8-12-17

On Cloud 9! :-)

Back to our hike up Mt. Columbia (8/9). We started in the dark at 4:30am. The first 3 miles were through pine trees & aspens only gaining about 1,000 ft. Then we hit the steep ascent with 3,000 more feet to go!

The low fog was magical.

The hike up was cold so we put on all our warm clothes. We also wore our hiking helmets for any rock fall or slips. The risk is pretty low but on sections where it's steeper & loose it sure doesn't hurt.
Plus Bob looks GOOOOD!

Pano Pic

Walking the last stretch along the ridge. There's a nice cairn (rock pyramid) to show us the best path to the summit. Mt. Columbia is on the right and that is Mt. Harvard in the distant left. I climbed Mt. Harvard in 2013 with Rich (it's another long & tough 14er).

Mt. Columbia slopes were spotted with some beautiful succulents. We really haven't seen succulents on other mountains & these were so perfect & happy. Made us smile.

The top!

First we hunkered down behind the summit rock wall. It was nice to be out of the wind & eat some cheez-its & a PB&J.

Grabbed "the sign" to record the mountain.

Mt. Columbia

14,073 ft

August 9, 2017

Blue sky above the peaks.

We had great visibility & were able to spot The Maroon Bells all the way in Aspen!

We identified a few other 14ers which is always fun.

Last summit pic & down we go...

Had to take a photo of these "Pomzilla" plants we called them. Click on the pic to see it larger. They looked like little monsters growing from a thistle. Certain sections of the mountain they were plentiful.

This Pomzilla got aggressive - thinking that Bob looked like a good snack. I saved him. ;-) 

The more gentile state flowers are pretty. This is the only patch of Columbine flowers we saw on our 3 days hiking. 

Mt. Columbia complete. 11 miles round trip. 4,200 ft of climbing. Two thumbs up for this peak.

#19 for Bob. #28 for me.