Monday morning after another round of oatmeal and hot tea we set off for Missouri Mountain. Shortly after the trail junction for Mt. Belford Trail and Elkhead Pass Trail we encountered our first stream crossing. The wide rushing body of water was at first intimidating, but we threw on our gaiters and slowly crossed being weary of icy rocks. We were pretty stoked when our feet stayed dry thanks to our waterproof shoes and gaiters...it's nice when your gear actually works properly! We had one more similar sized stream crossing in the next mile, and then a few smaller ones as we neared the base of Missouri Mountain.
There are several snow fields/couloir crossings on the hike up, where we encountered sufficient kick steps, but they were icy and an ice axe would have been nice. Once we reached the saddle and began to ascend the ridge south to the peak, we had to navigate through some technical hard snow patches, where an ice axe would have been useful. Upon reaching the 14,067 foot summit, we had such majestic views full of slightly snow capped peaks, green mountain sides, and several mountain lakes. BEAUTIFUL!!!
There are several snow fields/couloir crossings on the hike up, where we encountered sufficient kick steps, but they were icy and an ice axe would have been nice. Once we reached the saddle and began to ascend the ridge south to the peak, we had to navigate through some technical hard snow patches, where an ice axe would have been useful. Upon reaching the 14,067 foot summit, we had such majestic views full of slightly snow capped peaks, green mountain sides, and several mountain lakes. BEAUTIFUL!!!
Brian and Tobers, as we near the summit. There were only two other guys hiking Missouri that day, and instead of hiking the standard route like we did, they climbed with ice axes up the couloir beneath the summit. They reached the summit about 20-30 min before us and then one snowboarded and the other kick-stepped/glissaded down the same couloir they hiked up. You can see them to the left of Brian...very very tiny people.
Missouri Mountain Geological Survey Marker- 14,067'
The survey marker was on that square rock sitting in front of us, seemed strange, and not very long-lasting..hmm? It was an absolutely bluebird day with few puffy white clouds, so we ended up staying on the summit for about an hour, which is much longer than we normally do but it was hard to resist.
View down from the summit into the Missouri Basin (Northward), you can see Ben kick-stepping down at the very bottom middle above the rocks.
View down from the summit into the Missouri Basin (Northward), you can see Ben kick-stepping down at the very bottom middle above the rocks.
Here's Toby and I crossing one of the hard snow fields along the ridge on our descent. This is where I would have liked to have had an ice axe.
Brian, crossing the upper snowfield heading down the mountain. Thankfully at this time of the day it still wasn't warm enough for us to posthole through the snow! We had a quick hike back our base camp, Brian got water for our lunch while I cleaned up and organized our gear to pack up after lunch. Toby was pretty spent and crashed in the car as soon as we got there, I actually had to lift him out of the car when we got home. That was one tired pup, actually we were all REALLY exhausted, but that didn't stop us from seeing the Transformers: The Revenge of the Fallen movie over in Dillon. We are SO GRATEFUL for being able to live here in the mountains and experience such memorable adventures!
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