Mt. Columbia

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 7/6/2020, By: Btuperkwh
Info: Summer conditions, no snow. Columbia trail turn-off can be confusing but is almost exactly 4 miles from the N. Cottonwood Creek trail head. Trail up is great! New trail work ends just below the ridge so there is some steep scree/dirt to navigate. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 7/2/2020, By: ClimberSkierDave64
Info: Like said before, the new trail is awesome. However, the old trail segment above the end of the new trail really isn't that bad and is more just steep dirt with solid rocks to step on for additional traction. A CFI crew is currently working on finishing touches on the trail up until 12,900 ft. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 7/1/2020, By: dennywitte
Info: The new CFI trail is awesome! What you need to know, however, is that the new CFI trail ends at 12,900 and the old trail must be used to gain the ridge at 13,600. This steep, loose scree filled section is the crux of the route. A CFI worker I talked with said that this will likely not be improved this year as the 5th year of trail work wraps up. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 6/30/2020, By: andrew85
Info: Full summer conditions from trailhead to summit. 

Route: Harvard and Columbia Traverse
Posted On: 6/30/2020, By: andrew85
Info: Several lingering snow fields (at least 15) after descending the east ridge from Point 13,516' and reentering the talus. Some are flat and firm enough to follow existing tracks, but most of them you would need at least microspikes to cross. Occasional postholing, but mostly stable even later in the day if attempting to follow the main route/existing tracks. The rest of the trail from Harvard's summit to Point 13,516' and from the last snow field to Columbia's summit (last three pics) is in full summer conditions (trivial snow patchs near Harvard's summit). 

Route: Harvard and Columbia Traverse
Posted On: 6/27/2020, By: MountainBuhn
Info: Hiked this on Saturday, June 27. Traverse conditions in the pics. Not technically difficult at all. Most of the traverse was decent boulders for boulder hopping. Just extremely exhausting and long day. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 6/24/2020, By: Poleless
Info: Neither snow nor wet are any problem now. It was an unusually warm and calm day, even on the summit, with good visibility all around at about 9:00 a.m.. The new trail portions are amazing, but let's not give people the impression that this has now become Bierstadt 2 or something. There's still a lot of steep trail with loose dirt and scree above the built trail portions. By miles per hour, This was the toughest Class 2 I've hiked yet. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 6/15/2020, By: taylorharris50
Info: Summer conditions on Columbia. No need for spikes. Horn Fork Basin looks good as well. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 6/16/2020, By: Lordofthegnar
Info: Beautiful day on Columbia. Backpacked 3.5 miles in solo the night before and experienced quite a bit of rain. Awoke early and thankfully weather had cleared.
The image on 14ers.com of the trail junction is really helpful especially if you're coming in at night - you'll see a ton of big roots in front of you and the split to the right will be pretty apparent.
The new trail is in amazing shape. One or two minor snow fields on Sunday and a little bit of mud, but I'm sure that will be gone soon.
Saturday night had left a very thin layer of snow towards the summit which did make some rocks slick, so just be careful. I'm sure that's all gone by now as well.
Trail is straight-forward! It's definitely steep towards the top of gaining the ridge, but you get amazing views of Princeton, Yale, Birthday Peak, and Harvard.
I was the first to the summit that morning and saw a handful of groups on the way down. I'm sure this one gets real busy as summer approaches so start early, especially if you're huffing it from the trailhead.
I highly recommend camping on this one - there are some amazing spots about .2 - .25 miles before the split to Columbia. Awesome camping for Harvard as well.

Oh, it was windy AF!! And when I did Harvard a week ago, it was also really cold at the top. Bring goggles and hand warmers if you see any amount of wind in the forecast. The handwarmers especially make all the difference in the world!! 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 6/15/2020, By: jakesoren10
Info: Beautiful day on the trail. Started just about 5am, and summited about 8:30.
Got snowed on twice, but nothing bad. Trail is beautiful with 1 small snow patch right at timberline (very easily crossed 20-30 steps), otherwise complete summer conditions. New trail is a beautiful trail! 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 6/15/2020, By: bjohnk1
Info: Trail was very good, except for a decent-sized snow patch near the start of the split towards Columbia. Make sure to stay right and follow the actual trail with switchbacks instead of seemingly going straight up with loose rock (like we did). Turned back from doing Harvard due to ominous oncoming weather which turned out to be nothing. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 6/11/2020, By: demmons1
Info: Mt Columbia trail beta: Dry all the way. Enjoy the summer. 

Route: Harvard and Columbia Traverse
Posted On: 6/11/2020, By: demmons1
Info: Harvard/Columbia Traverse trail beta: Still a lot of snow in the gullies. If traversing early with solid snow, I would recommend ice axe w/ microspikes or crampons. If later in the day and snow has warmed, hiking sticks would suffice. If you wanna avoid snow altogether, you can drop really low in the valley...but keep in mind you gotta regain all that elevation loss....which makes for a MUCH LONGER DAY. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 6/12/2020, By: wineguy
Info: A few snow patches but very brief and mostly avoidable. As you would expect with an approach from the south and west, this is a good early season route. Some amazing trail work on the new route, kudos to CFI. 

Route: Harvard and Columbia Traverse
Posted On: 6/11/2020, By: LouDog
Info: Went with my Twin Brother. Started 6AM, summited Harvard in 3 hours. There are significant snow fields on both routes - CORRECTION: BOTH HARVARD STANDARD AND TRAVERSE/ NO SNOW COLUMBIA STANDARD - and you should have micro spikes and poles or crampons. We had neither and kicked into an old bootpack.

I would have done the traverse counter clockwise if we did it again. You can get to Columbia without touching snow and can glissade/slide down past the rabbit instead of going up the snow below the rabbit.

Total time 7:30. I think without snow on the talus pile we could've shaved off an hour. A friend dropped all the way down and back up to columbia avoiding snow below the rabbit and it was faster.