Mount Columbia

  • Mount Columbia
  • 4289 m.
  • Primary factor 272 m.
  • 35th in Colorado
  • Location: North 38:54.236, West 106:17.850
  • Climbed August 27, 2000

Information:

How to get there: The access road starts out in Buena Vista, see Mount Harvard.
Route description: See the description under Mount Harvard.
Comments: My son Pål Jørgen (11 years) and Jenni Søbstad climbed this route with me. We climbed this mountain from Rabbit Ridge, coming from the summit of Mt. Harvard. The first part of the ridge descending from Mt. Harvard is very pleasant, passing a distinct rock spire to the right (west). The ridge itself (the low section) is quite entertaining in places, with slightly more difficulty the closer to the (top of) the ridge one tries to stay. Beware of some rotten rock near the rabbit itself. There are two main rock formations on the ridge that cannot easily be climbed, both can be passed on the left (east) side. The first formation requires dropping off the ridge to the left, however only to the base of the almost vertical rock. (There are numerous traces of climbers that have decended much further down.) The second rock formation is the characteristic rabbit itself. We climbed up a small gully on the left (east), right next to the vertical rabbit wall. This gully has loose rock and one should do it one at a time in order to avoid rocks hitting climbers below. Once at the top of this passage, the ridge can be followed on the very top the rest of the way with good rocks/stones. In fact, one arrives on a very nice grassy section ending in the final summit ridge, again with good footing among larger rocks.

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