Missouri Mountain

Route: Gerry Roach R9 Route to the Saddle with Iowa Peak
Posted On: 8/17/2023, By: Benito_Esposti
Info: Decided to try out Gerry Roach's R9 route that comes off of the east side of elkhead pass and climbs the saddle between Missouri and iowa Peak. Trail up to elkhead pass is in good condition. There are numerous places to fill up water along the route. Last one is a little after the split between Missouri and Belford. Once near the bottom of elkhead pass (where the class 4 ridge up Missouri begins) you go off elkhead on the southeast side. After descending to 12,800, turn right and hug the steep slope along Missouri's east side. There is not much of a trail and I would not recommend this route because there are many sections where you have to cross over flora. Once you are below the lowest point of the saddle you can begin your ascent up an extremely loose, steep slope the the saddle. Once you reach the top you can turn left to Iowa Peak or right to the summit of Missouri. Attached is a picture of the route we took. It was very fun, but the lack of trail made it not worth it ethically for the nature. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 8/1/2023, By: doeeth
Info: I set up camp near Clohesy Lake. This basin is gorgeous. The creek crossings are cold, right by the start of the trail, but water level is not too high. I tried to scope out the route up Huron peak on the East, but I could not identify the trail starting in the avvy chute on the North end of the lake. I found the chute, but it looked like there was no trail, just tons of willows overgrown among the entire chute. The West ridge trail is pretty nice, goes on for awhile, lots of wildflowers, but a fair amount of loose dirt. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 7/23/2023, By: lesliegb6720
Info: Pretty much dry and clear. One snowfield on the ascent to the saddle from the junction with Elkhead Pass trail, but very short -- maybe 20 feet to walk through. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 7/27/2023, By: Watlas
Info: Route is actually 11+ miles, tracked it w gps 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 7/16/2023, By: Eli Watson
Info: There's a couples patches of snow hanging on in the dihedral climb of the East Ridge. It's inconvenient, but manageable. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 7/13/2023, By: seeking timberline
Info: The trail was mostly dry and loose. I think I counted three snowfield crossings, all of which were firm and supportive even in the afternoon. The bigger issue was the creek crossings. The creeks are all raging up there right now. The first crossing was wide, deep and full of downed debris. It didn't look safe to wade across so I spent a fair amount of time detouring off-route until I could find a reasonable place to cross. The second crossing was wadeable with shoes off. With careful foot placement and poles, the third one was crossable with shoes on. No issue with the down climb section on the ridge but the smooth trail immediately at the bottom is sketchy loose on a fairly steep side hill. Returning from the summit I noticed that the better option after the downclimb is to stay high on the slope and climb over the small rock wall to the left of the tower rather than going around the tower to the right. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 7/8/2023, By: astromuni
Info: Getting pretty darn close to summer conditions. There are a handful of snow patches, with crossings no more than a couple hundred feet in length. Only the topmost major patch, just below the ridgeline/saddle at 13.7K, has notable exposure. No one was breaking out microspikes, and I'd say they are unnecessary as long as you take your time and place steps well. The "crux" section along the ridge is dry as a bone. So no worries there. That said, I was genuinely surprised at the amount of exposure and the bits of scrambling required on this route. Definitely the spiciest Class 2 I've done (including Castle/Conundrum, which this site labels 'difficult 2'). Beautiful wildflowers. 

