Missouri Mountain

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/10/2026, By: nohandz
Info: Dry up the switchbacks until you hit the gulch and then patches of snow making the trail hard to follow at times. Not an issue in the morning (35F @ TH @ 6AM), but quite soft/muddy later in the day.

Once you leave the Elk pass trail to go up Missouri, I recommend crampons/axe/helmet. I went straight up the bowl rather than go around to the north to follow the proper trail. Coverage can be thin at times and not great for traction/self-arrest, so you have to modify your route accordingly. I found the stated crux was cake in comparison to moving through steep snow, especially after it started to melt out. Though avi conditions were otherwise stable, for now.

I had snowshoes with me, but didn’t wear them as I thought I’d be taking them on an off. Though they helped with braking a glissade, lol.

I’d look for a solid freeze if you are going to do it now and maybe leave the TH about 5.

Only ~2 cars and 3-4 other people all day. PS, the bathroom is still locked. 

Route: North Face Couloirs
Posted On: 4/16/2026, By: evanb123
Info: Needed to hike approximately 3 miles before we could start skinning. Once in the couloirs snow was cold and powdery and one of the most difficult, unconsolidated bootpacks I have done. The skiing however was fantastic. No signs of instability. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 3/1/2026, By: bryanpeck3
Info: Agree with the last post. Snowshoes are now needed from the creek to the ridge. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 2/17/2026, By: Jonathan Deffenbaugh
Info: After the first round of snow Missouri Mtn didn't disappoint, turned out to be an epic day of trailblazing starting from where the Elkhead Pass trail splits off from the Mt Belford trail. To note had seen 5 climbers going up Mt Belford that day. With the new snow, snowshoes would have been nice to have, but stubbornness prevailed after climbing Belford, Oxford, and Pecks Peak, one week prior under drier conditions. Ended up blazing a new trench to the summit ridge crest 1.5-2 miles from the summit where there were less avalanche prone slopes, quite a bit of post holing involved, ended up using crampons and an ice axe for the upper rockier sections prior to reaching the ridge, which helped ease having to blaze a new route under unconsolidated snow conditions. Once on the ridge line, there's 4 summits between you and the final summit, some sections actually required post holing, which made for an epic long day. At the time, leading up to the final crux section was only having to wear microspikes. For the tower traverse beneath the summit, crampons and ice axe were necessary for safe passage. Made it to the summit around sunset and simply followed my steps/trail back down. For descending back into the Missouri Gulch basin in the dark, only needed an ice axe and microspikes. Any future ascents on Missouri Mtn leading up to spring would most likely involve bringing everything in your winter arensenal (i.e. microspikes, ice axe, crampons, and, yes, snowshoes). 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 2/10/2026, By: MMAfightingClimber
Info: The sustained winds were incredible up high today! We went from Clohesy Lake up the west ridge. We parked at the bottom, though there were older tire tracks going up. We got snowed on a little in the morning and then it started to clear up. Cold windy day.

Snowshoes not needed, but they would have been nice from the 4WD TH to treeline. The trail is buried and we just choose our own line to the base of the ridge.

The snowy crux section on the ridge would be very smart to have an ice ax. For traction, we opted for spikes but brought crampons just in case.

The west ridge from treeline to the ridge was dry, and some portions of the NW ridge were also pretty dry.

All of these conditions will likely change quite a bit after tomorrow’s storm.

11.8mi, 4,400ft gain, 7:03RT 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 2/8/2026, By: Mountain Ninja
Info: No snowshoes needed today. Crampons and axe strongly recommended for the crux (see photos). Microspikes worn otherwise. We ascended the ridge earlier (more north) than the standard route because it looked plenty dry ('tis the season!). 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 2/8/2026, By: globreal
Info: No snow shoes taken or required. Once in the Missouri Gulch basin we turned right at 12,000’ & went straight up barren tundra slopes to gain the NW Ridge. (The standard route was snow loaded.) The west side of the NW ridge is mostly wind blown dry. We DID use crampons & ice axes to go around the tower right below the summit. 

