Long Columbia Harvard Traverse

Peaks:

Mt. Harvard - 14,420 feet Mt. Columbia - 14,073 feet

Thanks to all who joined along in this hike: MountainMicah83, MattPayne11, JakeK, and Jean Roy.

I picked up MattPayne11 in Colorado Springs at around 8:15 on Friday 6/19 and we headed up towards the mountains. We arrived in Buena Vista shortly after 10 when I realized that I forgot my mountaineering boots. Luckily, I had my La Sportiva ascent shoes on, so I decided that I would be able to manage.

2 Miles up the final road (before it gets rougher) to the N. Cottonwood Creek TH we saw Jean Roy and his Honda Element with Quebec Plates (around 10:30PM). Jean has come down to Colorado from Montreal for the Summer and is attempting to finish all of the 14ers by the end of August. Yesterday he was at 18 days and 18 peaks. He takes 1 rest day per week. Pretty amazing, but I guess he can handle it since he has done Denali, Aconcagua, and Kilimanjaro among many others. We took him to the TH and set up the tents. We crashed around 1130PM and woke up dark and early at 3 AM. We wanted an early start to have a chance for the traverse. With 30% chance of afternoon thunderstorms, things were not too positive for the entire trip.

Here is the trail when we stepped off around 3:40 AM. The approach is very long and very flat. I think you rise like 600 feet before treeline and that‘s it.



With about half an hour of light and being a ways past where you break off from Columbia, the fog broke from Yale.



Shortly after we had our first views of Harvard. It is in the center, you can see how mild of a climb it was.



We got a great view of Yale at this point!



This was a picture with the greater part of the ridge to Columbia (Right)



The sun rising above Harvard‘s east ridge!



Me on the summit. I made it around 7:45. First person of the day. I selected some of class 3 right up the center. Belford and Oxford were behind me.



After having my shot of whisky and celebrating Jean Roy/MattPayne11 were right there. JakeK and his climbing partner arrived within a few minutes as well. Fog was surrounding us at this point but we made the decision to go for Columbia. There was overcast everywhere but no looming storms. The four of us set off and JakeK‘s buddy headed for the car. His new boots were killing him. The picture is Jean Roy headed down the start of Harvard‘s east ridge



There was not too much snow up to the summit of Harvard. Definitely no snowshoes or crampons needed. There was one field of about 100yds and the last couple hundred feet was hard snow. This picture was the last pic headed towards pt 13512 that was snow free. From there much of the ridge had snow, but I managed to keep my shoes dry through it.



After dropping down just before 13512 we began to circle and at around 13100 we came to this snowfield. The pic doesn‘t do it justice, but the snow was too soft to cross and we ended up dropping to about 12700 going around.



At about 12900 this picture was our choices for heading up columbia which was up to the right in the clouds. There was the large talus field to the left. The small talus field in the center, the rocks to the right of that, or snow fields on the far right. We assumed the snow would be too soft at this point in the day so we were planning on some 3+ climbing through the rocks and having to drop down to maybe 12400 to get over there. At 12600-12700 we tasted the snow on the right. The pack was way hard. We were relieved that we were not going to have to manage through all of the talus and rock.



Heading up through the snowfields, the snow continued to get softer. There was quite a lot of recent wet slide activity to our side from the ridge. This picture is JakeK and his high elevation lungs from vail Kicking a** up the slope kicking steps for us with Jean Roy following.



Looking at the southern portion from the east on the traverse saddle.



MattPayne11 bringing up the tail



By this time my shoes were soaked from all of the wet snow. At least I had wool socks! Here is our outlook to the summit from there:



We decided to around to snow because we were now sinking to our knees. This is what the route looked from there at around 13100‘. The climb was manuvering over large talus bolder fields. We made the ridge and did not find the eastern trail up columbia.



For the final couple of hundred feet, it began to snow. The rocks got wet and slippery. Then with about 200‘ to go, we heard the thunder from 3 nearby lightning strikes. 2 from the north near harvard and one from the south. Our butts puckered as we scurried to the summit. (this is the only way down). I got one pic of myself and am hoping JakeK will post the group pic. Don‘t worry, you aren‘t missing anything. Everything was all stormy and there was no visibility past about 20‘.



After a very quick group photo at about 1215, we started down cautiously. We wanted to go quickly to avoid the storm but still be safe on the wet rocks. This is the final photo that I snapped of Jean Roy who is a billy goat going both up and down and JakeK decending. (I am very grateful to not climb the standard route up Columbia.) The route was very nasty coming down.



At around 12‘500 the Snow turned to rain. What a day to end the spring! I threw the camera in my pack to keep it dry and put on the rain coat. My "non-cotton" hiking pants were already fairly wet, so I didn‘t put on the rain pants cause I didn‘t want to overheat. We took a quick rest at treeline and made our way to the horn fork basin trail. It rained and rained and rained and rained... With already wet shoes I just tromped through all of the water running down the trail. Exhausted, we made it to the car at about 3:15 to close out the day.

over 7,000 total feet of elevation gain and almost 16 miles, we made it. Pancho‘s Burritos from Buena Vista never tasted so good. The hike was fun but long. Brought 3 liters of water and only used up 2 total.

Good luck Jean Roy, I hope we catch some more peaks with you throught the summer! I look forward to seeing some of the photos of Jean Roy, MattPayne11, and JakeK.