| Mount Columbia | |
| Elevation Ft: | 14077 |
| Elevation Ref: | [1] [2] |
| Prominence Ft: | 893 |
| Prominence Ref: | [3] |
| Isolation Mi: | 1.90 |
| Listing: | Colorado Fourteener 35th |
| Location: | Chaffee County, Colorado, U.S.[4] |
| Range: | Sawatch Range, Collegiate Peaks |
| Parent Peak: | Mount Harvard |
| Map: | Colorado |
| Coordinates: | 38.9039°N -106.2975°W |
| Topo: | USGS 7.5' topographic map Mount Columbia, Colorado |
| First Ascent: | 1916 by Roger Toll |
| Easiest Route: | West Slopes: Hike, [5] |
Mount Columbia is a high mountain summit of the Collegiate Peaks in the Sawatch Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The 14077feet fourteener is located in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness of San Isabel National Forest, 16km (10miles) northwest by west (bearing 301°) of the Town of Buena Vista in Chaffee County, Colorado, United States. The mountain was named by Roger W. Toll in honor of his alma mater, Columbia University,[1] [2] [3] [4] and in commemoration of its rowing victory at the renowned Henley Royal Regatta in 1878.[6]
Along with nearby Mount Harvard, Mount Yale, Mount Princeton, and Mount Oxford, Mount Columbia is one of five Collegiate Peaks named for prominent universities. Due to a notoriously challenging scree field located on the standard route, Mount Columbia is usually only climbed by those wishing to climb all of Colorado's fourteeners. The forest service recommends that hikers take the user-created Horn Fork Basin Route, an 11-mile roundtrip that gains 5,800 feet in elevation. The area near the scree field is severely eroded, and although there are efforts to build a new trail to replace the current user-created trail, the formal trail has not yet been completed.[7]