I need some input about this as a winter route, and about my choice of locomotion:
How difficult is it to find a decent place to cross the river near Rockdale?
Has anyone been up this route recently? What are the current avalanche conditions? Current trailhead access - can I make it in my Corolla or minivan?
As for avalanche safety, I suspect there should be several reasonable alternatives to avoid avy-prone terrain due to wind scour above treeline. Anything I should be aware of here?
I have always snowshoed my winter climbs before, but I am considering using my poor-man's AT set-up just for a taste of what is do-able (old alpine skis, BD skins, Koflach Degrees, Silvretta 404's) on the approach and whatever sections of the clmb I can. I assume I will be dropping the skis about treeline and hoofing it the rest of the way. The set-up (not to mention my rusty skills) probaby won't allow for a full-on skin clear up and ski down but since I have the gear I would like to try it somewhere - is this a good 'where'? Seems like the road would most likely be a good beginners route for this set up. How do skiers handle the in-between terrain where there are too many rocks for the skis? Just boot it and don't whine? This is one of those questions that has bugged me for a while and made me think to just continue snowshoeing it since it is fairly easy to carry those with you, whereas the skis I might not want to carry all the way up becasue of the weight, especialy if the snow is spotty. Thoughts?
Missouri West Slopes questions
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Missouri West Slopes questions
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Re: Missouri West Slopes questions
It will be frozen over by now for sure.How difficult is it to find a decent place to cross the river near Rockdale?
There is avalanche danger around, but you can avoid most or all of it if you are careful.As for avalanche safety, I suspect there should be several reasonable alternatives to avoid avy-prone terrain due to wind scour above treeline. Anything I should be aware of here?
I haven't been up recently, but here are my photos from December 2008 that you might find useful:
http://www.summitpost.org/trip-report/4 ... -2008.html
Certainly there is more snow now then there was then though.
I'm old, slow and fat. Unfortunately, those are my good qualities.
