Jul 13, 2018 — Follow North Cottonwood Creek on an easy to follow trail to the summit of Mt. Harvard. Along the way, a spur trail shoots off to visit Bear Lake, if you're so inclined. From Mt. Harvard's summit (a Class 2+ move required to get up there), take in the views of Mt. Belford and Mt. Oxford to the north, and Mt. Columbia to the south. Then, head east along the obvious ridge, just south of the ridge itself, on a social trail. Eventually, you'll get to a terrifying-looking sawtooth ridge that looks like Class 4 or 5 (maybe) if you decide to continue along. However, you can easily avoid the ridge by heading east and losing a few hundred feet of elevation just below the ridge. Try to keep as high above the boulder field as you can - no reason to lose extra elevation. I actually found cairns most of the way, but you don't really need them. Just hug the ridgeline and continue to the summit of Mt. Columbia. From the summit, continue along the ridgeline for a bit until you locate the standard route up Mt. Columbia, which was just awful to go down. I believe they are working on creating a trail that will reduce the erosion, so keep that in mind if you're doing this route in the future - my track down Mt. Columbia could be closed to make way for a true trail.
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