"Set out to do Columbia yesterday, but we turned around at the summit block. We met a group of skiers who had camped on the far side of the trench and they gave it a go in the morning. They bootpacked about 1/3 of the way, encountered some windslab and called it a day. It was disappointing to get that far only to turn around so we thought we would at least take a look. At some point between meeting the other skiers and making it to the summit block, there was a smallish, but still considerable release that covered the other party's bootpack. We could also see signs of windslab higher up. We turned around and slogged back to the parking lot. We'll be back, hopefully under better conditions." — mike_rogers81 • May 31, 2021

"Trust the SPOTWx forecast and it did exactly what it said it was going to do. Departed at 2am in +5C. Up through the icefall in the dark for the first time. Cloud and hail at 6am had us doubting. But you could see the sunshine on the peaks to the far west. One of 5 parties ascending Columbia. Cloud top on summit finally broke as we stepped over the cornice onto it. Had epic ski/climb descent. Full on 16.5 hour day with CSMC friends. Highly recommended." — alexjoseph • May 16, 2021

"To the Top of Alberta in a Day - Mount Columbia May 19, 2021 Not that long ago I became aware of Alberta’s highest peak, Mount Columbia. At 3,747 meters it is Alberta’s Highest Peak, and is the 2nd highest of the Canadian Rockies. To summit, requires much Glacier Travel, good weather conditions and good timing. It is a summit that is on the “to do list” of most mountaineers, and many never get it ‘bagged’. In the past weeks, friend and trip leader Alex, has been monitoring the weather models closely. In the lasat days prior to Sunday, he put together a group of 6 who he knew were keen and motivated to ‘get to the top’ of Alberta! We car camped Saturday night at the Columbia Icefields Trailhead. I set my Alarm for 1:25am, and we were off at 2:07am walking to the toe of the glacier. Before sunrise, we were above ‘the crux’ of the day - the dangerous crevasse filled icefall, and away from the potential falling seracs. About 14km later of glacier travel infrequently in cloud and hail and much up and down vertical gain, all we had left was the steep push to the summit (in the clouds). As we book packed these final 400m, Alex was hopeful the cloud would dissipate and we w..." — BryonHoward • May 16, 2021

"Ski touring marathon: single day push from car to car, 42.8km with 2,560m gain in 15hrs return. Great weather, solid night freeze, bluebird day with summer hot sun, isothermal snow by the end of the day. Was the slowest in the group, a recipe for that: - don't go to the mountains for a month - during that month, spend a week at sea level - get some sleep deprivation - be a Guinea pig at UofC for some sports research that includes quite a bit of cycling, as well as kicking, pushing, pulling (i.e. loading the flexors). The altitude really kicked my after 3,300m. Overall, great day and glad to remove this one off my list." — alexp • May 9, 2019

"Skied and climbed up Mt Columbia on Sunday May 13th from a camp below Snow Dome on the Columbia Icefield. Weather conditions were near perfect. An overnight frost and temps in the low single digits through the morning. Minimal balling of crampons during the descent. It was getting a bit hot by the time we returned to camp and the snow was starting to get a bit slushy. We left our camp at 5:30 and summited around 10:30am. The climb up the face took about 2 hours and we spent about a 1/2 hour on the summit before descending. We returned to camp around 3pm." — MichaelDyck • May 13, 2018

"Great travel conditions on the glacier. East face had begun to soften up until the sun skirted around, had some good snow for the steep haul up. Brought skis to 3720m. Ski down was dicey! Lots of wind crust and ice. A huge day with 2439m of total gain and 41km. Super painful! My highest summit to date. Stoked. " — jakefinnan • May 12, 2018

"A casual exchange of emails on Friday led us driving up to Athabasca Glacier parking lot on Sunday evening to do Mt Columbia in a day. Bedded down looking up at sunset on Mt Athabasca north face on a clear, moonless night on the pavement with other climbers and skiiers gathering for a Monday ascent. Woken up after an hour as the Yamnuska Athabasca camp was gathering at 12:45am for an ascent with a group of 14. Slept for another 1.5hr for a 2:20am wakeup. On the skis at 3:15am ascending the Athabasca Glacier in the dark by headlamp. Took the bench and left up through icefall which felt super benign and avoided the seracs. 4C and great frozen snow travel to the trench when things got warm. For the next few hours the wind died and temperatures under bluebird skies went to 29C which was debilitating. It was hot all the way up the 400m kick steps to the summit. Cold and 2C with north wind but incredible views from the top and huge cornice with all kinds of footprints - scary! Summitted after 3pm but rapid descent took us back to the car by 7pm with a snow melt water stop at the trench and descended the Athabasca in 1 hr (5km descent!!!) using skiers right and had a terrifying moment whe..." — alexjoseph • May 22, 2017

"Skied in from the toe of the Athabasca glacier, camped high on the near side of the trench and summited after building camp. Perfect travel conditions and weather - essential zero wind on the icefield and lower than 20 km/h on the summit. Topped out around 730pm and got a spectacular sunset show on the slog back to camp. " — BobbyG • May 20, 2017