The Colonnade 7602′
Grand Canyon National Park
Total Time: 10:30
Distance: 14.5 miles
Elevation Gain: 5040′
Crux: Class 3
Trailhead: Widforss Point- trash, pit toilets, no water
I had done a pretty poor job of celebrating the Grand Canyon National Park centennial this year. After a strong start on Isis Temple, I was sidelined with a broken ankle from an accident on Chimney Rock, cancelling two different Grand Canyon trips in the spring and leaving me too weak to do much a few months into rehab. But my window to get anything on the North Rim was rapidly closing, and although I felt like it was a bit early to try any big days with a bum ankle, it was now or never. I promised my wife I’d limit my adventures to nontechnical summits with no class 4 soloing my first time out alone. Unfortunately, the Ikes Fire prevented me from going after a swath of class 2-3 peaks to the northwest. Once I eliminated the summits I had already done and ones that would be death marches to do in a day, I was left with the Colonnade, Dragon, Dragons Back and Woolsey Butte. The Colonnade had actually been on my GC short list for a while. GCSS gives it 2/3 stars, placing it in the company of Angel’s Gate and a few other marque summits. I slept off a forest service road just outside the park and drove to the Widforss Trailhead at sunrise, only one other car at the trailhead lot. This was now my third time on this trail, the last being a summit of Oza Butte and abandoned bushwhack to Widforss Point, turning back due to an incoming storm. I hiked the easy trail through forest occasionally skirting the rim, with views across the Bright Angel drainage to Brahma Temple in early morning light.
I hiked fairly quickly trying to put as much easy mileage behind me before the joys of North Rim cross country bushwhacking began. It took under two hours to reach the rise just before the trail terminus unofficially named Widforss Plateau where I cut west off trail through pine forest. I was pleasantly surprised at just how easy the cross country was initially. I was worried that the area would be overrun with brush this far out from a remote fire, but the forest floor remained bare with sparse pines making travel easy. I gently descended through the forest until I reached the rim directly overlooking The Colonnade.
The beta I had from GCSS said to hike about 100 yards back to the northwest to descend through the upper Kaibab and Toroweap bands, and I stashed a liter of water near the rim for the return. I found a slope that looked like it would go and started down, finding it not too loose with grass providing some traction.
I needed to avoid some cliff bands lower down and first cheated south, only to find that the way through was a bit further to the north of where I dropped in. In fact, when I reached the break in the lower Toroweap bands, I found an outstanding elk trail that I was able to follow south all the way towards the saddle with the Colonnade and the next series of cliff bands.
I had planned to look for a weakness along the crest to drop towards the saddle, but spotted a cairn a bit to the east. I weaved down several shelves leading to a short 10′ chimney/ dihedral that I was able to use to get past the final cliff bands above the saddle.
A bit of brushy traversing brought me to the saddle itself, really the only serious brush for the summit attempt. Some huge boulders blocked access to the north buttress of the Colonnade, and I dropped off the saddle to the west to skirt around them and reach the base. Climbing the buttress direct looked like it would be an outstanding fifth class route, but I moved around the corner and found the class 3 gully to bypass the airy direct climb.
The gully was actually a bit loose and sketchy, and I tried to use the rocks that lined the edges of the gully to avoid slipping on the talus and scree in the center. After climbing up about 150′, I exited left to a large ledge with a few pine tree and began to work up the buttress directly. The angle improved and I ascended the forest buff to the final obstacle, a few short Toroweap bands.
Some class 3 weaknesses to the west got me through the final cliff bands and up to the final 100′ of cross country to the small summit. I found a summit cairn on the southeast end, and found a fairly new register placed by Jake Dayley in September 2017. There had been no visitors since. I switched out his jelly jar register for a copper one made by Art Christiansen and signed myself in. Although there had been a 40% chance of rain that day, the morning ominous clouds had actually burned off, and I took a break to enjoy the views, no longer feeling rushed by a threat of rain.
After throwing the old register in my bag to recycle, I dropped back off the ridge, finding an easier route through the upper Toroweap about two cracks further west than I had ascended. It wasn’t too hard to retrace my steps down the north buttress, cutting west at the pine ledge to the loose class 3 gully back to the base. I had hoped to climb through the lower cliff bands back to the rim a bit more directly to avoid the only significant brush of the route, but there was no obvious line from below, and bushwhacking around the base to avoid bushwhacking seemed like a pointless exercise. The chimney/ dihedral was easier to ascend than descend, and I quickly reached the elk trail highway to get through the upper Kaibab and Toroweap bands.
The trail took a more directly line to the north than where I had stashed my water bottle, but the easy hiking back up to the rim made the short back tracking worth it. It was only 1 PM, and I contemplated the wisdom of attempting Widforss Point with a long and brushy day on the Dragons Head planned the following day. I needed to hike back to the trail regardless, and figured I could take the short detour to the overlook and decide from there.
Reaching the overlook, it looked painfully close, and I decided I might as well go for it with the weather continuing to hold. I dropped down from the trail, initially through small oak trees which quickly turned to a wall of Locust brush. I paused to regroup, traversing north over to a ravine off the rim that was supposed to be clearer. While this was brush free initially, I quickly found myself well over my head in thorns immediately after a short class 3 downclimb.
I did not have the patience or energy to thrash through thorns for an hour each way, and did not bring my gloves or a thick jacket for the minimal (compartively) bushwhacking for the Colonnade. Plus there was cold beer and pulled pork at the lodge…. Widforss Point 2, Chris 0.
I fought through the brush back to the rim and started back out on the trail, passing people for the first time all day. I was back to the car a little after 4 PM and headed to the campground for a shower and beer before grabbing dinner at the deli and enjoying the sunset before a long day 2.