Route: Northwest Ridge Winter Variation 2.0-rc FINAL_0.1
Posted On: 1/19/2026, By: supranihilest
Info: Trail to treeline is easy to follow and a mix of dirt patches and thin snow patches. From treeline the snow becomes a little deeper and the trail splits many times. If possible stay on the official trail, it ends up being the driest way to Missouri. We took one of the erroneous splits early on and while it never got too terrible the trail was much better (we took it all the way down).

We took the southern-most rib up instead of the standard trail (steep and entirely snow covered) or the open slopes even farther north. See the screenshot. This rib avoids the undulating ridge and probable wind by getting you closest to the summit when you crest the ridge. There's no pleasant way to gain the rib besides some steep, super loose, snow covered talus and scree but once on the rib it's easy to the top. Some additional easy scrambling is had in the upper third.

Once on the ridge we quickly reached the crux tower. The snow on the southwest side of the ridge here is steep but stable. We donned crampons and traversed the snow instead of scrambling over the tower. The snow here was highly variable, sometimes rock hard, sometimes rotten over ice, sometimes soft enough to gently push a step into but it never gave any signs of sliding. We down climbed, traversed climber's right, then climbed back to the ridge before making a second traverse to drier ground which was then just a walk to the summit. It's possible to stay more on rock, as we were the only ones to take this snowy variant, but the rock quality is horrendous. Pick your poison - steep, winter snow or steep, shitty rock. We reversed our route to the valley taking the trail back instead of our original, meandering ascent route.

Gear: floatation useless, ice axe nice to have (especially if you take the snowy traverses), microspikes nice to have for almost the whole day (probably all you'd need if you scramble instead of take the traverses), crampons mandatory if you take the traverses (some snow was front point only). 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 1/4/2026, By: wintersage
Info: Jumping on the Missouri train to mention that the previous reports remain valid. The mountain currently has drier than typical conditions, with a well-packed, easy to follow trail up to the BelOx junction. Snowshoes were not necessary, though microspikes and an ice axe were helpful in a few areas, particularly at the crux just below the summit and on brief icy or slippery sections along the ridge. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 12/31/2025, By: Randy1983
Info: Chill day following the boot pack. Did half of a couloir off the left of the standard route. Snow wasn't great for kick stepping. Guessing the other couloirs might be in the same condition. Ridge was packed down and trenched by previous parties. Glissaded down the standard route about 500' before sinking into deep powder. Fun slide though. So crazy to not be in snow shoes or skis this time of year. Micro spikes and crampons might be helpful to some. Not super necessary, but nice to have. 

Route: NW ridge Winter variant
Posted On: 12/31/2025, By: the_hare
Info: Snow conditions on the trail before the Belford/Missouri trail split seem even better than last week with the new snow over the weekend smoothing the bootpack out. Despite the traffic last week and this week there wasn't the same well-trod bootpack up towards Missouri given the wind-drifted snow in the gulch--gaiters highly recommended. Moving up a little higher to cross the willow patch on the way to the ribs helped shorten the distance to cross, but still be prepared to posthole.

I am not really sure which was the right or wrong rib to take, but we went up a straighter rib that was the northernmost/ farthest climber's right in the gulch just south of the broad dry steep scree slope and in between a couple bowls. This rib had shallow mid-boot-high snow on top of grass clumps and sparse rocks all the way up to the ridge. Some parts were pretty steep and the snow was slick, but traction and poles helped for sure.

Ridge down to Missouri wasn't much issue. Steps on the snow crossing close to the summit were frozen securely, imo another steep traverse with looser rock & snow and some snow crossings atop the ridge were more heads-up. Summit is farther than it looks with the false summit bumps on the ridge! 

Route: NW Ridge - Rib Variant
Posted On: 12/29/2025, By: madmattd
Info: Doesn't seem like a major change in conditions in the last week. The weekend storm left 1/2-1" of new snow and filled in the old footsteps from the traffic last week. I left the snowshoes in the car, and other than the stretch climbing out of the bowl around 11.8k' (where I postholed knee deep for a short stretch), there would be no reason to use them. Spikes were helpful at various times.

Boot track through the crux is still intact and honestly is way nicer than I recall this this section being in dry conditions.