Route: North Face Couloirs
Posted On: 7/4/2023, By: mcosby
Info: Went up the N Face and down the NW ridge. N Face was in perfect condition (firm neve) at 9 am when I started up the couloir. Crampons and axe recommended for that route (obviously). The ridge descent is basically free of snow, traction not needed in my opinion. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 7/3/2023, By: scotty17
Info: There is still quite a few snow patches to reach the summit; around 6 larger ones. I would say 5 of them are unavoidable, but easy to cross. Trail finding is a little bit more involved with snowier conditions and would recommend pulling out the phone/map to see where the trail goes as the snow is still covering some of the trail. I would say its close to about 70% summer conditions. For the section right after the small boulder field. If you stay close to the river/stream you will find tracks in the snow leading back to the trail. Before the spilt toward Elkhead Pass or Missouri Mnt., there are 3 stream crossings that require some rock jumping or getting the feet wet. The one larger snow patch near the saddle was avoidable if you skirt it via the rocks on the climber's left side of this patch; however, I would say that this does require some Class 3 traversing skills. If you go via the snow trail folks have made, I would suggest bringing some microspikes and maybe poles. My party did the climb in grippy trail runners, but we did choose to avoid this snow patch via the rocks to climbers left. The last part that I would say to make a note of is the "crux section" shown in photo #13; there is a small layer of ice and slick rock on this section, with quite a fair bit of exposure. With the current conditions, I found that this section read as more a low class 3. I would recommend down-climbing the rocks to get down this section until the ice has melted. Although a few folks used the butt-slide method, which is also valid. Do whatever makes you feel comfortable; you know your own limits. All this being said, we are still not in summer summer conditions yet....but are getting closer :) 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 7/3/2023, By: Zleisure
Info: Adding some photos. I booted the whole way without spikes, but summited in the early afternoon. Few snow crossings ~13k, but very well packed trail. The worst part for me was the snow right before the ridge. Trail is booted through it, but it was so soft in the afternoon I went around it. You can go either L or R around it to gain the ridge. Ridge has some snow sections still that if frozen may warrant spikes, but was so soft by 1pm I never used them. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/23/2023, By: Ptglhs
Info: Saw two other people turn back due to conditions. Still very much holding a lot of snow, especially along the ridge. Did it with ice ax and micro spikes. But I was a little sketched out. Would have preferred Crampons and an ice ax for a couple of the sections where the snow id Ice, hard to get purchase, and there's a run out that leads to rocks. Hard to follow trail in upper basin due to snow and a couple of stream crossings still had snow bridges 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/22/2023, By: Omatt89
Info: Today the juice was worth the ski. I went no spikes, or snowshoes, just boots and board, tennies and poles. Wore tennis shoe up to about 13000 on the main trail where it is mostly snow covered but still some dry sections. Before that there is intermittent snow here and there after the cabin but was frozen at 830. Changed into snowboard boots for intermittent/ mostly snow to the summit @ 13000. By 930 it was great for bootpacking. Following the trench helps. Class 2 ridge at the top is dry and goes, straight over the top for some class 3? Fun.. C colouir and a couple others still very in, however, the snow is becoming trash quickly. Lots of sluff and rockfall debree but also still some smooth lines left. I'd say I got about 1500 of vertical just below the summit and another couple thousand feet in distance following the drainage out. Snow was a little soft and slow but good at 1030. I did hear some rockfall across the way. 20 percent chance of rain and thunder lightly played out at noon with no thunder and very light hail/rain. I Started at 530, back at car at 1245 and then the rain did come down just a little bit. Super stoked on this send after a bail last season ! 

Route: North Face Couloirs
Posted On: 6/26/2023, By: Jonathan Deffenbaugh
Info: Start early for this one if possible. Got on it about an hr after sunrise and conditions on the lower- mid sections had quite a few sections that were postholing territory, however was able to mitigate it by staying on the left side of the gully in the shadows. Snow conditions do improve higher up, ended up glissading one of the less steeper sections of the north face on the right side, great runout after some ridge traversing. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/20/2023, By: jmsavard91
Info: Left the TH around 6:45 AM and hit the summit of Missouri Mountain at just past 10:30 AM. Hiked the standard route up and down. Did not attempt to go down Elkhead pass. The trail was dry up until the cabin but was quite snowy following that. I had microspikes on my boots and was sliding a good deal trying to maneuver the route. The snow was incredibly unstable and led to some questionable slides throughout the day. The ridgeline was stable enough but will be VERY spotty as this layer of snow starts to melt. The views were incredible with the snowcapped mountains all around, but the wind gusts made for a challenging push to the top. Overall, I'd give this 2 - 3 weeks until it's in good and dry shape to summit. 

Route: Elkhead Pass
Posted On: 6/18/2023, By: sarahmariekirk
Info: Summited Missouri Mountain today from the East Face, via Elkhead Pass and descended via the standard route. Full on mountaineering day with multiple steep high-angle snowfields with loose rotten snow (with new snowfall over the last few days) with some class 3 rock towers that we climbed in crampons. This route was approximately 10.3 miles and 5450 vertical gain. It was a beast of a route due to the unconsolidated snow and loose rock, and we had high hopes of adding on Iowa and Emerald but knew it was out of reach after fighting the snow all day. Elkhead Pass is extremely snowy; witnessed three wet slide avalanches today during our climb.