One of many
trip reports under the
SilGro home page for Alan Silverstein and Cathie
Grow.
Email me at
ajs@frii.com.
Last update: July 26, 2024
(Previous trip report: 1984_0902_HolyCross.htm)
(A
Fourteener
trip report.)
(Originally posted to internal newsgroup:
/***** hpfcla:fsd.rec/ajs / 10:01 am Sep 10, 1984)
Another trip report (why not?), this one on Mount Harvard (14420') and Mount Columbia (14073'). These peaks were not as pretty as some, but they were interesting. Paul Beiser and I climbed them one weekend. We drove down and backpacked in Saturday, then hiked and returned Sunday.
Saturday, Sep 8: The road out of Buena Vista was indeed hard to find. It was only 9.2 miles from the center of town to the trailhead, but the first turn was the key. The Book ("Climbing Guide to the Colorado Fourteeners", 1st edition, by Borneman and Lampert) was wrong: We turned left four blocks north from the light, not four miles. The road was the one with the Three Thieves restaurant on the northwest corner.
Then we followed the "North Cottonwood" signs. Two miles after hitting gravel the road got real bad; the last 4.3 miles were the pits. We're talking "barely passable by ordinary cars" -- deep ruts and big rocks. Most sections were 5-12 MPH, and we hit bottom a few times.
The trail from the parking area up the Horn Fork Basin was long but easy, crossing a number of nice streams, and never too steep. We backpacked about five miles up, well above timber, but not all the way to Bear Lake (12374'). We camped on an large, open, flat knoll at about 11920', a mile before the lake. It was about the best place to come back to after descending the west side of Columbia, after making a large clockwise loop.
The weather this time of year could be (and was) perfect. Since a cold front just came through it was cold and breezy, but crystal clear. Also there were very few people up there then. We had the entire Basin all to ourselves! And the aspen were starting to turn golden.
The Horn Fork Basin was quite broad and open. Mount Yale was very pretty about five miles south, Mount Columbia dominated to the east, and Mount Harvard stretched across the north. The connecting ridge was long and easy to see, covering about a quarter of the view (north to east).
Sunday, Sep 9: It was a windy night and the morning low was about 35 degrees. We hit the trail at 0710 and were on top of Mount Harvard, 2500' higher, by 0915. (Paul was in great shape -- he made it about 30 minutes faster than that!) The route up was grassy most of the way, steep the last 1000', but not too tough.
The peak was a small, steep, sharp, rocky projection. From the top we could see at least 30 other Fourteeners, as far away as Pikes Peak (65 miles)! The entire Sawatch, Elk, and Mosquito ranges were quite visible on a clear day.
The connecting ridge to Columbia was well-described as "long but interesting" by Borneman. The drop from Harvard to the lowest point, at 12840', took us 1:15. It was steep in places but easy to navigate, and got steadily more "interesting".
From the low point up to Columbia you could drop down a few hundred feet and take the easy way up, which we would now recommend. We didn't do that though; we tried to follow the ridge top, up, down, and around a series of steep couloirs, short cliffs, talus slopes, etc. Lots of rotten rock, and hard to see ahead. We passed right by the base of the "Rabbits", some very prominent rock spires on the ridge. Great exercise, but too much adrenaline!
Finally from the low point below Mount Columbia it was a steep but easy 600' up to the summit. Our total time on the ridge was 3:10. Paul cut 20 minutes off of that, and could have done even better, but "use Silverstein's times for comparison" (your mileage may vary).
Columbia's peak was the top of a long ridge. A very tired group of about ten Outward Bounders hauled themselves up and collapsed soon after we got there at 1300. Their instructor of course seemed to consider it nothing more than a Sunday stroll. (But then he made the students carry his gear...)
Dropping off Columbia to the west was a quick and easy scree slide. Don't even think of climbing up this section -- but we lost 2100' back to camp in just an hour, so it was great (most of the way) for descending.
After that, the hour and a half hiking out and the five hours driving home were anticlimactic. (Too bad Fort Collins was so far from most of the real mountains in this state...)
Happy trails to you,
Alan
(Next trip report: 1984_0915-16_MountPrinceton.htm)