Harvard-Columbia standard traverse or "direct"

[sherby]

I've seen many reports on how of a slog is the standard traverse and a few hinting at a direct route while "sneaking" the rabbits i.e. avoiding the 5.7 crux (here, on MP, etc.).

What is the general opinion at this point on this route?

[justiner]

I've done the direct, and it was hard. I'll have an opinion on the sneak on the direct if I ever do it The exposure is pretty serious.

[daway8]

This post caught my eye because I was still needing lap 2 for Harvard but wasn't all that excited about it. But I was sold as soon as I saw class 5 rabbits!

Turns out, yes, you can easily bypass the Rabbit - if you want to skip a really wicked bunny - but the crux of the route is a ways before that when going from Harvard to Columbia if staying ridge proper.

There's a bunch of fun towers and scrambling and then, all of a sudden you're standing atop a sheer drop. There was a psuedo-ledge of sorts on the left that shrunk down basically to a crack. I almost worked up the nerve to give it a try but ended up backing up, and working down the right (west) side only to find myself continually over sheer drops.

I ended up dropping around 100ft and scaling across a cliff on a crack to get to the base of a huge, steep slab that I put on climbing shoes to get up and regain the ridge at a battered knife edge.

Not too far after that is the Rabbit - it's freaking huge!! Left side looked like loose garbage but right side is easy to go around. How justiner managed to go straight up that beast of a bunny is beyond me! I went around towards the back right (west) side and found a slabby ramp of sorts and, after a couple mantle moves, got up into the middle of the rabbit ears. The west ear had a little ledge that I almost went for to tackle the final 15 feet but wasn't confident about being able to come back down. For the east ear, I just couldn't see any viable way up that thing. I settled for standing between the ears.

So all in all, this is a hundred times more fun than the standard "traverse" (improperly named in my opinion since you climb Harvard, then drop basically all the way off the mountain, walk along what's basically the valley floor - opposite of the trail up Harvard - and then climb up Columbia - how does that even count as a "traverse"?!?)

But beware that, especially if you stay ridge proper, you're going to encounter at least some occasional class 5. Many of the towers you could probably bypass but sometimes that would possibly put you in steep, loose choss. At the crux downclimb (Harvard to Columbia) there wasn't an obvious bypass and the west side got pretty sketchy. Might possibly have been an easier bypass on the east - not sure.

Also be warned that it's 2 miles from one peak to the next - twice as long as the Little Bear - Blanca Traverse, which I did recently. Call me crazy, but I thought there was much more scrambling involved on Harvard-Columbia (if staying ridge proper) than on LB-B.

I might possibly write up a trip report on this one, though I kinda just did, lol.

[justiner]

No, I didn't climb the rabbit ears, I just used the same ramp as you. From Harvard, the crux comes before the rabbit ears, and is a 20' or crack. "you're standing atop a sheer drop" sounds about right.

[justiner]

Here's an absolutely terrible, unhelpful video that shows the crux from the bottom (going Col -> Har). I think the sneak would be off on viewer's right I guess. Left, which I keep panning down, seems very exposed to me,

[justiner]

I also did the math a billion years ago, to see just how much mileage and elevation you save taking the ridge. Turned out not a lot, which is why you don't see any/many Nolan's 14 runners do it (also it seems to be in the middle of the night when you hit this section).

But, the mileage and elevation you save from doing the East Ridge of Missouri in comparison is quite worth it, so you see the fastest times now to the east ridge,

https://justinsimoni.com/2019/08/31/nol ... i-harvard/

[daway8]

Here's an absolutely terrible, unhelpful video that shows the crux from the bottom (going Col -> Har). I think the sneak would be off on viewer's right I guess. Left, which I keep panning down, seems very exposed to me,

Yes, that's the crux - neither the video (nor my photos) seem to capture the size of it very well.

The slab down to the left when the video first starts is what I ended up down at the bottom of after dropping down off the ridge from above the crux. It was quite exposed and I was glad a friend had suggested tossing my climbing shoes in my pack so I could get up if comfortably.

No, I didn't climb the rabbit ears, I just used the same ramp as you. From Harvard, the crux comes before the rabbit ears, and is a 20' or crack. "you're standing atop a sheer drop" sounds about right.

Ok, if you had gone straight up the face of that thing from the Harvard side I would have been amazed! Here's a remote controlled selfie of me standing at the base of the Rabbit looking up (the ears are mostly hidden from this angle) with my orange helmet showing up as a speck.

Screenshot_20240807-075000.png (417.3 KiB) Viewed 1129 times

[Jorts]

Daway, I have a mediocre trip report of the crux bypasses here:

https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... m=tripmine

Though I went from Columbia.

[daway8]

Daway, I have a mediocre trip report of the crux bypasses here:

https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... m=tripmine

Though I went from Columbia.

Ok, I was thinking in retrospect that if I had come from Columbia instead of Harvard that the crux might have seemed more viable as something to climb up than a blind descent. I was *almost* willing to give the downclimb a shot but ended up with what was ultimately probably an even more sketchy route bypassing on the west side.

You appear to have found a much easier bypass on the east side, which I didn't get a chance to investigate since I had already committed myself too much on the west to easily revert.

Too bad I didn't do my typical research prior to doing this climb - a little extra beta such as in your TR could have made this much smoother. But at the same time, it was kinda nice to tackle the challenge of a route like this with almost no knowledge other than the couple of comments at the start of this thread.