Climbed Mount Belford 11/21/99 with Jake. This has been a very dry winter, which is bad for skiers and forest fire potential, but good for weekend warriors like myself. Donna, Jake and I were going to do a one day hike of Mount Evans from Guanella Pass, but she was feeling a little under the weather Friday and decided it was best to pass. This opened me up for a full weekend backpack/climb, so I decided on Belford with a high camp in the Missouri Gulch. Missouri Mountain was also an option from the same camp, and I could have added Mount Oxford if I was feeling up to it, since it's most easily accessible from Mount Belford across a saddle.

Missouri Mountain
Foto ©1999 by John C. Maki

We started Saturday after gathering some supplies, and headed up I-70. It was a really nice, sunny day, t-shirt weather down in Denver, and stayed sunny to Leadville. I had a nice view of Mount of the Holy Cross from the west end of Eisenhower Tunnel, I don't think I've ever noticed that before. It's visible for a few hundred yards then it's gone. In Leadville, it was still sunny and warm, but there were some dark clouds to the west and it looked like I might be in for some snow. Sure enough, at the Vicksburg trailhead (9660') the snow flurries started, but I wasn't too concerned about it. This was going to be a trip of many firsts: Jake's first time backpacking, his first time carrying his own pack, my first time using my new Gregory backpack and North Face down sleeping bag, along with some fleece and shell pants I picked up.

When I put Jake's pack on, he balked for about a minute, but stopped after a stern admonishment from me. We had only tried this pack on at home for a short time, and he took an opportunity to show his displeasure by chewing a couple holes in it when we weren't looking. He carried 2 quarts of water, 3 meals of dog food and some treats, and my trail mix. Once he gave up on fighting the pack, he did great, and the pack worked great all the way up to camp at about 11,500'. My pack worked great too, I'm really pleased with it - the only problem I had with the backpack run to camp was with my shell pants; I bought large anticipating wearing more layers underneath, and I couldn't snug them enough at the waist to keep them from working down. I rolled up the cuffs a little and tugged up on them every so often. I think the answer to these is some suspenders, since with fleece pants underneath they worked much better.

I passed a couple people on the way down before I reached camp, one did Belford and the other made an attempt on Missouri. When I reached the camp area just above an old miner's cabin (or restoration thereof), two people with a big husky were also looking for a campsite. I picked a spot above the trail, and it turned out to be a pretty poor spot on uneven ground, but it was the best I could do in the time I spent looking. The snow was still falling and the wind was picking up a little, and I just wanted to get the tent up and get settled in. Next time I will spend more time looking for a good campsite... I put up the tent, tied down the rainfly to some bushes (which were on the leeward side and probably didn't help much), and crawled in. Cooked dinner - freeze-dried pasta primavera, which wasn't too bad, and fed Jake. About 17:00 the sky was starting to darken so I crawled in the bag and tried to sleep. During the 13 hours I spent in the tent, I think I slept 2 or 3 hours, it was uncomfortable. The bag worked great, nice and warm, and even though it's a little tight fitting I was able to squirm around all night, which is what I did. The temperature got down to about 15 inside the tent during the night, and I had Jake wear his new fleece jacket, which kept him warm as he curled up in the corner of the tent on a blanket. The snow kept up part of the night, and the wind howled at times and shook the tent, but it stayed up with no problem. Great tent (North Face Mountain). I could have added a lot more reinforcement for the tent if I thought it was necessary, but the ground was frozen and tent stakes were hard to pound in. I could hear the wind start up way up high on the mountain, and work its way down to me, getting louder and louder, then it hit the tent and shook it violently. Jake seemed somewhat concerned at this, but the wind always calmed down long enough for him to get back to sleep.

At 06:00 I figured the sun was going to come up before too long, and it was time to get ready for the climb. Jake and I went out for a bathroom break, and Jake ran around the bushes under the moonlight. It was chilly but not too bad, and not much snow had accumulated during the night. I went back in the tent, crawled back in the bag and started making breakfast. The water I poured in the cookpot the night before was solid ice, as predicted. I fired up my trusty MSR stove (burns white gas, kerosene, unleaded auto gasoline and aviation fuel) and had that ice boiling in a few minutes. I ate my instant oatmeal and had some green tea steeping when Jake poked his nose in the tent. I gave him his (very cold) dog food, he sniffed at it, and walked away. I think he didn't want to eat it because it was so cold - he normally has a huge appetite - so I poured the rest of the hot water in his collapsible doggie bowl, swished it around, then called him over. Ah, that's the ticket! Yummy.

