columbia West Slopes and Harvard South Slopes. Trail up to Columbia via west slopes and trail down from Harvard via south slopes are both dry without any snow/ice. The traverse between the two has snow and ice in some areas with one significant snow field on the northeast aspect just before Harvard. Microspikes came in handy on the snowfield. The traverse sucks (there is no trail), and it's better to do the two peaks separately. Not your average "class 2 Sawatch" 14er day... had some class 3 and class 4 maneuvers on the traverse near Harvard. |
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9/16/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 9/17/2023, By: gtalmage1 Info: Some snow from about the false summit on. Was fairly thin and not a big deal. Did not wear any extra gear or slow us down. Would keep an eye on weather reports this week |
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9/11/2023 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 9/11/2023, By: DorothyK Info: There is no snow on the trail up Columbia yet. |
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8/27/2023 Route: Harvard and Columbia Traverse Posted On: 8/29/2023, By: AndrewJCraigie Info: This traverse kicked my butt - definitely underestimated it! Going down from Harvard was a pain due to loose rock and route finding, but it made the clambering up to Columbia very satisfying. Started 3:45am, got done 3:15pm. 45 mins were spent in the AM hiding from a thunderstorm. Plan for a full day - would recommend having some 14er experience before doing this. |
