Oh man! This was an epic! After a poor night of sleep (and a 7k ft gain day 2 days prior), we decided to do the Harvard/Columbia traverse. We were slow moving in the morning due to the lack of sleep, but we started early enough that we were arriving at Harvard around the same time as the rest of the world. After a short break, we continued on to Columbia. At first, it wasn't too bad, but then we came to the part where you have to descend to/below 12,800 ft. The descent was steep and unpleasant, but what came next was the worst - the talus filed from hell! We were already exhausted, but had to cross, then climb this ridiculously large talus field. It was the slowest and most dejected that either of us felt on the whole trip, but we kept moving. Eventually, we reached the summit of Columbia about 13 hours after we started (lol). We were joined by another group that was lucky enough to be camped below and had family waiting with dinner. Our time at the summit with them was pleasant, but we had to push on. The descent of Columbia was also slow. The upper part of the trail was super steep and we were sliding quite a bit. Luckily, CFI (Colorado Fourteeners Initiative) has been doing some trail work below, so the second half of the descent was considerably better. We were amazed at the work they had done! Once we finally reached the base of the mountain, we started the long slog back to the trailhead, which seemed to take forever. We had our eyes on La Plata for the next day, but we were so spent, we decided against it.

***Note - my second set of batteries died before we returned to the car, hence the wonky GPS track.