Belford & Oxford

We climbed Oxford and Belford from the Missouri Gulch Trailhead on June 3, 05. There was no snow up to the old 'cabin'. The only large amount of snow that we encoutered was from the 'cabin' to where the Belford trail splits off to the east. Most of the trail in this area is covered but the postholing was minimal, even on the p.m. descent. We took gators but never used them. The weather wasn't real helpful, from the time that we gained Belford's summit ridge, all the way over Belford to Oxford and back we were pummelled by 60+ mph winds and several small snowstorms. This made the going much slower than planned, as it was difficult to even stand upright while crossing the ridge between the peaks. The only 'sketchy' spot was a small (20-30 yds. across) , somewhat steep, patch of snow on the ridge a couple hundred yds. west of Oxford's summit. Despite the inclement weather this was still a fun climb (as most mountain are). The clouds opened up for a bit and offered us some of the view that we had been hoping for. No matter, though, it was still beatiful and it's always a pleasure to be in places like that.