Mount Harvard 5.17.08
I’m really not sure what to say. As many of you know, I’ve been skiing a lot of fourteeners the last couple of years, and Harvard ended up being the last. I’m not sure what I feel about that right now, one thing I know for sure is that nothing is “done”- I’ve still got so many peaks left to climb and ski, some of them over 14k, some of them not. Another thing I know is that it’s been a heck of a journey.
I’ll end up leaving somebody or something out, so I’ll say this: Thanks to everyone who gave me a place to crash, or posted a TR or answered a pm with helpful beta, or skied a peak with me, or helped in any other way. Thanks to all of you.
“Don’t get me wrong; you won’t see me skiing Bross or Sherman anytime soon”
—That’s what I posted almost 2 years ago to the day, 5-19-08. Of course, about a week later I skied my first peak with Brittany, and the next thing you know, I’m skiing Bross and Sherman (which were actually really fun, like all the 14ers). So that’s how it was for me- I was hitting some of the fun lines here and there, and then all of a sudden I was ticking them off one by one, as fast as I could. So thanks, Brittany, for setting those wheels in motion, I’m sure we’ll be hitting some more of them together real soon 
Moving on…
We were able to make it to the North Cottonwood trailhead (barely) and we started skinning a little after 5am. We were joined by 2 splitboarders, a tele-er, and a couple of dogs, too. Eventually we got out of the trees and saw the goal for the day (Brittany skinning):
We were able to skin all but the last 20 feet or so. Along the way, I saw these guys:
I figured I should bring something up to the summit to celebrate, it ended up being a Guinness
Brittany and I:
Our friends for the day:
This side of Oxford and Belford could be fun:
Brittany rips it up:
Columbia in the background:
Yale in the background with me skiing. (We brought a video camera, so not many shots of me)
One last look at Harvard:
The snow in the trees was already getting pretty manky, otherwise this “bobsled run” in the trees probably would have been fun:
A lot of people have asked, “Why Harvard?” for my last one. It just ended up that way. I knew I didn’t want Capitol to be last, but other than that, Harvard was just luck of the draw. I will say that it was nice to have a mellow one to finish up on, even if it was a bit anticlimactic.
