Conditions on Harvard and Columbia standard routes have already been posted, so will skip those. As for the traverse itself: long story short, do yourself a favor and don't do it in the shoulder season! The first part, from Harvard all the way through the descent to 12,800' was manageable, with only occasional pockets of deeper snow to negotiate. After that is when things get really interesting. The traverse across the NE-facing slopes below the north shoulder of Columbia (Point 13497) was a nightmare of boulders ranging in size from normal talus to house-sized, covered in anywhere from one to three feet of completely unconsolidated, sugary snow (and sometimes ice underneath). We were occasionally able to see cairns, but they really only offer psychological assistance. It took us over two hours of all-out effort to cover less than a mile of this..and our boot track is likely gone after whatever snow/wind event happened Sun night-Mon. Finally summitted Columbia around 6 PM and raced down along the ridge to find the W Slopes descent route just before the last rays of sun disappeared. A 14-hour day in total, and ~17 miles per GPS. In hindsight, would've been much better to do as the other gentleman who posted conditions reports for H and C did, and do each one separately...oh well, lessons learned 
|
