14er Combo!

At 3:15 am Saturday morning, James, Ben & I made our way up to the mountains to attempt a challenging 14er combo. Mt. Belford (top) and Mt. Oxford (bottom) were the peaks to be climbed. The only way to summit Oxford (14,153') was to summit Belford (14,197') first and then traverse the 1.5 mile saddle between the two. Of course the only way back to the car was to re-summit Belford. You can see Belford in the bottom picture just off Ben's shoulder. This was the first time I can say I hit 14K feet three times in one hike.


In total, it was 11 miles roundtrip with 5800' of elevation gain. There were two stretches in particular that were particularly grueling on the ascent to Belford. James & I both experienced feeling our hearts "beating" in our brains!


We saw more wildlife on this hike than any previous 14er climb. Pikas, Marmots, and Mountain Goats were in abundance. The pikas were my favorite. They're cute and fast little buggers. It was like having hamsters scurrying around your feet.


All in all everything went smooth. Good weather, no falls, great friends, and...well, the only blemish on the day was missing the trailhead parking and cruising an additional 4 miles up a windy & bumpy dirt road. It was dark and easy to miss, but we all had full bladders and didn't appreciate the extra 8 miles of jostling around in the car!