Mt. Columbia

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 2/1/2015, By: mikemalick
Info: Snow moved into the area Friday night. Was still ongoing (barely) during first couple hours of the hike Saturday morning. Didn't use flotation or traction until after leaving Colorado Trail. There was a faint trench to follow, but that disappeared from time to time. I used spikes and snowshoes off and on for the remainder, but stashed my snowshoes around 12,000'. Winds were actually pretty tame so the ridge had not been scoured. The new snow was loose and not supporting at all so footwork was "fun". Spikes were definitely helpful on the higher ridges due to how slippery the rock was as well as patches of rock-hard snow. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 11/8/2014, By: henryclimber
Info: Everything from prior report still holds true. It was a beautiful day, aside from being consistently windy along the ridge. My only rookie mistake was I left at 8 AM. To make matters worse, I had some mountain goats along one of the ridge points. I didn‘t want to startle them going up some false summits. I had to get my ice axe and spikes out to climb around while keeping a reasonable distance. Other than that, poles sufficed for the entire route. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 11/9/2014, By: marshaar
Info: Beautiful day on Columbia! Below treeline the trail had patchy, 1-1.5 inches of snow, no need for traction or gaiters since there were very few icey spots. Above tree line there was very little snow going up to the ridge. A few spots on the ridge had up to a foot of snow, but we never put on gaiters, though they probably would have kept or get a bit drier! Saw some people with ice axes but never felt like we needed them. We had great weather all day and only had to put on extra layers to protect from the wind. Overall still awesome conditions up there. Glad we decided not to lug our snow shoes up the trail. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 11/6/2014, By: Derek
Info: No snow until near treeline, and from that point to 13,500‘, its mainly avoidable. The last mile to the summit (above 13,500‘) had snow that made the boulder hopping a bit annoying, but nothing that warranted gaiters. Honestly, probably could have gotten away with trail runners today. Beautiful warm day. Didn‘t even need a hat. --D 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 10/26/2014, By: Grover
Info: Hiked up the West Slopes of Columbia on Saturday. Absolutely gorgeous weather all day. The brutal slope leading to the ridge is basically snow free. There was nothing that posed an issue during that portion of the hike. When on the ridge, at 13,700‘, there is snow on 80% of the rest of the route to the summit. I did not use any traction on this part of the hike, as the snow was firm and I had no issues with walking on it. I camped at 11,100‘ in Horn Fork Basin and the campsite was clear of snow. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 10/24/2014, By: SES_17
Info: Trail is dry up to 13k on ridge. From there, snow increases from patchy to widespread and unavoidable. I had spikes but didn‘t need them. Some minor postholing (shin deep) in some of the drifts but most of the snow was wind blown and packed. Snow was getting soft in the afternoon. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 10/12/2014, By: DanielL
Info: Climbed the long Southeast Ridge of Columbia yesterday. There's quite a bit of snow up there! The first stretch along the Colorado trail and up the beginning of the ridge was dry. As the route climbed higher up the ridge through the trees, the snow got gradually deeper, but no more than a few inches until treeline at 11,500' or so. Above treeline, there was continually deeper and deeper snow until we put on gaiters and felt the significant effort of postholing and breaking trail. Up high on the route, there is more scrambling and the conditions were loose snow covering slick rocks, causing a lot of slips and falls. There were a few difficult Class 2 sections on the ridge crest we maybe could have avoided, but it would have required extra time traversing below the ridge crest on big, snow-covered rocks. I've attached a few iPhone pics. This is a very long ridge with many ups and downs - the upper section of the ridge traverses a long distance at high elevation before finally reaching the summit. Bring lots of food and water. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 10/6/2014, By: Dan_Suitor
Info: Southeast Ridge was a great alternate route which follows the ridge from 10,000 ft to the summit. Route was fairly snow free. Where there was snow, it was not an issue. No traction needed. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 9/14/2014, By: JQDivide
Info: Columbia‘s standard route is just like Bross. VERY loose rocks and scree. Straight up/down. I did it a few years ago and seem to remember switch backs, they no longer exist. Try the Southeast Ridge, trail can be difficult to find at times in the trees, but the route in general is stay on the top of the ridge. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 9/2/2014, By: WolterOutside
Info: Route and summit free of snow and ice. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 7/1/2014, By: addrock528
Info: No snow. Summer conditions in full effect. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 6/30/2014, By: mrickers
Info: Summer conditions. One short snowfield at the base of the W slopes. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/30/2014, By: MissH
Info: Closed out the Collegiates (and Sawatch range 14ers) with a successful ascent/descent of Colubmia. Interesting and steep way to go, especially if you don't require the security of a marked trail. Scattered cairns provide confirmation that someone else was there once but do little to keep you on the "trail." If you decide to go this way, simply aim for the middle of ridge, negotiating each "obstacle" as they come up - as long as you're on the ridge and aim for the summit you really can't go wrong! GPS claims we hiked 11.8m miles (guess we found a shortcut) and 6100 ft elev gain (not sure how reliable that is, it felt like less than 5000 ft). Clear, sunny skies but quite windy above treeline - beautiful day overall. 5.5 hrs up, 3.5 hrs down - with breaks. 

Route: Southwest Couloir
Posted On: 5/18/2014, By: speach
Info: Expect to frequently post-hole and possibly cry, especially in the afternoon. :( Patchy snow coverage on the first ~1 mile makes for awkward snowshoe experiences. Plenty of snow in the couloir, and plenty of pink snow in the run-out. Was stupidwindy today too. 

Route: Southwest Couloir
Posted On: 5/20/2014, By: MonGoose
Info: BenfromtheEast and I attempted a ski descent of Mt Columbia via the Southwest couloir on Sunday morning. The road is clear of snow all the way to the Upper TH at North Cottonwood Creek. There is still a ton of snow on the trail nearly the entire way with intermittent dry patches. We would skin for a few hundred yards and then have to take off our skis and hike a hundred feet. It took forever. When we finally reached the turnoff for the Southwest Couloir we found it to be in great shape (see attached photos) with excellent coverage. We did not see any signs of wet avalanche slides in the couloir but there was a constant stream of small rocks that were trickling down, so be aware. Around 11:00am conditions softened up and we abandoned our summit attempt in exchange for some great turns down the couloir. When we reached the main trail we experienced pure misery trudging through the mashed potatoes.