Columbia → Harvard (Direct Ridge Traverse Trip Report)

First off, I want to give credit to some folks who provided super insightful beta on this route:

• Justiners’ blog + forum comments

• Anton Krupicka’s blog

• Daway8

• Jorts

• Verticality (sweet video)

• Tortilla

With that out of the way, I just want to say: this is a big day. There’s a lot of fun scrambling/climbing, and a long way over to the other peak (depending on the direction you choose). So weather and water are something to really consider. I ran out, LOL.

Stats (watch died during the traverse 😅)

Before my watch died I had 7.88 miles in 4:06:05. I was probably 3/4 of the way to Harvard at that point.

• Start: 4:53 AM

• Columbia: 7:21 AM

• Harvard: 9:35 AM

• Back at car: 12:40 PM

The Day Before: Prepping After Lindsey & Yale

I had just done Lindsey via the NW Ridge on 8/2, stayed direct, and had a blast. Then on 8/3 I hit Yale. Honestly wasn’t that stoked about it, but I ended up knocking it out in 3:25:49, which I thought was blazing. Fun to push myself, but I really just wanted to use my hands more.

With Capitol planned later in the week, I knew I needed something a little spicier to warm up the brain and body. I wanted some exposure, some climbing—something that demanded focus.

So when my agenda called for Columbia and Harvard, I figured it’d be like Belford and Oxford. But while grilling out in a public parking lot in BV, I started looking deeper into the route and the RT. I saw the standard linkup dropped a bunch of elevation, and thought: why don’t people just stick to the ridge?

I pulled up a GPX track, scoped the line, and after some more Googling, I found out there’s a ridge traverse that goes at 5.7. Hmmm.

Did some deeper digging and found beta, photos, and videos. Slabby downclimbs, class 4+, a knife edge? I was sold.

The Plan

My takeaway from the beta was:

• Go Columbia → Harvard

• Bypass the Rabbit Ears on the left (west) when coming from Columbia

• Scramble to a knife edge and downclimb it

• Reach the 5.7 crux

• After that, it’s mostly cruisy scrambling to Harvard

Also saw that people skirted some difficulties to the east or west—including the crux—so I had options if things looked sketchy. Forecast looked perfect, so I figured I’d start early and move quick. Anything can happen out there.

Night Before at the TH

Rolled up to the trailhead and started digging for my AquaSeal because my HydraPak flask had sprung yet another leak. Took me 30 minutes to find the stuff.

Finally got situated. Slept in the back of the truck. Set a series of alarms from 3:30 to 5:30, then destroyed a pile of turkey sticks and Goldfish right after brushing and flossing.

Didn’t sleep great. When 3:30 hit I said nope. Snoozed until 4:00, then forced myself up. Cold morning. Layered up, made coffee, slammed a brown sugar Pop-Tart, and drank what I thought was a lot of water. Shed the warm layers and hit the trail at 4:53 AM.

Approach to Columbia

I knew it was gonna be a long day, but didn’t expect how long. I planned on filtering prior to Columbias ascent but kinda forgot about it.

Started with 1.65L and that was not enough. I should have been drinking more early. I didn’t end up filtering until after Harvard. Rookie mistake my dad would tell me.

Around 3 miles in, I was deep into Horn Fork Basin and realized I hadn’t gained much vertical. Then the climb to Columbia hit—a steep, loose, painful slog.

When I topped out, I felt way more tired than usual. Could’ve been the last couple days, but I think it was mostly dehydration. I’d had maybe a few hundred mL by then. I knew better.

Threw down an Uncrustable, looked at Harvard way off in the distance, and started the traverse.

Columbia to Harvard (The Ridge)

Immediately, there’s a lot of descent and some fun scrambling. After a flatter grassy section, I hit more rock as I neared the Rabbit Ears—huge, intimidating towers.

Beta said to bypass them to the west via a ramp. I saw something ramp-like and thought “easy.” Next thing I knew, I was standing at a cliff. Cliffed out.

Backtracked, dropped below what I thought was the ramp, and now stared up at this massive rock feature. In person, it was way bigger than expected.

Knife Edge & Downclimb

Kept scrambling until I reached the slabby knife edge. There was a chute off one side that could’ve gotten me to safer terrain, but the downclimb on the slab didn’t look too bad. Good feet, a couple decent rests, exposed on both sides but manageable.

I faced in, made a few careful moves, traversed, and got down onto flatter rock. Looked back at the other option and felt I made the right call.

The Crux (5.7)

A little while later, I reached the crux—a short wall rated 5.7. Looked up and immediately thought: Man, I need to start climbing and learning some actual technique.

I haven’t done technical climbing before, and this move looked intimidating. I stood there about 30 seconds planning it out.

Eventually, I:

• Wedged my left foot into the crack (pushing left)

• Got my left hand on a decent hold

• Reached across to the right wall and shoved my foot up

• Found two solid hand holds above

• Rested my right knee on a small ledge

• Did a sort of muscle-up move onto a flatter area

It was definitely a little scary. I probably looked like a total noob, but I made it up. Right after, I saw stuff where people had rappelled off before.

The Slab & Notch (hard for me I couldn't get down it)

From there, I scrambled to a steep slab that dropped into a notch. Had small holds, and I sat for a minute trying to figure it out.

Tried facing in to downclimb, got a foot or two down, but couldn’t figure out a good line. So I scrambled back up, dropped about 10 feet, and skirted around on the east side on some looser terrain to reach the notch. ascending it doesn't look like it would prove too difficult.

Kinda sucked to not stay perfectly direct, but I think it was smart.

After the climb, I started googling and found Anton Krupicka’s blog post where he describes this exact same section:

"I dropped into a notch and was faced with a steep, slabby wall. There were a few small holds, however, and they eased off considerably after maybe only 15' or so. So without much pause I stepped on, smeared, and scampered up to lower angle terrain. It felt like 5.4 to me. A few yards later and I was on top of the tower, though, and confronted with a steep drop that I could only assume was the 5.7 bit I had read about."

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think I hit that exact same spot, just in reverse. I snapped some pics of it too. He went from Harvard to Columbia, so it lines up.

Final Push to Harvard

After the slab, the scrambling continues. I kept thinking the worst was over but the ridge just keeps throwing stuff at you. Finally made it to a flat grassy area where the standard trail picks back up.

From there, I slogged up the trail and topped out on Harvard at 9:35 AM. What a relief.

Descent

Headed down Harvard and got some killer views of the ridge from this angle. Looked wild.

Finally got to water, filtered up, and drank like a camel. Much needed.

Overall Thoughts

This was a long, tiring, and super fun day. Honestly surprised the direct ridge route isn’t talked about more.

It’s got:

• Class 4+ scrambling with a 5.7 crux

• exposure

• Hands-on movement for long stretches

For me, I feel mentally and physically warmed up now for Capitol. This was exactly the kind of challenge I needed prior to taking on the beast.