| Mt Belford/Oxford Trip Report |
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| Mt Belford/Oxford   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Colorado, United States, North America Date Climbed/Hiked: Jun 30, 2001 Season: Summer | Page By: Husker Created/Edited: Dec 27, 2006 / Dec 27, 2006 Object ID: 254751 Hits: 692 Loading... Page Score: 86.71% - 2 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Add Heading HereWell My daughter Jen and I tried climbing Belford and Oxford together in June 2001 when I was totally out of shape. A winter long sloth, I had not prepared for the hike. And even though most of it was Class 1, I was not prepared. Something I promised myself not to let happen ever again, if I am to attempt summitting another 14er. Right after dawn, we started out making fairly good time up Missouri Gulch, even in shape the beginning is fairly brutal more mentally than physically, but if out of shape...both. There is no warm up stretch to start like on Massive. So up we went, taking a break at Tree line. This deposits you into a fairly flat portion of the trip in the very beautiful Missouri Gulch, we soon started up again and reached the Y in the trail that makes you decide Belford, or Missouri. I got a second wind in that gulch, and Jen was having no problems the entire hike. This is the first time she ever outclimbed me, at age 12. This occurrance has repeated itself over and over since. We made quick progress up Belford, rested at the summit for some trail mix, crossed south to the connecting saddle to Mt Oxford, and made it over to Oxford in short order. There we met a guy with his two kids. We exchanged small talk, when he revealed he was 3- 14ers away from having completed all of them for the second time. Wow!
After having summited Oxford, and headed down the saddle, trouble began for me on the climb back up Belford. This uphill portion isn't proabably bad for a person that is in shape. But it became tough for me. Very quickly I could hear my pounding heart beat as though it was coming from my ears. I realized it was beating very quickly. I timed it, and it was 196/min, faster than Vmax for a 41 yr old. Soon I was getting some quick blasts of chest pain. This was bad! Much to my chagrin, I had to have my daughter slow down for her old man, so she wouldn't have to have me medivac'd down the mountain. So what we agreed on was to hike 50 steps, then rest until my HR came down to 140. Unfortunately bad weather was starting to rear its ugly head from the west, it was getting dark and rain was visibly coming down a few miles off. I was really looking mortality in the face for the first time in my life. I was scared, but didn't panic. So it became 50 steps up, 30 seconds rest, 50 steps up etc. Eventually much to my relief we achieved the top of the saddle to Belford, recrossed the summit, and by that time the weather, and my heart rate had calmed down. As we descended back into the Gulch, and down to the trail head, we investigated the trail that ascended Missouri,as that was in our near future, I also noted that there was a certain smugness with my daughters demeanor -she knowing that she had figuratively kicked her Dad in the butt that day! Total (out of shape) time for both peaks 6.5 hrs. Images
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Sawatch Range
