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Peak:	Mt. Belford (14er)
Route:	Northwest Ridge
Range:	Sawatch
Posted By:	jmanner
Date of Information:	05/04/2013
Date Posted:	05/08/2013

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I went up Belford with Skis in tow on Saturday (5/04/13). Got a start at 6:50 am. The snow was as hard as a rock all the way to tree line and up to the summit, this made skinning very unpleasant, because the skins didn't sink into the snow at all and therefore didn't put enough surface area on the snow. Frankly it would have been easier to micro-spike it up to the ridge with skis on my back (which is what I ended up doing). On the descent(at around 12pm) from the top of the ridge It was hard as a rock in places. I didn't ski down the northwest gully because I read on CAIC that all of last week's Deep Slaps broke on Northwest aspects. So, I skied down the ridge, which was intermittent hard as a rock to nice loose snow, depending how far north a skied down the ridge, until around 12,400 when I traversed the shallowest slope down into the gully. Which was again hard as st to nice skiing depending on how much sun gets in there. It started snowing so it didn't get a lot, if at all, of sun on Saturday. After the gully I had some great lines all the way down till the creek crossing at 10,000', it was really soft, sometimes my buddy who was snow shoeing (poor boarder's, I do not why they board) sank down to his hips! The skiing was great though!!! / I have some nice pics, but they are too big for this there website of Bill's. On a tangent: I think the name of trees between 10,000' and tree line should be here after referred to as "the Tree's of Sorrow" I hate those f*ing trees!!!!!!! Photos (click for slideshow):

Report

I went up Belford with Skis in tow on Saturday (5/04/13). Got a start at 6:50 am. The snow was as hard as a rock all the way to tree line and up to the summit, this made skinning very unpleasant, because the skins didn't sink into the snow at all and therefore didn't put enough surface area on the snow. Frankly it would have been easier to micro-spike it up to the ridge with skis on my back (which is what I ended up doing). On the descent(at around 12pm) from the top of the ridge It was hard as a rock in places. I didn't ski down the northwest gully because I read on CAIC that all of last week's Deep Slaps broke on Northwest aspects. So, I skied down the ridge, which was intermittent hard as a rock to nice loose snow, depending how far north a skied down the ridge, until around 12,400 when I traversed the shallowest slope down into the gully. Which was again hard as s**t to nice skiing depending on how much sun gets in there. It started snowing so it didn't get a lot, if at all, of sun on Saturday. After the gully I had some great lines all the way down till the creek crossing at 10,000', it was really soft, sometimes my buddy who was snow shoeing (poor boarder's, I do not why they board) sank down to his hips! The skiing was great though!!!

/

I have some nice pics, but they are too big for this there website of Bill's.

On a tangent: I think the name of trees between 10,000' and tree line should be here after referred to as "the Tree's of Sorrow" I hate those f***ing trees!!!!!!!

Photos (click for slideshow):

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