For anyone that might follow my tracks - I went up the wrong rib, one rib to the North from a much better one (in all fairness it is more prominent on the topo). Don't follow my tracks up the crappy talus slope, even looking at it on my descent I was left wondering what I was thinking. It went, but good grief was it obnoxious - steep, and lots of smallish talus with a few inches of snow mixed in to make everything annoying. 2 guys did follow me up that ascent route, towards the top I heard one say "I wonder if this was the wrong rib" - yep, sorry about that. My watch reported 1900' of gain in ~1mi through that section, do note that the other ribs are all similarly steep, but generally less rocky. I came down a better rib, though I found a few short sections of shin-deep snow. Once that rib started to get rocky, I traversed briefly North to the rib everyone was using last week. Take that one all the way up/down - basically, it's the one AFTER the crappy looking talus rib. Just ignore my tracks at the bottom where I bashed through some willows to get back to the trail as I was over the whole situation haha.

Standard route slopes still look dicey per daway8's CR, would suggest to stay away.

Added an image of my tracks. Ascent was the Northern green line, descent the Southern line. Red is summer standard. Use the Southern green line, or any of the ribs in that area, not the Northern one! 

Route: NW ridge winter variant
Posted On: 12/30/2025, By: EthanBeltramo
Info: Climbed all three Missouri, Oxford, and Belford in one long day. Monday 12-29. 8:30 am start and finished 11 hours later in the dark. Spikes were nice to have but left snowshoes in the car. The whole approach is shallow and boot packed.

Missouri was our first of the day. For the ascent we took the winter variant up the rib to the ridge (and Ethan’s Peak). We took the wrong rib but it was safe and doable. We were the two guys mentioned in the other report. The correct rib looked dry and much better though. The ridge to the crux was windblown and easy moving. Crux sections are covered in snow, boot packed now. They are almost easier crossing snow instead of the loose dirt in the summer. I’d recommend an ice axe, a fall wouldn’t be fun there. As others mentioned I wouldn’t suggest the standard summer trail right now. From the summit we headed down the south ridge towards Iowa peak with plans to catch the route from Iowa over to Elkhead pass. I’d highly recommend against this. It was windloaded with lots of sketchy slopes. About 8” soft powder on top of an icy crust below. There isn’t really a clear path up elkhead from the south anymore. To avoid being below the worst slopes after descending close to the bottom from the Iowa saddle, we climbed up just below the cliffs of Missouris east ridge. Crossing the snow was steep and sketchy but felt much safe than being below everything. Eventually we gained the ridge and descended to Elkhead pass where we continued on the Oxford and Belford. See those peaks for conditions. 

Route: Winter variant of NW Ridge
Posted On: 12/24/2025, By: daway8
Info: Went up the winter variant of the NW Ridge which breaks off from the summer trail a little past the Belford split, just after passing through the willows and up around a steep rocky incline. As per the last report, abnormally dry for this time of year. On descent met Carter who had come up more or less the standard summer route. After comparing notes decided to descend the standard route given green (low) avy danger on CAIC and his report of minimal snow vs the wind blasted roller coaster of the ridge. At about 13,360ft I decided to shortcut straight down the ridge since there was minimal snow coverage. But by 13,285ft snow depth suddenly increased and I triggered a major shooting crack that ran down the entire slope and back up and around me on the slope. Map shows angle was 35-45 degrees there but fortunately nothing slid. Backtracked up the slope and continued down standard route which had one brief section with an almost bulletproof slab that was very hard to kick even minimal footholds into with spikes. Despite low avy danger and low levels of snow I DO NOT recommend using the standard summer trail right now. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 12/22/2025, By: CaptainSuburbia
Info: I think any car can reach trailhead until next snow. We started just after 8:03 to observe calendar winter rules. I was part of a group of 4. 1 went to Bel/Ox. We didn't use snowshoes or traction on entire route. Packed down trail to creek crossing. Deeper snow to cabins with some postholing but not bad. We went up a rib to the ridge not far past Belford turnoff. It was snow covered but never more than boot deep. Ridge was fun with lots of ups and downs. Only tricky part was the crux which we crossed carefully on stable snowfields. The ridge was very windy with some pretty strong gusts. Great day!