Missouri standard - arguable class 3?

[LarryM]

A mountain's overarching class ratings are, as I understand it, based on the hardest move(s), typically on the easiest overall route. By that standard, Harvard is in absolutely no way Class 3. I have no doubt most people approaching from the standard route get up to that final jumble of boulders and decide to just send it, but if you continue around the boulders to climber's right until you reconnect with the ridge (as if you were going on to Columbia from there), you can then cross over to the other side of the ridge and follow a super easy-breezy (actually, the first time I did it, more like super dusty-gusty) Class 2 path to the summit. This option is way more obvious if you're coming from Frenchman Creek, since you're coming up between Columbia and Harvard anyway, but you might find other challenges at play since the only way a seemingly rational individual would consider Frenchman Creek is if they were attempting Harvard in the winter, which throws that seeming rationality into question all by itself.

So THAT'S the class 2 route on Harvard? Truth is I probably still would have picked the (brief, easy) class 3 alternative.

To be clear, my comment about Harvard that started this was mostly meant to stir the pot, but I was legitimately curious just how the class 3 could have been avoided (though I knew there had to be a way). Now I know.

[14ercooper]

There's also a fairly hidden class 2+ line up to the left, but if you don't know it's there, it's super easy to miss.

[HikesInGeologicTime]

A mountain's overarching class ratings are, as I understand it, based on the hardest move(s), typically on the easiest overall route. By that standard, Harvard is in absolutely no way Class 3. I have no doubt most people approaching from the standard route get up to that final jumble of boulders and decide to just send it, but if you continue around the boulders to climber's right until you reconnect with the ridge (as if you were going on to Columbia from there), you can then cross over to the other side of the ridge and follow a super easy-breezy (actually, the first time I did it, more like super dusty-gusty) Class 2 path to the summit. This option is way more obvious if you're coming from Frenchman Creek, since you're coming up between Columbia and Harvard anyway, but you might find other challenges at play since the only way a seemingly rational individual would consider Frenchman Creek is if they were attempting Harvard in the winter, which throws that seeming rationality into question all by itself.

So THAT'S the class 2 route on Harvard? Truth is I probably still would have picked the (brief, easy) class 3 alternative.

To be clear, my comment about Harvard that started this was mostly meant to stir the pot, but I was legitimately curious just how the class 3 could have been avoided (though I knew there had to be a way). Now I know.

I prefer to avoid scrambling as much as possible, so while I'm not sure it saved any time (in fact, I'm pretty sure even I could have grunted, grumbled, and groaned my way up that Class 3 in way less time than it took me to go as far as was necessary to fully circumvent it), I was keen to find whatever option existed that kept Harvard at a Class 2 rating. It also helped that NOAA had predicted wind gusts up to 55 mph the first time I made it that far up that mountain, and it sure felt like they underestimated that by the time I got to the base of the summit boulders, so I didn't feel like I needed any sort of extra credit for that summit.

I felt compelled to put my description in this thread in case anyone else reads this before going up Harvard's standard route and finds themselves staring in despair at those boulders while thinking, "This sure isn't Class 2! Damn you, Bill Middlebrook!" Not that that was my very own initial reaction to staring at those summit boulders or anything, hahaha!

[two lunches]

There's also a fairly hidden class 2+ line up to the left, but if you don't know it's there, it's super easy to miss.

i didn't think it was any worse than the boulder-hopping the top of columbia, but we might have just gotten lucky

guess that makes up for some of the UNlucky route issues ive had on other peaks. looking at you, east buffalo...