Emerald Peak

Route: Emerald & Iowa from Pine Creek
Posted On: 6/1/2026, By: BCNPatrick
Info: Mostly snow free until treeline, and easy to get around or over snowy patches where it meets Missouri gulch trail. Unavoidable Snow rest of the east slopes route to Emerald, so spikes were helpful early morning in some places...axe is great for the glissades. 

Route: Misery Gulch>Elkhaed pass>Emerald NE ridge>east F.
Posted On: 4/19/2026, By: Posthole Pete
Info: Great day out with KFerg.

Day started very cold and got windier the furthur we got into Misery basin. Once we dropped into the pine Creek basin, the sun was up and wind chilled out. Enough snow to skin in the basin over the the NE ridge, where we began booting.
Summited at 11 and had phenomenal unreactive snow for 1,5k of riding.
We were gassed getting back to Elkhead but ended up getting a few more turns in from the pass down to the willows.
11 hours total
Just under 15 miles. 

Route: Emerald/Iowa Combo
Posted On: 4/6/2026, By: notidealbutfine
Info: Departed from Missouri Gulch TH @ 6:45AM. Virtually no snow for the first mile, then pretty decent coverage until Elkhead Pass. I managed to keep my trail runners on until the pass since the snow was mostly firm, but my feet soaked and cold. At the top of the pass I switched into boots and snowshoes until a few hundred feet below the summit of Emerald, which was mostly dry. Route to Iowa was also dry. Pretty much wore snowshoes the entire way back due to the spring slop and mud. It was a gd mess. Would have been a good day for the skis. 14.27 miles / 6,076' gain / 9 hours, 46 minutes 

Route: Emerald/Iowa Combo
Posted On: 10/5/2025, By: dereks95
Info: light snow cover above Elkhead pass (~1 inch). Microspikes recommended. We turned around short of the peaks but it's looking white up there. 

Route: Emerald/Iowa Combo
Posted On: 6/7/2025, By: Joey_parm
Info: (TLDR: this is a longggg day with spring snow and snow experience is recommended. Only used microspikes and poles.) No snowshoes needed up to elkhead pass in the AM / stashed them up there. Heading into Missouri Basin on the pass's south side started with a few gully snow crossings. Then we started off with Iowa first, via the alternate, and crossed more gullies - at least 2 were very steep and snow was too warm to be safe so we fortunately found some rock outcroppings to climb to. This was slow and draining and set us back a bit. These snow crossings require moderate risk tolerance IMO. Iowa ridge had large snow drifts so we stuck to the climbers right and scrambled above the cliffs. Down Iowa and up Emerald - took a random line up the face to ridge. Mostly dry. Coming back out of basin from Emerald / Iowa saddle got interesting. Lots of snow crossings which were immediate postholes knee-deep and too shallow or soft to glissade...so let's just say we got creative with how to cross these without postholing. I can't confirm or deny that we had to get on all fours multiple times. Elkhead pass back down to Missouri Gulch, didn't use the snowshoes either. We used existing posthole prints from folks that day or made some of our own. 

Route: Clohesy Lake / 381
Posted On: 5/11/2025, By: Sbenfield
Info: Started from Rockdale in flip flops in order to immediately wade the two streams. Generally unpleasant and cold, but not a huge deal. 381 Road was dry to a bit before Cloyster Lake. We used snowshoes after. Went through a forest trying to stay close the Creek, then made our way to a gentle saddle above Pear Lake. After, we used crampons and axe to ascend the moderate SW face of Emerald. Some postholing on the descent 

Route: Emerald/Iowa Combo
Posted On: 10/7/2024, By: mtnspdr
Info: Summer conditions abound. Just a few micro-patches of snow in the rocks on the north side of Emerald (see attached photo). Iowa and the ridge to Missouri are snow free. 

Route: Emerald/Iowa Combo
Posted On: 8/13/2024, By: understaffedpackraft
Info: There is a more direct route to the summit from the combo that starts closer to the ridgeline, look for small cairns in the boulder patches where the boulder field ends. This route is, however, switchback scree-city - you have been warned. North ridge route goes fine, a little route-finding. 

