Mt. Columbia - 14,073 ft

Date:  10-23-2005

Climbers: George Barnes and MarkDB

Route:  West Slopes II - Class 2

RT distance: ~10.0 miles

RT time: 8 hours 20 minutes

Time to summit:   5 hours

Time on summit:  20 minutes

Time to trailhead: 3 hours

Elevation gain:  4,200 feet

USGS Quadrangles:  Mount Harvard, Mount Yale
 

Trip Report:

A nixed moonlight attempt on Columbia last Friday night had left me with a bone to pick in the Sawatch. Mark and I checked out the trailhead Saturday night in my Jeep and we were optimistic about the relatively low amounts of snow.

After dinner at the Coyote Cantina we went to bed with alarms set for 5 AM. We’d heard mediocre weather reports for Sunday, but we awoke to clear skies over Buena Vista. We found some coffee and headed for the North Cottonwood trailhead. We passed a couple hunting parties on the drive in, they’d be the only people we saw all day.

At the trailhead we had the usual “take the axes or not” debate and eventually left the trailhead at 6:20, sans axes. We knew there was snow up high, but we doubted there was enough consolidated snow for an axe to be of any use. We’d walked enough of the trail the night before to decide that we would also leave our snowshoes. We didn’t regret either decision.

The trail up to the Kroenke Lake / Horn Fork Basin junction had been well traveled by hunters and hikers, and we were pleased to find that all the snow was thoroughly trampled. We made the turn for Horn Fork and were pleasantly surprised to find that someone had preceded us up the basin. This was not the case for me a week ago, so things were definitely looking up.

Columbia's West Slopes, Mt. Yale              

We’d soon find that the tracks we were following were heading for Bear Lake or Harvard, and we’d have to blaze our own trail to the west slopes of Columbia. This turned out to be pretty easy and we eventually found a cairned trail leading up the scree.

The west slopes were holding enough firm snow to make upward progress pretty enjoyable, certainly better than they would have been with no snow. High on the west slopes we began to get a glimpse of the plains surrounding Buena Vista. Since leaving town, a low cloud layer had formed over the plains, giving an amazing “sea of clouds” appearance.
 

Upon gaining the ridge at 13,600 I checked my GPS and found that the summit was still 0.6 miles away. Our progress slowed considerably here as we waded through unconsolidated snow up to knee deep. A few stretches were completely windswept, but we definitely did our share of post holing on the ridge. Near the summit we surprised a big mountain goat who was hanging out on the cold, windy ridge.
 

At 11:20 we reached the summit of Columbia and quickly scrapped any ideas of running over to Mt. Harvard.  The eastern plains were still completely covered with low clouds, a phenomenon that pictures don't do justice.  Pikes Peak was visible due east, some 68 miles away.

Pikes Peak, Buffalo Peaks

Columbia 360º

After 20 minutes of eating and taking pictures, we retraced our steps down the south ridge.

The descent down the loose scree slope was pretty miserable, but passed quickly.  Back on the Horn Fork Basin trail we kicked the pace up a notch and made it back to the truck at 2:40.