This past weekend, I headed down to Leadville on a Saturday afternoon to attempt a 14er hike the following day. The ones I was targeting were either the combo of Mt. Belford and Mt. Oxford, or their neighbor Missouri Mountain. Each hike individually was roughly 10 miles and a ton of elevation gain (4500 for Missouri, 5800 for the combo), but I had been reading about people who had done all 3 together. After some research, this option looked like maybe 16 miles of hiking and a little over 7000 feet of gain, which would have made it the most strenuous hike I've ever done. I was determined (stubborn?) though, and the weather forecast was excellent, so I prepared accordingly.
This hike would be at least 10 hours long, so I got to bed by 8:00 for a 3 AM wakeup, hoping to be at the Missouri Creek trail head by 4:00. And as is typical for my pre-hike sleeping patterns, I finally fell asleep about 11:30 and was up multiple time through the night. Not a great start, but I've done some tough hikes on no sleep before and survived. I'd manage.
I actually didn't make it to the trail head until a little before 5:00 AM, and the parking was already almost full (I passed a LOT of campers up there). Once I parked and turned off the car lights, it was pitch black except for the stars, which were spectacular so far away from the city. I loaded up my gear, got my lamp on and headed out alone into the woods. There is a certain feeling of vulnerability one feels when alone in the woods in complete darkness, and it isn't one I like especially, but I needed to get an early start if I had any hope of finishing before sundown.
The hike starts out with over 1000 feet of gain in the first mile. These switchbacks, a whole lot of them, were probably easier to do in the darkness when I couldn't see how long they would last.
At 10,800 feet, there is a creek crossing that it people had a tendency to miss, especially in the dark (and that is when I would be crossing). Fortunately, a group ahead of me was actually coming back after passing it the first time and was able to find it the second time, so I followed them. This is what it looked like on the way back in the light.
I tried to pace myself in that initial mile, but by the time I broke treeline, I was feeling much more tired than I hoped I would. At 11,600 feet, I came to the junction of the Belford/Oxford and Missouri trails and had to make a decision.
My body couldn't handle the elevation gain and distance of the triple today, so that was out. I could still do Belford and Oxford and bag two more peaks on this hike, but that was still 5800 feet of gain, and I could tell that would be a major struggle today, so I opted for the single of Missouri Mountain at 10.5 miles and 4800 feet of gain. Tough, but doable.
Missouri Mountain could be seen a couple miles away from near treeline. As the sun came up, it lit up the area that contained the summit and my final destination.
At 12,600 feet, I came to the Elkhead Pass trail junction. Had I gone for the triple, this is where I would have returned after summiting Missouri to head for Belford and Oxford.
This also marked the point where the climb up to the 13,700 foot saddle would begin.
The route doesn't just go straight up, it actually swings far to the northwest, away from the summit, before cutting back across the face of an unnamed point on the other side of this saddle. There was a lot of talus hopping along this traverse, and the dirt section were slick and sloped sideways much of the time. I was probably going up about 10 feet at a time at this point before stopping to breathe. The view never seemed to change, and the saddle never seemed to be getting any closer. It was frustratingly slow, but the incredible views that presented themselves when I finally made the saddle were worth the effort.
I could also see the remainder of my route from here:
This was a little tough to get across, but I managed with my poles. On the way back, however, I came at it from just below the rock formation, and I got to the point where I was just traversing with my hands and just touching my feet on the slick rock below, knowing it wouldn't keep me from sliding if I let go. I actually got myself stuck about half way across but finally was able to slide over to enough hand holds that I could pull myself up the far side. This section was probably only 40 feet long but was far and away the most technical section of the route. Once across, you can see the short trail segment that drops you out on the summit.
View to the southeast. Harvord and Columbia are on the left. Yale is just right of center with Princton behind it to the left. Antero is in the far background on the right.
Looking northeast at Mt. Belford toward the left and Mt. Oxford peeking up in the middle of the ridge but about a mile behind it. Elkhead Pass goes up over this area.
Missouri Mountain was my 29th 14er.
I stayed up on the summit for about an hour, both because I could (there was absolutely no weather coming in at all), and because I had to. I only remember feeling this crummy at the top of a summit one time, when I did Mt. Yale, and I attributed that to racing up it at far too fast of a pace. Today I tried to back off (and my splits on the way up were certainly not speedy), but I was still wobbly legged and didn't feel so great. A group of four guys came up not long after I got there and I enjoyed talking to them while I forced myself to eat and recovered. After an hour I felt much better but still had to work very hard to get myself down the steep hardpack I had just climbed to get here. Once back to the Elkhead Pass junction, I was able to make much better time and was feeling pretty good though. I remember seeing the Missouri summit, barely lit up from the sun, from down here a few hours earlier and thinking "damn, that's so far away", and now as I descended, I looked back up to where I had just come from and thought "damn, that's so far away". Never have the same phrases taken on such complete opposite tones as these did.
It is hikes like this one today that make me realize there is a big difference between "fun" and "rewarding". I enjoyed seeing a new area, I love the scenery, and I enjoyed talking to some great people I met on the trail today, but considering how difficult it was and how much I struggled physically, I'm not sure I would call this hike "fun", but that's not why I do these. Each 14er generally has its own set of challenges associated with it, and it is infinitely rewarding to me when I can get through those challenges. Today was no exception, and in the end, I'm another peak closer to achieving my goal. It doesn't get much more rewarding than that.
