Date: June 17 and 18, 2016
Location: Collegiate Peaks Wilderness Area
Distance: 12 miles round trip
Cumulative Elevation Gain: 4,500 feet+/-
Weather: Highs in the 70s, lows in the upper 30s. Didn’t see a single cloud the entire trip.
Group: Devin and Mat
Due to some work and family commitments, we had to bypass our original plans for our June hike. Instead, we did a quick trip up Mount Harvard in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness Area. Mount Harvard has an elevation of 14,420 feet and is the third highest peak in the Rocky Mountains and the fourth highest summit in the contiguous United States.
We didn’t get out of Denver until about 4PM and reached the trailhead at about 7:30PM. We hiked till about 9PM when it started getting hard to see the trail.
The trail follows Cottonwood Creek for a few miles before turning north to follow Horn Fork Creek into the Horn Fork Basin.
The moon was nearly full and shining brightly next to a few stars.
We woke up fairly early and were on the trail at 5:45AM. The trail was covered in water in many places (sometimes frozen).
We were expecting to hit a fair bit of snow, but it really wasn’t too bad. We could typically walk across it and only sank past our knees a few times.
Looking towards Mount Columbia.
Bear Lake, shown below, was still mostly frozen at an elevation of 12,400 feet.
Somewhere around 13,000 or 13,500 feet, we came across a mountain goat that was out for a casual, morning walk.
We continued the climb up (with frequent breathers) through a mix of rocks (vast majority of the trail), snow, and ice.
We ditched my pack and our overnight gear part way up next to a big cairn and used Devin’s pack to haul some snacks and water. At 9:00AM we reached the summit.
Altimeter reads 14,420 feet. Not the best photo in the world, but let’s blame it on the lack of O2.
After hanging out at the summit for about 30 minutes, we headed back down and made up some time by glissading (fancy term for sliding on your pants till you go numb in places that have never been numb before). The snow was slushy enough that we were generally in control on the way down.
Look closely to see glissading paths down the snow.
