Mt. Belford - 14,197 ft
Mt. Oxford - 14,153 ft
Date: 4-19-2005
Climbers: George Barnes (solo)
Route: West Slopes II, West Ridge II - Class 2
RT distance: 11.0 miles
RT time: 9 hours 10 minutes
Time to Belford: 4 hours 15 minutes
Time on summit: 20 minutes
Belford to Oxford: 1 hour
Time on summit: 20 minutes
Oxford to Belford (again!): 1 hour
Time on summit: 10 minutes
Time to trailhead: 2 hours 15 minutes
Elevation gain: 5,900 feet
Coordinates of TH: 38,59.954,-106,22.632
Coordinates of Belford: 38,57.643,-106,21.652
Coordinates of Oxford: 38,57.886,-106,20.334
USGS Quadrangles: Mount Harvard
Topographic Map:
Trip Report:
First, the beta:
Chaffee County 390 is clear all the way to Vicksburg / Missouri Gulch TH and passable for 2WD vehicles.
Snowshoes aren't necessary in the morning, but would be nice in the afternoon.
I arrived at Vicksburg Monday night at about 10 PM. My plan was to sleep a few hours, and then get started before sunrise and hike by the light of the nearly full moon. I didn't expect to sleep exceptionally well in my car, so I didn't bother to set an alarm. To my surprise, I woke up to a lightening eastern sky at 6AM.. oh well.
Two slices of cold pizza later, I crossed the bridge and signed the trail register at 6:30. There haven't been a lot of people here lately, but there's a fairly packed/frozen snowshoe trail. I'd opted to leave my snowshoes in the car, and so far this seems like a good decision.
The trail switchbacks up the Missouri Gulch drainage, but it's still pretty steep. Due to the steepness and relatively low starting elevation (~9,600 ft) I'm able to make fast vertical progress, gaining my first 1,000 feet in only 40 minutes. By 7:40 I reach the old cabin, and stop to eat a few fig bars. I'd been hiking in only a polypro layer, but I add a Windstopper fleece here because I'll be out of the trees soon and the wind is picking up. Out of the trees, I get my first look at Belford, and I'm relieved to see my intended route is largely free of snow.
Getting to the base of the ridge requires crossing a lot of snow fields, but thankfully the snowshoe tracks I'm following are still frozen. With minimal post holing, I make it to the base of the ridge at 8:30. I'm still averaging over 1000 feet/hour, so I'm pretty happy about that. The ridge looks steep from this location, but the grade is eased by the CFI trail. For the first stretch a rock staircase has been constructed, allowing fast upwards progress. I decide this would be the ultimate test of one's ability to unicycle down stairs, and make a note to come back during summer. After the stairs the trail switchbacks up the ridge, though in places I lose it to snowfields.
By 10:45 AM I'm on top of windy Belford and get a disheartening view of Oxford. The summit is only a mile away, but the saddle I have to cross is 700 feet below, at 13,500 ft. I dawdle for 20 minutes to read the summit register and eat some more fig bars. A group of 4 had been here 2 days ago, but almost a month passed between them and the previous ascent. I initially had loft goals of hitting Missouri in addition to Belford and Oxford, but I quickly nixed these when I saw the snow on Missouri. I get a panorama of Missouri, which includes centennials Iowa and Emerald.
Its tempting to scrap my plans for Oxford, but I know the best way to summit Oxford is from Belford, so I convince myself that I'll never be closer. Getting down the ridge takes a bit of snow plunge stepping, but I'm soon onto a good climber's trail. At 11:30 I've almost reached the low point, and I hide under a rock outcropping to get out of the increasing wind. Oxford looks to be a long ways away, but the trail up is all pretty gentle.
An hour after I left Belford I gain the summit of Oxford. I've done over 5,000 vertical feet to get here, and I can tell! I sign the register, snap some photos, and call a couple people to let them know I'm OK. Doug works in a room without windows and is especially glad to hear from me on the summit of a 14er :)
It's tempting to try an alternate route down from Oxford and avoid the additional 700 feet of gain to Belford, but every route down looks pretty steep on the topo map, Further, I've told people my intended route for the day, and I know the importance of sticking to my itinerary. Twenty minutes later I'm moving back to the saddle. Another hour and I'm back up Belford and glad to know I'm done climbing for the day.
The descent isn't exciting (which is fine in my book!) and I make decent time with the help of a few short glissades. At the top of the stairs I'm greeted by a willow ptarmigan, and he's kind enough to pose for a few pictures.
Back in the meadow I find out that despite the cold wind, it's been well above freezing all day. The tracks I'd followed in have softened considerably and I'm looking at 2 miles of post holing back to the car. It turns out that I'm only punching holes every 10 steps or so, and I make descent time back to treeline. From here the snow gets worse, and I'm knee-deep every 5 steps. Note to self, bring snow shoes on future hikes, even if you probably won't need them! In retrospect, schlepping snowshoes in and caching them at the base of the ridge would have been a good idea. The switch backs are slow to come, but pass quickly, and by 3:40 I'm signing out on the trail register. A change of clothes (shorts!) has me feeling even better than summiting two new fourteeners.
On my drive out I come across a few bighorns guarding Chaffee Co 390. They show off by climbing straight up a near vertical dirt slope. I'm convinced the only way I could follow them up would be with ice tools and crampons... most impressive!
Mt. Princeton Mt. Democrat
