Mt. Columbia

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 9/29/2024, By: jaroberto
Info: Winter conditions have eased off the SE Ridge pending the next snowfall. There is still some snow sticking to the north facing slopes, but this route is dry. See my photos for views of the ridge, the Horn Fork Basin and Harvard/Columbia Traverse. Regarding the SE Ridge: This is an interesting but lonely hike. There is no trail and cairns are few and far between. I found it easy to follow on the way up, but opted to utilize the trail on the standard route for the descent. I did not see anyone until I had started my descent on the standard route. If you are not trying for the combo I think this is a good way to do this peak, because a lot of the elevation gain is packed in early on the SE ridge; while the standard route offers a long cooldown on easy trail as you get back to your vehicle. Shout out to the guy and his dog who summitted both Harvard and Columbia by the standard routes on Saturday; you rock! 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 9/23/2024, By: kylepb
Info: Full on winter conditions from the tree line onward. The descent to the standard Harvard TH was extremely snow packed (leeward side). Forest was in full melt in the exit, so I imagine will be dry-ish soon. 

Route: Harvard and Columbia Traverse
Posted On: 8/25/2024, By: Summitsnacks
Info: Harvard/Columbia served up some VIEWS yesterday, lol. All jokes aside I found the traverse very challenging in the dark and opted for the ridge to Columbia and then took the standard route back to Harvard in daylight. Route finding is still tricky in the daylight. Not sure why the standard route drops into the basin since the ridge is mostly navigable with some class 3 moves, and anything sketchier than that can be easily bypassed. 

Route: Harvard and Columbia Traverse
Posted On: 7/28/2024, By: gmarcotte
Info: Three short snowfields towards the Columbia end of the talus traverse, easily manageable with boots. Note that there are a lot of cairns on this route, seemingly for multiple different lines, sometimes rather close to each other and easy to get mixed up. One set leads straight into the gully that the route description recommends avoiding, for example. Would recommend using the route description and picking your own line. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 7/23/2024, By: hsfedina
Info: Hail and t-storms ended our ascent at 12,600 but up until then, the trail after the treeline was in amazing condition. I heard CFI had done work and it showed. A little confusing in the trees just up to tree line as there were a few trails to choose from. 

Route: Harvard and Columbia Traverse
Posted On: 7/7/2024, By: SeabHoban
Info: Some snow crossings remaining in the talus section but didn't need or use spikes. Snow sections werent as steep as they appeared from below. Firm and easy to walk on around 10am. Could kick in steps for oneself as needed. I went up the middle of the talus field, another gentleman stayed closer to the base of the ridge/ cliffs (roughly the two lines on route description). Another group went way low and around the talus field, following the grassy slopes instead, it looked like a slog and time consuming but valid way to avoid navigating the rocks. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 6/29/2024, By: tcphoto87
Info: I hiked this one before a few years ago but this was my first time hiking from the standard route with the newer trail. The trail is pretty easy to follow, but the sign with the arrows at the Columbia trail junction is no longer there on Photo #5 from the route page, just the base of the sign is there. Once we turned right there we found the rest of the trail easily enough but theres a few offshoot trails branching off that would've made it hard to know which way to go without there being signs if I didn't have the photos saved showing where to go. Shortly after that we crossed our first and only area with snow the entire hike, not difficult to cross at all and very short. The switchbacks going up the slopes were great until the area below the ridge where it gets way steeper, the good trail disappears and it's a bunch of loose gravel/scree until reaching the ridge. From there the trail was better with some rock hopping over/around some false summits to reach the summit 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 6/27/2024, By: RHeeney
Info: Columbia trail is in hikeable condition! One snow crossing shortly after the trail turns east at timberline. Lots of mud through the basin. But none present a problem! Beautiful hike! 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 6/27/2024, By: laforge296
Info: On 6/26/24, Mount Columbia had 2 small snow crossings right at tree line. No worries with the snow just keep an eye out on where the actual trail goes, it was kind of hard to see. It was a beautiful hike and not crowded at all. Be safe. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 6/25/2024, By: OkieBB
Info: Very little snow. We had to take maybe a dozen steps in snow total so basically summer conditions. A little muddy down in the first 3 miles but mostly avoidable. Mud is worse in the afternoon on the way down. Great day overall 

Route: Harvard and Columbia Traverse
Posted On: 6/16/2024, By: apfox500
Info: This route is not safe with current conditions. Coming down from Harvard is fine, with a few small, avoidable snowfields until you get to the backside of the ridge. Here there are massive snowfields blocking the trail and without snowshoes you have to descend to the bottom of the basin and do some class 3/low class 4 scrambling up the talus to avoid the snow. Even with snowshoes the trail would take you into avalanche terrain with high exposure so you would need to get there very early in the day. I would not recommend doing this route for another couple of weeks unless you plan on going around the snow(added ~1000 extra ft of gain for me). With my extra add on, it took about 2.5 hours to get from Harvard to Columbia. Descended from Columbia via West slopes and was slushy, but not enough to warrant snowshoes. Especially if you hit the west slopes early enough in the day you wouldn't need snowshoes, and there isn't much snow beyond tree line anyways. 

Route: Southwest Couloir
Posted On: 6/12/2024, By: Jcinco
Info: Went up standard route and skied the SW couloir, which had coverage from nearly the ridge at 13,600 down to 11,300. I would have rather gone up the SW couloir because I wasnt sure it would be in and you dont really get a good view of the line on the standard approach. My original plan was Harvard but I didnt like the coverage on the south face for a ski and I felt that I didnt get an early enough start anyway, thus this was a plan B decision. Not a great freeze so the conditions were punchy, but I would have ideally dropped in about 30-45 minutes earlier on this aspect. Wasted a fair amount of time trying to link a mostly continuous ski down the ridge from the summit. Great underrated ski line. Ski options are dwindling fast in the surrounding peaks and youd be hard challenged to find that much vert at this point. W slopes are almost entirely snow free once out of the trees. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 6/10/2024, By: thbl4268
Info: The first 2 miles of the trail are completely dry and smooth sailing. Once you get to past the first 2 at around 11,250 feet, it turns into a brutal, unavoidable, post-holing, slush-fest for the following 2 miles until you reach about 11,900 feet. Once you get above tree line, the trail reappears, and it is pretty straightforward besides a few spots were the trail is still hidden by snow. I'm not sure if floatation would have helped below tree line, as the avalanche slush had multiple streams running underneath them, which made it tough. I highly recommend spikes and gaiters for the next few weeks if you're planning on summiting. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 6/8/2024, By: MountainBud
Info: Left TH at 5am. First 2.5 miles are snow free. After that expect a lot of deep snow and post holing up within the tree sections until about 11,900 on the West face. Have the GPS of the trail downloaded as there isnt much of a trail once you turn off the main trail to go up Columbia. After a small snow field crossing around 11,900, the conditions are excellent to the summit with a little snow navigating the last 0.5 mile. Had micro spikes and poles (no other flotation). Back at the TH at 12pm. Snow looks to be melting quickly! 

Route: Southwest Couloir
Posted On: 4/21/2024, By: asnellstrom
Info: You can drive to the lower trailhead, maybe give it a week or so of warm temps to get to the upper. Hard snow with no floatation on the way in. Made it to the exit of the couloir by about 10:30. Ice axe and crampons needed to get up, and a fun glissade down. Decided to go down without the summit to beat the warm temps. Probably would have made the summit if we started at 5am instead of 6:30, or if we weren't too stubborn for snowshoes. Wasn't a total nightmare of post holing on the way out, but wasn't fun either...