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Peak(s):  Mt. Belford  -  14,202 feet
Mt. Oxford  -  14,158 feet
Date Posted:  10/29/2013
Date Climbed:   10/27/2013
Author:  StarGirl
 Belford- Northwest Ridge and Oxford from Belford   

We drove in from Buena Vista. Road to trailhead was completely dry. The trail to Belford was dry through many parts of the forest, but eventually we put our microspikes on for the rest of the day. The northwest ridge was blanketed with snow with some patches of deeper snow drifts of around 8-10 inches. The trail after the gulch is nearly all snow covered but as of Sunday, footprints all along the switch backs and holes from poles were still visible. On the descent, we were hurrying down and cut through the switchbacks through deeper snow. Those footprints/slides should still be visible, even if the wind has covered up the prints along the switchbacks.

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The first ridge leading to the summit was hard snow. I made a snow angel but had to press in pretty hard.
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The final ridge leading to the summit was most dry and flat.
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We descended Belford (a snowy descent) and hiked the ridge over to Oxford. Oxford trail was dry. We made it about 65% up Oxford before deciding to turn back because of uncertainty about some dark clouds we saw starting to move in our direction. But the remainder of the trail to Oxford looked dry as far as wee could see.

These are doable together but require effort. The descent from Belford is pretty steep, and you have to come back up it on the return from Oxford. On a cold, windy day after hiking through snow, it was taxing. I think if we'd started even an hour earlier, we could have made both summits.

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Comments or Questions
Jay521
User
Love...
10/29/2013 5:06pm
... that first pic! VERY nice!


unclegar
User
+1
10/30/2013 11:43pm
to Jay's comment. Very nice. In fact they're all pretty nice. The last big one is not showing up for me but I'm not sure if it is me or the formatting.


Dancesatmoonrise
User
I like...
10/31/2013 4:08am
...the snow angel!



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