Mt. Belford Trip Report
Trail: West Slopes II, Class 2, 7 miles, ~ 4,560 ft elevation gain
Ahhh, Fall break had finally arrived. I was all set to try to do the Belford-Oxford-Missouri Triple one day and the Harvard-Columbia double another. This would bring my total 14er count to 17. Not to shabby for two months. Unfortunately I got pretty sick and had to give up a day, the next day I managed to shatter a tooth which had a root canal done on it some 20 years ago and ended up having to give up another day to have said tooth pulled. The best part of the extraction was when the dentist kept the tooth to look at out of professional curiosity. Apparently I had some rare text-book condition he had never seen before and which I was unfortunate to have as it was rare and purely bad luck on my part.
Anyway... I decided to not let it get me down and I headed out to try the triple I had previously planned. I left around 3:30 in the morning on Saturday, October 4th, 2003. I arrived at the Missouri Gulch Trailhead (very nice dirt road approach, easy for 2wd cars) around 6:45 and set out to first summit Mt. Belford. Two things hit me immediately. First, the trail started up hill and stayed uphill, there is no let up on this one, it has more elevation gain per mile than almost anything I have seen before. Second, it was one of the most beautiful, surreal scenes I have ever had the good fortune to encounter. There was a coat of snow on everything and the yellow's of Fall were abundant.
I headed up the trail, over a little bridge,
and rested momentarily at a broken log cabin.
After the cabin I began to get larger views of the surrounding area.
The one below is right below treeline.
This one is right above treeline.
The panorama of cloud enshrouded and snow covered mountains took my breath and I paused for some time to marvel at how lucky I am to be able to be right in the middle of these places. Coming from Philadelphia it always seems like I am in some kind of dream.
At this point I had the option of heading off to the west and attempting Missouri via one of it's Couloirs or heading east and climbing Belford. I choose Belford because I was unsure of how the weather was going to progress and Belford offered a quicker retreat.
As soon as I began the climb I realized I was still quite sick. I never have problems climbing and love the exertion. On this climb however I was quite miserable and had to force every step. Adding to the difficulty was the fact that the entire route was quite covered in snow. I steadily worked my way to the top using my Leki Poles and my ice axe and spent most of the hike convincing myself to go on. Hiking in the snow is interesting. Snow adds an eerie beauty to everything, especially at 12000-14000 feet but it also makes walking feel like running on a beach. I stopped up top just long enough to take some pictures. I would have rested longer but it was down near 30 degrees with a goodly bit of wind and snow covering absolutely everything.
I knew from early on in my approach to the summit that doubling or tripling would probably not be conducive to keeping my fever down so, upset at having missed out at two other mountains, I set down.
On the way down I ran into a guy named Dan who was working through the 14ers as well. Hopefully we'll meet up and do some of the tougher ones next summer. I have been having trouble finding partners for the harder ones and this would be a great opportunity. Anyway I asked Dan to snap my picture so my friends and family back home could see me and what I do with my life now.
After this I headed down. I thought it would be interesting to show another picture of the same scene I had snapped earlier. I also stopped right above treeline and just took in everything around me for awhile and watched some tiny little chipmunk run around me looking for food.
I made very good time back to the car and made sure to snap a picture of a pretty stream along the way.
All in all this was one of the most beautiful hikes I have ever been on and I am very sorry that my sickness cut it down, I had been hoping to spend 12 hour instead of 4 and a half outside. I would recommend this area to anyone.
The ride home was partly along a scenic byway in Colorado and offered spectacular views of its own.
Hopefully I will be able to get another 14er in before the winter sets in but I am a bit doubtful. The snow is already blanketing all of the mountains down for the long sleep ahead.
PS - JIM I will take you snow-shoeing in Rocky Mountain or something, given today and that you are from Florida I will skip trying to kill you with one of these hikes in the winter :)