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Huron Peak, 14,003ft /Northwest Slopes
Browns Peak, 13,523
Thursday 5/27/04
Mount Belford, 14,197/West Slopes
Mount Oxford, 14,153/West Ridge
Friday 5/28/04
Hiking Party: Jeff Valliere, Allison Roll
Since my weekends are Thursday, Friday, Saturday, I decided to get a jump on the holiday weekend and get up to the Sawatch for a little acclimating to prepare for Little Bear next week. Our plan was to head up to Winfield/Vicksburg area Wednesday evening and choose from the 5 fourteeners that can be accessed from that valley. We left Broomfield at 4:00pm on Wednesday afternoon and had a very relaxing, traffic free drive, arriving at Vicksburg around 7:00 after a stop for dinner in Silverthorne. The dirt road to Winfield (Chaffee County 390) had just been graded minutes prior, so it was fast smooth sailing in my Honda Accord with no bumps or washboard whatsoever. We found a nice camp spot overlooking Clear Creek about a mile West of the Missouri Gulch trailhead and turned in at around 9:00.
We awoke to clear skies, and temps just below freezing around 6:00am and drove to the South Winfield trailhead where we ate breakfast and packed our gear. We started hiking from the 2wd trailhead at 7:15am and had a very pleasant walk through the valley to the gate where the CFI trail diverts from the road and steeply climbs to the hanging basin below Huron. About halfway up the slope to the basin, the trail became obscured by deep snow. We put on our gaitors and snow pants and attempted to walk on the snow, but there was no way. The snow had a thin crust, covering sugary, granular snow which would not support our weight, so we were post-holing up to our waists and while searching for spots of bare ground to walk on. We trended to climbers left, crossed the creek, and found a dry stretch of ground (albeit very steep) that led us directly to the hanging basin at tree line. There was still quite a lot of snow in the basin and the slopes leading up to the saddle and Huron's summit. Fortunately, the snow was still solid and we were able to walk on top very easily with no threat of post-holing, and made good, steady progress across the basin and up the steep slopes to the saddle between Huron and Point 13,518. We stopped here and hunkered down behind a rock outcrop for a food break, and clothing adjustment since the wind was getting somewhat strong. We felt great going up the final 600 ft to the summit which was mostly free of snow and arrived on top at 10:45am. This was my second time summiting Huron, but it was a new one for Allison. The summit was snow capped, and by the time we arrived, the wind had totally died down, and the skies were perfectly clear, so we lounged up there for quite some time and took in the great views of the Sawatch, Elks, and even the San Juans way off in the distance. I signed the summit register, and said hi to Cardboard Rodney, since he will be up there over the holiday weekend. We decided to throw in Browns peak and descend Lulu Gulch for kicks which made for a nice loop. We arrived back at the car around 2:00pm with mild headaches since we have not climbed above 8,400ft since December. We spent the remainder of the day eating, relaxing and trying to dry out our clothes between the intermittent light afternoon rain showers. For the following day, we decided to climb Belford and Oxford. We started hiking from the Missouri Gulch trailhead at 7:00am under partly cloudy skies. We made O.K. time up the memorable switchbacks (still feeling the prior days effort in our legs), and arrived at the old cabin at tree line in 50 minutes. As soon as we popped out of the trees, the wind started to pick up, and the sun was still hiding behind one pesky cloud, which made for some cold walking across the still frozen stretches of snow. Part of the way up Belford's rounded northwest shoulder, the sun finally broke through, but the wind also picked up dramatically. We were very thankful of the very well constructed CFI trail, which made the climb much easier than it would be otherwise despite the wind. The wind was coming from climber's right. The way the trail switchbacks, we would have a tailwind so strong, it would literally push us along up the trail, then we would round the corner and would have to lean over and get aerodynamic to make it to the next corner. We repeated this process over and over again for 2,000 vertical feet. We finally made the summit of Belford by 10:00am. By then we were starting to bonk, and since we could find no shelter from the wind on the summit, we proceeded over the summit, and down to a sheltered spot just prior to the trail descending to the Oxford saddle. Oxford looked discouragingly more distant than I remembered from my last trip up these peaks in 1997, but after a rejuvenating lunch break, we were on the summit of Oxford in 45 minutes. Allison was elated since both Belford and Oxford were new for her and Oxford was her 30th 14er. The views of Harvard were very impressive, as were the surrounding peaks. We spent about 5 minutes on Oxford and set off back toward Belford, which took about another 45 minutes. Once we made it back over Belford, we made good time descending. When we got back down to Missouri Gulch, we wallowed through some stretches of snow where we had breezed across in the morning, which was a little tiring. We were back to the car by 2:45, packed up camp and made it home to Broomfield by 6:00. |
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