6) Mt Belford 14,197 ft 3-26-07

Spring break is fun.
Ah good old Mt Belford. The Missouri Gulch trailhead gives easy access to Missouri Mountain, Mt Belford and Mt Oxford. After a failed attempt on Mt Sherman a day earlier due to weather, I was anxious to again stand atop a 14er. I know they dont belong here, but heres a few pics from my failed attempt on Mt Sherman b/c I like them.

Sunrise is good:


Clouds covering the summit of Mt Elbert:


And here are some of the very clouds that made me turn around on the Shermanator:



Ok, now time to get down to business.

We left Boulder on no sleep at 3am bound for the old ghost town of Vicksburg and the Missouri Gulch TH. The road was easily passable by my low clearance WRX and we geared up and were ready to rock at 6am.

Even with our early start from Boulder, not above treeline before sunrise:


So, Im really sorry about this, but the line on the right is the line we skiied, and this is pretty much the only picture that I have of it. I needed to save my already dying still cam batteries for summit photos, and since we hauled the helmet cam up there, I figured that would do it enough justice not to take any more. Sadly enough, on a small air near the top of the couloir a connection popped out and I have not nearly enough good footage to make it worth posting.


Yay, we're above treeline after an hour long posthole nightmare. The snow was fine w/ hiking boots no flotation until one mile or so below treeline and then turned to such unsupportable sugar that even my skis/skins would'nt support me.


The route was moderately steep in places, but overall was a very easy climb:


The northwest slopes:


The exact summit didnt have any snow on it, but it was close enough for me:


We wanted to go hit Oxford too, but the clouds were moving in, and the ridge over doesn't look fun enough to make it worth racing the weather:


The summit register:


The views were excellent:


















































































The chute we descended was awesome. There were plenty of little airs to hit, and some great snow. The sunny aspect was an awesome two feet of fluffy powder, and the shady parts of it was some of the worst crust Ive ever skiied on. I thought that we had some great helmet cam footage but since the connector came out on the first small air, Ive got nothing, sorry. The ski back to the car was marginal as it is steep woods with snow that you could fall to your waist in at any second. Looks like a storm coming through, let pray for some good snow in the high country.