I packed up some essentials in a small pack and we headed down to the trail at 07:00. The couple who were camping down the way were still in their tent, but I could hear them talking. Their husky came over to say hello, then we moved along. After a short while of mostly level hiking in the Missouri Gulch, we came to the northwest shoulder of Mount Belford, and the trail appeared to go straight up the mountain. On closer inspection, it was a series of switchbacks and really didn't look so terrible. The first section was fairly steep, but the trail was excellent: good use of stones for steps, very well defined, just light snow cover in places, and not too much ice. Jake is an excellent route finder - he always stayed ahead of me by a switchback turn or two, and never seemed to have much trouble finding the trail. When I stopped to rest, he'd look back, and trot down to me. When he started getting colder, he'd whine when I stopped to rest, so I tried to keep my pauses short (but still frequent). We saw a couple ptarmigans in their winter plumage, and way up on a saddle in the distance was a small herd of elk, probably at about 12,500'. I thought it was unusual to see them so high up, but it's been an unusual season.

So, up we slogged, it sure seemed like a long trail. I developed the rest pattern of stopping every left switchback turn, Jake would come back and whine, then we'd continue on. I think it would have taken me a lot longer if Jake wasn't there to urge me on! I expected a couple false summits on this hike, and sure enough, one of them really tripped me up. We came up on a ridge, with a rounded knob on the left just a little higher, and I thought that must be the summit. The sun was starting to peek out just a little, and I could see across the valley to Missouri Mountain, and to the north was Mount Harvard, I believe - 14,420', Colorado's 3rd highest. We went off the trail toward the edge, and looked around before climbing the last bit to the summit. Oops... there was still another higher summit - that must be it! When you're that close you forget about being tired, and we cruised right up, with only a couple small rests. On top, I could see Mount Oxford to the east, across the connecting saddle from Belford. Sure enough, I found the surveying benchmark, so we were definitely on Belford. I also found the summit register in the customary PVC tube, but I didn't find a pencil inside so I didn't write my name. I did see a couple business cards, so that might be a good way to add my name to the registers in the future. Plus, I have a form of identification in case of an accident, without worrying about bringing along my driver's license. I took a couple pictures of Jake, checked the temperature (7), and we turned around to head down. The wind was from the south and was blowing cold and snowy, so we hurried down to where the trail heads back to the northwest, and got out of the wind.

On the descent, the snow was coming down harder, and it became slippery. I decided I need some kind of crampons for my boots, maybe the little 4 point kind would work fine. My legs were pretty tired, and walking on eggshells to keep from slipping is very tiring, so I gave up and started sliding down the snow-covered grass slope. First I kept one foot under me and the other leg extended out in front, then I just slid on my butt and tried to avoid the big rocks. It worked, mostly... I made better time than walking and saved my legs some hardship. Soon, we were down to the point where the trail first started heading up the shoulder, and I made my way down carefully. This is where we saw the first people that day: one guy was headed for Missouri, but he took a wrong turn and was on the Belford trail. I don't know if he cut over to join the other trail, turned back to find the fork, or just did Belford. A couple other people passed, they were headed to Oxford via Belford. Whew! That would be a tough climb - better them than me.

So we made it down off the mountain and back to camp. I brushed a couple inches of snow off the tent fly, then we went inside and I shed some layers. Jake went in his corner and took a little nap while I started packing gear for the trail back to the car. I really would have liked to take a nap too but remembering my night, getting back home was my priority. Jake came out to help when I started removing the fly, and in less than an hour we were packing back down Missouri Gulch. I didn't make Jake wear his pack this time, since we'd consumed most of the weight. Just before a stream crossing I hit some ice under some snow and fell in slow motion, legs going out from under me, nothing I could do. The sleeping pad and bag took the brunt of the fall, I was unhurt. Jake came back, embarrassed, to see what was wrong. I got up, brushed off the snow and dirt, and we continued on. Got back down to the car, indicated on the trail register that we were out, and started loading the car for the return trip while Jake investigated something interesting in the parking lot. This was the first 14er I've done in two years without my knee sleeves, and my knees gave me no trouble at all, even though I nearly hyperextended my right knee coming down the trail with my pack. Travel times: car to camp, 2 hours; camp to summit, 3 hours; summit to camp, 1:45 hours; camp to car, 1:10 hours. Seems to take about 55-60% of the uphill time to go down, in average conditions.

Drove home, Jake slept, it snowed on 285 from Bailey to just out of the foothills. I took a hot bath, had some food, went to bed. This morning there was 3-4" of snow outside in Aurora - guess I missed the worst of it up there. My whole lower body is stiff today - I groan a lot. Well, to be fair, my back, shoulders and neck are stiff too, but not as bad as my legs... I think I got 14ers out of my system for a little while, anyway. Need to get some crampons and an ice axe before doing any more winter climbs - this one was borderline. I think I'd like to climb Square Top Mountain from Guanella Pass this winter - 13,794', "a comfortable hike on mostly grassy slopes above timberline". Should be a good one to take the XC skis, and just spend the day playing around instead of fighting so much vertical. I don't even care if we make the summit on that one...