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Mt. Columbia – May 13, 2001(West Flank to South Ridge)
With a successful climb of Mt. Sherman the day befor, we overnighted in Buena Vista and planned to set off for Columbia early the next morning. We left the North Cottonwood trailhead at 4 a.m. and were on snowshoes within 1/4 mile of the start. The trail crosses along the flank of a side slope soon afterward and this slope was deep in snow that morning. We kicked steps across the slope and then Gary led on to the bridged stream crossing and then on to the Horn Fork Basin. After the bridge, the trail was untracked and Gary’s route finding was excellent. With perhaps three hours of climbing behind us, we were at the base of Mt. Columbia. Our original plan was to make a snow climb up one of the west face couloirs but the flank of the peak was wind scoured so we instead chose to ascend the west flank. We left the trail and bushwhacked to a small basin where we snacked and dropped the snowshoes and extra gear for the later trip out. We ascended the west flank in what seemed like an interminable climb until we reached the south ridge leading toward the summit. The clouds were rolling past and accordingly we did not waste any time in traversing the ridge to climb the snow covered summit cone. We descended via the same route and picked up the snowshoes that would be needed to descend the basin. Gary and I had discussed a traverse to Harvard via Rabbit Ridge but the upper Horn Fork Basin was deep in snow and the temperatures were high enough to make the exit from the upper basin a postholing hell even with snowshoes. We made a slow but steady pace toward the trailhead and everyone was beat by the time we reached the trailhead. The climb had taken a full twelve hours but everyone in the group had scored a new summit for their efforts.
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