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North Cottonwood Trailhead
South Face Direct
Jeff Shafer, Don Holt, & Brian Kooienga
3:00 am came pretty early on saturday since I was out til' 11:00 at the 14erworld party Friday night, which was a great time. Kudos to Steve and everyone else who made it possible. The drive up to the trailhead from Buena Vista was not too bad, however in the early morning light, I could see that all the high peaks were shrouded in clouds. Even with the snow over the trail (3"-4"), we seemed to make pretty good time up to the Basin. The route finding was not difficult at all up to that point. Once up in the basin, the clouds cleared for maybe a minute or two. It was just enought time for me to get a few pictures. We had a great view of Columbia and the connecting ridge, but Harvard never showed itself as it was still blanketed in white. The clouds moved back in and at around 12,000', visibility deteriorated dramatically to about 50 yards or less.
With the brief opening of the skies, we had a general sense of where we needed to go, but the best we could do is use our compass in tandem with a altimeter, and a map of course. Needless to say, there was a lot of educated guesswork going on up in the Horn Fork basin on Saturday. Eventually, we came in contact with one of the smaller alpine lakes and our altimter was reading 12,700'. With the map, we were pretty sure we were at the upper of the three lakes and had to begin angling northwest to hook up with Harvard's south ridge. The slope to our west was one giant boulderfield which was a complete mess to try and climb. We eventually decided to follow the drainage above the upper lake. This put us directly onto Harvard's south face. Again, we had a good idea of where we were, but had no clue as to where the summit was. If we popped up onto the ridge, we would have no idea which way to go, left or right, to take us to the summit. The snow going up the face was maybe 3 feet deep in places, but overall it was not too bad. I wasn't using snow shoes and sunk in maybe a foot on average. Although there wasn't any serious post-holing going on, it really did slow our progress. We finally made it to 14,000' feet, and still did not have a general sense of where the summit was. One member of the group decided he'd had enough for the day, and turned back. Based on our elevation, we knew we were close to the summit ridge and decided to press on. Earlier, we had set a turn around time and were getting close to that number. We were also worried about some bad weather moving in. After climbing for another 15 minutes or so, a house sized cairn came into view and we were both extremely happy (and relieved!). We couldn't have topped out in a better spot, right next to the Harvard's rocky summit cone. Just got lucky I guess. The final scramble to the summit was a little tricky as a lot of the rock was covered in a thin layer of ice. But at that point, we we were real psyched about being so close. With a few careful moves, we were finally on top. We stayed for only 10 minutes. The last person to sign the register was on November 7th. I wondered to myself how many more would venture up there until the spring.
Even though the visibility that day was probably the worst I've ever encountered, the tempretures were quite comfortable and there was hardly any wind. Thankfully, the weather held off until we were back to the car. On the way down, we managed to follow the standard route. Say what you will about those house sized cairns, but they certainly saved our ass that day. We were back in the basin pretty quickly. For some reason, the remainder of the hike seemed to last forever. I can't explain it, but that remaining 5 miles or whatever it is seemed to take an inordinate amount of time. We were double-timing down as well. Just as I began to question if we'd ever get back, we crossed the bridge over North Cottonwood Creek and I knew we were close.
This was one of the tougher days I've had in the mountains. I wasn't expecting it be easy or anything. After all, it is mid-November. I was certainly relieved to have made it to the summit. All the work (and a lot of luck) had paid off. I'm pretty sure this will be my last 14er for the year. I'm really glad to have finished the year with such a rewarding summit. Only 13 more to go. Spring can't come soon enough. Until then, my skis will get me through the winter. Honestly, where is there a better place to live than here in Colorado!! |
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