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Three hearty GMS climbers (Jim Cossitt, Jason Wilkes and Stephen Smith) successfully scaled Columbia Mountain, which is always a great choice for a spring warm-up. Orion, Jim's chocolate lab, also joined the summit team. Brenda Griswold joined us for most of the outing, as well. With the soft snow conditions on the upper half of the mountain, the team struggled upwards, experiencing snow depths thigh-deep in places. Hopes of finding consolidated spring snow slabs deteriorated, but we continued to work upwards, taking turns breaking trail. We enjoyed partially-obscured summit views as the weather was moody for most of the day but mostly favorable. For the descent, the goal was to glissade 1,600 ft down the prominent avalanche chute just south of the summit, so on the way up we had marked the chute exit at 5600 ft to re-gain the trail easily. As it turns out, Brenda was waiting for us at that point so we had no trouble finding it. The glissade was a little slower this year due to the snow conditions but nevertheless was a productive, enjoyable choice of descent and an opportunity to brush up on safe glissading techniques. Jim's watch calculated this climb as 4,900 ft of elevation gain so it is no give-away. This climb is highly recommended, but wait for a day with good views - spring or fall are best. All photos were taken by Jason Wilkes - thanks Jason! Have some photos from this event that you'd like to share in our photo album? Please forward them to Tim Anderson at twamontana@gmail.com. Please note that we prefer to receive the photos in approximately 640x480 or 750x500 pixels - do NOT send original high-res photos. If you have a LOT of photos, please submit up to twenty of your favorites (only) for a day event, or up to forty of your favourites for a multi-day event. Thank you. |
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