Missouri Mountain Oct 18th

My brother came up from Austin on his way to Billings Montana to buy a pick up truck. The first weekend he was here brought freezing temps and icy conditions around town, making normally a short hop from Lubbock into a very long day. He was more than willing to give up his rear wheel drive car for a 4wd truck. Bekah's birthday party was on saturday, the 17th, until noon, and after that we were free to go climbing. I wanted a relatively easy climb mixed with a backpack and camp in above tree line. The Elks were pretty snowed under, the Front Range climbs seemed a little too short, and the Sangres were a bit too far of a drive. And that left us with the Sawatch Range. We narrowed it down to either Harvard or Missouri. They both seemed like good choices.

We left town around 230pm after a stop at REI and Mountain Chalet for Jay to pick up some last minute supplies, like a new backpack, which by the way, is totally awesome! I need one of those now! We arrived at the Missouri Gulch trail head at about 5pm and were geared up and ready to hit the trail by 530pm. The sun had already set behind the mountains, as we began our race to beat darkness. It was a clear sky, with warming then normal temps. About half way up the trail, darkness took over and it was time to turn on the headlamps. We still had not reached snowline yet, but from the view at the parking lot, there was a lot of snow up there.

We made it to camp at 11,000 feet and found a place to pitch our tent on some soft snow, and sheltered from the relentless wind. Once dinner was ate, we crawled into our bags for a cozy night winter camping style.

The view north across the valley where my truck is parked.















The next morning, we woke up extremely late, which we found out later in the day, would prohibit us from making the summit. The alpenglow on Missouri was a
spectacular sight, especially with all the snow. This is the view from our campsite, out away from the short, stubby trees.

Mount Belford's Northwest shoulder, standard route. I climbed this route last August, in winter like conditions, ice and snow!
A closer view of Missouri, the summit is roughly in the middle, out of sight behind the ridge.

The route we intended to climb is starting to receive it's morning sunshine. It is behind the shoulder that is in the middle of the picture coming off of the large mountain on the right, still in the shadow of Belford.








A closer view of the sub peak along Missouri's North Ridge.

Jay and me geared up and ready for the climb, as we leave camp at roughly 830am; extremely late in the morning!
As we hike further up the basin, we begin to realize just how much snow is up there.
I am not too sure of the name of this sub-peak, but it has some interesting lines to climb.Jay, taking his turn of breaking trail in the snow. Missouri's impressive North Face is behind him. The trail would come and go, as we tried to follow it the best we could. The day before, a couple descended from Elkhead Pass, at the head of Missouri Gulch. We tried to follow their tracks, but they would often go through deep snow, which was difficult to climb up.







Me, with Missouri behind and Elkhead Pass behind a shoulder off of Belford on the left.













Another cool looking pic of Jay.














Another shot of me with a cool looking shoulder that would be fun to climb.

Contemplating a climb for another day.
The creek would appear and disappear under the snow. It was really cool to see the ice formations within the creek.

We made it to the sign for the turnoff to the standard route up Missouri, roughly a mile and half from camp. The sign is visible at the base of the cliffs in the foreground.
Jay crossing the creek on a snow bridge.
A closer view of Missouri's East Shoulder, the standard route is up the ramp to the left of the rocks.
At the turnoff to Elkhead pass, below the route up to the ridge. We decided to opt out of this climb for various reason. One being that it was really late in the day, roughly 1130am, and two, the snow was not stable. We noticed several avalanches high above on Missouri. The more we hiked up into the basin, the more slides we could see. none were large, but they all could be damaging to anyone caught in one.
Jay, looking up at a future climb, and wondering what the summit looks like.
Here is two more of a close up on the North Face Couloirs.

Given the time of day and the work involved in a retreat back to camp, we called it a day. Turning around from such a beautiful, but a dangerous place is always hard to do, but it must be done. The return to civilization begins. We made it back to camp by 130pm to an open tent. Apparently, we forgot to close up the tent before we set out earlier in the morning. Luckily, nothing was missing or chewed up. Arriving at my truck at 330pm was a sad, but a relief to be there. A bad day in the mountains is always better than a great day back in the real world. I look forward to many more climbs and boundless mountains. My next adventure will be over Halloween weekend, maybe I can act more like a true mountaineer rather than dressing up like one!