MOUNT COLUMBIA 8/7/85
MOUNT COLUMBIA 14,073'
Mountain........Mount Columbia
Elevation.........14,073
Rank...............35th
Range..............Sawatch
Trail length......2 miles (from Harvard)
Elevation gain..2,000' (by our misguided route)
Difficulty..........**
Comments........Total exhaustion
TRIP REPORT
8/7/85
After summiting Harvard, I was not feeling very well (maybe altitude was to blame, maybe stale doughnuts) and fell just far enough behind Richard to allow him to take the wrong (northern) route around a lump of rock on the ridge descending from the peak. I followed, hoping to keep him out of trouble.
Trouble appeared in the form of a 12-foot wide icy gully that had to be jumped - it was about 4,000' straight down if we missed! This obstacle required a great deal of hesitation, but finally we managed to jump it and scrambled up very loose rock back to the top of the ridge.
From there we decided that we couldn't negotiate the direct ridge to Columbia (it LOOKED tough), so we dropped way way down almost to the tree line and then started up Columbia's northeast ridge. After a lot of huffing, puffing, rest stopping, and even a little crawling, we dragged ourselves onto the summit.
From the top we stumbled along the south ridge looking for a good exit couloir back into the Horn Forks Basin, but couldn't find any that looked promising. However, we were exhausted and desperate to get down, so we picked one and started. A cold, dry, dusty wind blasted our faces on the descent, which was very steep with very loose rock and a few short faces that had to be carefully downclimbed. We finally arrived back at the stream and trail, and trudged the 5 miles back to the car. We returned to the motel, washed, ate, and collapsed after deciding to take the next day off.
Mountain........Mount Columbia
Elevation.........14,073
Rank...............35th
Range..............Sawatch
Trail length......2 miles (from Harvard)
Elevation gain..2,000' (by our misguided route)
Difficulty..........**
Comments........Total exhaustion
TRIP REPORT
8/7/85
After summiting Harvard, I was not feeling very well (maybe altitude was to blame, maybe stale doughnuts) and fell just far enough behind Richard to allow him to take the wrong (northern) route around a lump of rock on the ridge descending from the peak. I followed, hoping to keep him out of trouble.
Trouble appeared in the form of a 12-foot wide icy gully that had to be jumped - it was about 4,000' straight down if we missed! This obstacle required a great deal of hesitation, but finally we managed to jump it and scrambled up very loose rock back to the top of the ridge.
From there we decided that we couldn't negotiate the direct ridge to Columbia (it LOOKED tough), so we dropped way way down almost to the tree line and then started up Columbia's northeast ridge. After a lot of huffing, puffing, rest stopping, and even a little crawling, we dragged ourselves onto the summit.
From the top we stumbled along the south ridge looking for a good exit couloir back into the Horn Forks Basin, but couldn't find any that looked promising. However, we were exhausted and desperate to get down, so we picked one and started. A cold, dry, dusty wind blasted our faces on the descent, which was very steep with very loose rock and a few short faces that had to be carefully downclimbed. We finally arrived back at the stream and trail, and trudged the 5 miles back to the car. We returned to the motel, washed, ate, and collapsed after deciding to take the next day off.
posted by JansStores at 9:11 AM
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