At 11:15 AM 8/31/99 -0700, you wrote:
> If it's not to much trouble could you give me route information,
>particularly any info on trouble descents or ascents, or things you'd
>do differently next time, as well as any other important advice about
>the course you can think of?
Happy to, Steve! We started from the Blank Cabin monument at 6:05 am, following a good trail to the top of Shavano. We got there at 8:17 am. The traverse to Tabeguache (8:53 am) is straightforward. We dropped down the scree slope NW of 13936. You'll get wet feet crossing the marshy area in Browns Creek. We headed up one of the grassy gullys to the prospects at 13100 on Antero - easy walking. The 4WD road and final trail to Antero is easy. We got to the summit at 11:50 am. On the way down from the 13100 prospects, we cut down the gully to avoid the switchbacks on the 4WD road, then picked up the road and followed it down to Alpine, arriving there at 1:25 pm.
We followed the road through Alpine to where it begins to swing around the aluvial fan of Grouse Canyon, then picked up a old, faint miner's road to near the mouth of the canyon, at which point we picked up a route marked with ducks on the left side of the canyon. This stayed above the canyon, climbing steeply, and eventually leaves you looking down on the tops of the tall trees in Grouse Canyon. The faint trail eventually works its way back into Grouse Canyon where the canyon levels out some and gets meadowy. We then cut up to the right, following faint animal trails, and eventually reached the ridge south of point 13971 at about 13000. Here, Fred had recommended that we stay off the ridge, which is exposed, and traverse across the talus slopes below the ridge until we could pick up the saddle immediately east of 13971. Big mistake! The talus slopes were a nightmare to traverse. We eventually climbed a difficult chute and rib to 13971, and saw that the ridge would have been much easier. The climb to Princeton was straightforward, but the rocks were slippery in the drizzle. We got there at 5:36 pm.
A suggestion here: stay off the talus and stay on grassy slopes when possible. Rocks covered with lichen (most of the rocks, that is) become really slippery when wet - be careful! Loose scree is easier to descend than rocky slopes, but harder to ascend.
We started to pick up some lightning nearby and cut down off the summit ridge as soon as possible at the first minor saddle, descending to Maxwell Creek (where we had intended to go anyway, just not so soon). This was a difficult descent. Around the 12200 contour, you'll get into some short aspens that are hard to bushwack through - stay on the talus to the right to avoid them. Just below the aspens are the ruins of three old miner cabins in a beautiful spot. Pick up a faint trail to the right of them, and follow this down and eventually out of the canyon bottom to the left. The trail switchbacks down through the forest, and eventually disappears, but just continue down 'til you hit the Colorado Trail, which you can follow all the way to Avalanche Gulch on Middle Cottonwood Creek, just above Rainbow Lake. We got there at 9:47 pm, and got out at 10:30 pm.
Follow the Colorado Trail up Avalance Gulch to the Mt. Yale ridge, then follow the ridge up to the summit. There are many false summits that will discourage you! We got to Yale at 3:25 am, in a drizzle.
Head down into the basin to the north of Yale - it's a straightforward descent anywhere. Go down the basin and go to 13105, then follow the ridge down to the saddle before 12619. Then head down the basin to the north, mostly on grass. There are many shards of an airplane crash in this basin. You can pick up a trail that traverses this basin to the NW, but don't follow it too far - you want to follow the chute at the bottom of the basin. This is pretty rough - lots of avalanche debris. Follow it down to North Cottonwood Creek and find a log to cross. Find the trail junction and follow the trail up toward Horn Fork Basin. We got there at 6:40 am, and found that the aid station had left already.
Just past the first creek crossing (1/4 mi above the junction) we headed straight up the slope. This was a very steep, difficult scramble for the first 1200 vertical feet, then merely a pleasant walk up a steep grassy slope to the ridge. Follow the ridge to Columbia's summit - there were lots of false summits in the fog when we were there, but they might not fool you in clear weather. We got to the summit at 10:38 am. The ridge was very windy and cold.
We headed down the rocky slope directly to the north off the summit, but this was very difficult on the slippery rocks. It would have been easier to stick to the ridge to the left, to the saddle before 13437 (13457?). We eventually followed a difficult route down to a grassy meadow at about 12200, deciding that it would be easier than traversing the rocky talus at 12800 below the cliffs. I'd do it again, but would swing to more to the right of the basin north of Columbia's summit to stay on the grassy slopes.
Follow the grassy slopes (easy walking) up to the summit ridge of Harvard at about 14000. Don't climb to the top of the obvious peak on the summit ridge - it's a false summit. Stay lower and swing around onto the talus slopes to the left. Traverse these below the cliffs, past a notch in the ridge, until you find some ducks leading up the cliffs. Gordon and I missed this in the snow and fog, and had a difficult traverse back and forth across the talus slope, eventually relying on Gordon's GPS to figure out where we were in relation to the summit. It looked like it would have been much easier to go to the right of the first false summit, and approach the true summit from the north side of the summit ridge. We got to the summit in a snowstorm at 3:31 pm.
From the summit, it's a straightforward descent on the north slopes and ridge over slippery rocks. After descending to where the ridge steepens at about 13800, we swung to the right to pick up the grassy slopes, and headed toward a small lake at about 11800, but swung left across the creek before reaching it to avoid the brush. We eventually crossed back across the stream when it got steep, and picked up a good climber's trail that switchbacked down the rib to the right of the creek. We followed this all the way down to Pine Creek, which we forded at about 5:45 pm. The aid station that was supposed to be there wasn't, but we had expected that, and had already decided that safety demanded that we hike out along Pine Creek - about 8 miles from there to the highway.
Hope this helps, Steve. Good luck, be careful, and have fun!
- Blake