Route: Emerald/Iowa Combo
Posted On: 8/1/2024, By: jbealer
Info: summer conditions from TH to Emerald/Iowa. we left the trail to soon so headed to Iowa first, i do not recommend it- loose dirt/rocks, much better to decent on.

whole point of update is to ask someone to bring a new lid for the registry on emerald, the cap is missing, papers are in a zip-lock bag and were dry but that will not hold forever, or a new better container.
thanks 

Route: Emerald/Iowa Combo
Posted On: 6/23/2024, By: Belchfire
Info: Great day out there! The swatch definitely is holding more snow than a lot of other ranges around the state, but the route up Missouri has 3 snow crossings (no microspikes/axe needed). Creek crossings are very wet, but was able to keep my feet dry(mostly) on all of the crossings. There is one down Climb to the southside of Missouri that still has some snow and ice, it is slippery! On my way back around, I Made my way up the dry left side of this goalie with a few exposed class 3 moves that were definitely not necessary.

The walk over to Iowa and Emerald is completely dry on ridge proper. They should switch the names of these two peaks, as Iowa is super green and beautiful and Emerald is a loose pile of .

Only reason for an axe would be glissading. Missouri N face still goes!

Left the car at 4:30, Summited Missouri at 7:30, Iowa at eight, Emerald at 8:30, and then made the trip back over and back up on top of Missouri by 945. Back to the car at 11:30. Crusher 7k! Shout out to Andy for letting my partner know Id be an extra hour! Crusher 7k vert! 

Route: Emerald/Iowa Combo
Posted On: 6/22/2024, By: truekyle
Info: Still a good amount of snow over the other side of elk head pass. I had my dog with me and we went about 300 feet down from the saddle and decided to come back another day when we didn't have to traverse snow with her. There is a group in the basin that told me they are going up tomorrow so hopefully they will have good news! 

Route: Emerald/Iowa Combo
Posted On: 7/4/2023, By: Tony1
Info: A little less snow than I expected based on the previous entry. Almost summer conditions. Photo #2 makes it look snowier than it is.

Dry trail to the Belford split. Between the Belford and Missouri trail splits, the creek completely overtakes the trail for a while, but otherwise mostly dry. Between the Missouri split and Elkhead Pass, just a couple of snowfields, the upper of which is somewhat large but melting quick and it's easy enough to just go straight across.

Between the pass and Emerald, I took a slightly lower route than the preferred route listed on this website in order to avoid snow and found it easy enough to avoid most of the snow between the pass and the peak. No snow between Emerald and Iowa. I came down the north side of Iowa and used some snowfields to make the descent easier.

Snow was mostly supportive while soft in the afternoon. I brought spikes and gaiters but never used them. I did tolerate wet feet almost the whole way back from Iowa.

I expected to have to turn around with the forecast and late start but ended up having some insane luck here with dodging weather. Long, brutal hike but very rewarding. 

Route: Emerald/Iowa Combo
Posted On: 6/18/2023, By: sarahmariekirk
Info: Summited Missouri today via the backside of Elkshead Pass but Emerald is still extremely snowy and the snowfields are pretty unconsolidated with rotten snow. Witnessed three wet slide avalanches today on this route, with quite a lot of slide activity on the backside, traversing across the way to Emerald / Iowa. We were planning for Missouri, Emerald and Iowa today but were only able to climb Missou due to a ton of new snowfall over the last few days over a weak layer. Ill be back for these two! 

Route: Emerald via Elkhead Pass/ Missouri Gulch
Posted On: 5/31/2023, By: tefensmom
Info: Still a lot of snow. Only used snowshoes to read end Elkhead Pass on the return. Used axe a lot. Mainly was just in trail runners without traction. Snow very supportive on the ascent, post-holey on the descent as expected. Will add some pics. 

Route: From Clohesy lake
Posted On: 6/21/2022, By: Trotter
Info: Road and trail up to Clohesy lake is dry and cleaned of deadfall. Lots of flowing water on the pear lake trail below treeline, almost impossible to keep your shoes dry. Climb up to Emerald summit is loose and steep, but doable. Summer conditions.