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Just a quickie conditions report. The photos can do most of the job.
I checked out the Vicksburg Road over lunch on Wednesday; it looked hideous at 9,000’, three miles east of the Missouri Gulch trailhead and about 100 yards short of where we parked for Huron on February 6th. I turned around and resigned myself to a many-mile and ~7,000’ day for Pecks, Belford, and Oxford.
I started there Thursday morning at 4:30 AM. It was quickly apparent that one driver had been bold enough to head into the unknown. That truck made it to about 9,500’, more than half way to the trailhead. I mildly berated myself. The trailhead arrived just as I turned my headlamp off. (Side note: the outhouse was so well-stocked that I wonder whether it’s been re-supplied over the winter. Hard to imagine.)
I snowshoed up a buried track that gave me a good base to the 10,800’ creek crossing. On my own after that, I broke a track, but conditions were not bad to treeline. Hanging a left to head for the North Ridge of Pecks Peak, I cached the ‘shoes, and settled in for a long, steep haul in the shade. Once on the crest, I cruised over Pecks Peak and up Belford’s North Ridge. The wind came up out of a cloudless sky and chased me into hard shell, facemask, and ski goggles above 13,500’. I was hiding in the dependable wind shadow of the summit block a little after noon.
I fought the wind on and off down to the saddle. There were a few spots where something like micro-spikes would have been welcome, but it wouldn’t be worth carrying them for that. I never used my axe all day. The trudge to Oxford’s summit was its undistinguished self. After a brief and chilly stay, I was off to reclimb Belford and complete the day’s final significant ascent.
I scurried back down my ascent route, plodded over Pecks Peak, and picked my way slowly down to the snowshoe cache. That slope is a serious knee-buster. I didn’t trust the gully enough for a glissade. Back on the Vicksburg Road, I discovered that someone had driven up during the day to the previous truck’s highpoint, further evidence that it’s a reasonable and worthwhile investment. I regained my truck at 7:30 PM. Fifteen hours. My joints felt that it was a full day. |
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