Distance of Mt. Columbia Standard Route (West Slopes)

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jes75
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Distance of Mt. Columbia Standard Route (West Slopes)

Post by jes75 »

Flatlander here planning for an upcoming trip. The 3rd ed. of Roach says the standard route is 10.0 miles roundtrip and this website says 12.0 miles. Why the difference? Both have the same starting point at the N. Cottonwood TH, and I can't imagine the CFI renovations would have added that much distance. Climb times on 14ers.com show between 11.5-12.0 miles. I assume the Roach book is simply wrong?

Thanks!
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BillMiddlebrook
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Re: Distance of Mt. Columbia Standard Route (West Slopes)

Post by BillMiddlebrook »

The trail was re-routed by the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative (CFI) a couple of years ago. Big, multi-year project.

The information in the 14ers.com route description was updated to reflect the new mileage. Previously, the mileage on the route description was 11mi, I think, so the new trail did add distance because of the many new switchbacks. I was just up there a couple of weeks ago and verified the mileage.
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rperth
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Re: Distance of Mt. Columbia Standard Route (West Slopes)

Post by rperth »

For what it’s worth I did Columbia a couple of weeks ago and it was 11.8 per my garmin
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Re: Distance of Mt. Columbia Standard Route (West Slopes)

Post by mindfolded »

Oddly, I tracked 14.2 miles on my Strava when I did Columbia about a month ago. I started 10 minutes down the road from the trailhead, which doesn't really explain the discrepancy. Strava is usually fairly accurate for me.

https://www.strava.com/activities/5507356946
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Re: Distance of Mt. Columbia Standard Route (West Slopes)

Post by BillMiddlebrook »

Tons of bouncing around on that Strava line, as well as some detours. :)
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Re: Distance of Mt. Columbia Standard Route (West Slopes)

Post by jes75 »

Thanks for the replies--I appreciate the help. I knew of the CFI work on Mt. Columbia, but I obviously didn't appreciate the scale of what must have been a herculean task.
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Re: Distance of Mt. Columbia Standard Route (West Slopes)

Post by Scott P »

BillMiddlebrook wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 7:54 pm Tons of bouncing around on that Strava line, as well as some detours. :)
Here's what you see when you zoom into that:
Strava.PNG
Strava.PNG (66.3 KiB) Viewed 1278 times
Is it the signal that makes the line jump all over like that? I have never used Stava (or a GPS for that matter).
I'm old, slow and fat. Unfortunately, those are my good qualities.
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Re: Distance of Mt. Columbia Standard Route (West Slopes)

Post by dfeezell »

rperth wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 6:10 pm For what it’s worth I did Columbia a couple of weeks ago and it was 11.8 per my garmin
Same mileage I got recently. Garmin Fenix 6.
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Re: Distance of Mt. Columbia Standard Route (West Slopes)

Post by mindfolded »

Scott P wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 9:46 pm
BillMiddlebrook wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 7:54 pm Tons of bouncing around on that Strava line, as well as some detours. :)
Here's what you see when you zoom into that:

Strava.PNG

Is it the signal that makes the line jump all over like that? I have never used Stava (or a GPS for that matter).
It's got to be the signal, I'm not that unstable. The extra bit at the intersection for Harvard/Columbia was me checking out the campsites, but I'm surprised that all adds up to two extra miles.
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Re: Distance of Mt. Columbia Standard Route (West Slopes)

Post by rperth »

dfeezell wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 9:59 pm
rperth wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 6:10 pm For what it’s worth I did Columbia a couple of weeks ago and it was 11.8 per my garmin
Same mileage I got recently. Garmin Fenix 6.
Same, Fenix 6
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