Missouri Mtn. East Ridge Cliff Skirt/ South Gullies
Distance: 5 mi (one way)
Elevation gain: 4,400 ft
YDS class: Class 3
Special gear: helmet, microspikes

Early on in my 14ers career while looking for peak combo routes I wondered why Belford-Missouri via the Elkhead Pass ridge wasn't commonly done. After a little research, I quickly realized that the ridge is cliffy, covered in loose rock, and discouraged by none other than Gerry Roach himself--apparently in the good book he writes that the ridge is "relegated to this author's worst nightmares"!

While looking into it more, however, it appeared that there was a work-around for the worst of the ridge. According to this helpful forum post and this trip report, a viable and even fun option involves skirting the east ridge to the south by traversing along the base of the cliffs on the south face and then ascending gullies to the summit ridge. I've been curious about trying this myself, in part because I wonder if it could be a feasible winter route and also because decent class 3 Sawatch scrambles are pretty rare! I wanted to make this trip report to show some more pictures of the route and add my own experience of it as well. I had a great time, it was nowhere as loose expected, and it sent like a dream!

Note: if you notice any colored bubbles at the edges of these pictures, I was just trying to edit out my hand. The sun was shining directly at me while on the ridge and I had to block it out with my hand to get useable pictures.

To access the east ridge, first you must reach Elkhead Pass between Belford & Missouri. On the way up to the pass, the first part of the ridge before you drop to the south side of the mountain is visible. The features on this section from left to right are a small bump-and-a-half, a larger bump, a low saddle, and then Missouri's broad summit ridge. The low saddle is the point where I started skirting around the back side of the mountain to avoid the difficulties of Missouri's summit ridge.

Once at the pass I could now start heading up the east ridge. I was surprised to find a path here in an area I don't see talked about often--I've seen Front Range 13ers with less of a trail than this!

Once I arrived at the first small bump I could instantly see how the rock quality here gets a bad rep. The social trails charted through solid rock, but small stacks of splintered rocks embedded in the boulders looked ready to fall apart with a single pull. There was a short yet exciting catwalk on solid rock after this bump as well.

Here's where my advice would differ from the previous reports--others have suggested skirting the large bump right after the small bump and catwalk but I would have much rather gone over it. The bypass to the left of this tower had the loosest and steepest terrain of the whole route. The author of the report I linked earlier said that the downclimb from this large bump was "impossible"--from the other side to me it looked perfectly feasible, though, especially for an already class 3 route.

After this larger knob I arrived at the low saddle just before Missouri's summit ridge. This where I started skirting to the left/south side of the proud yet disintegrating bluffs. The social trail here was still holding up strong--I could definitely see recent footprints and a pattern of disturbance at the base of the cliffs.

I only realized later that these trailrunner prints were probably from none other than 14er royalty Andrea Sansone & Andrew Hamilton on their Nolan’s run that morning! From Andrew’s forum posts it looks like he has a dialed-in yet still unnerving Pyramid Peak-like route down the upper south side of the summit ridge.

This saddle was where I also put on my secret weapon: microspikes! I noted how user daway8 used these with success and no damage to the spikes while going up the sandy, slippery standard trail of Maroon Peak. They were very useful for me for maintaining traction across and up dirt sections from here. I think it would also be wise to put on a helmet here too in case anything lets loose from above.

After not having a fun time bypassing the large bump before this, I was surprised to find the scree under the cliffs to be fairly stable and not that steep. The terrain is a mix of anchored rocks, gravelly dirt, loose talus, and grassy ledges. The cliff walls often provide a solid handhold over unsteady terrain. I only felt a little nervous on a couple steps above a steeper dirt chute, otherwise it really wasn't sketchy at all and felt kind of cool. The view to the south remained breathtaking and it felt unique for a 14er route treading under these monolithic ramparts. The following are pictures of the path from around each rock rib/corner, I stayed pretty much right next to the cliffs as much as I could:

After a while the cliffs relent and degrade into rock ribs and gullies, and the scree slopes also lessen in angle. I passed one ravine with stark, canyon-like walls that I considered ascending but ended up passing--I was trying to find the rock rib formations for the gully that user leggaj5 successfully climbed in their trip report but couldn't ever match the pictures up. I think that canyon gully actually is the one that they clambered up, though. Next time I think I'd try going up that one simply because it looks cool and it tops out in the same area as the trench I ascended a bit further down. I don't think I would try ascending earlier than the canyon gully, however--the ribs & talus just looked too steep and junky before this.

Very soon I came to what seemed to be the last rock ribs and gully for a while along the slope. The chute was narrow and tapered off to a square-ish window at the top. The walls appeared solid and there wasn't a lot of scree in the middle. It looked pretty good to me for an ascension point so I climbed up, alternating between the middle and sides for the easiest traction and holds.

I was surprised with how quickly I was gaining elevation here. I really appreciate how class 3 climbing distributes elevation gain over my whole body and thus feels a bit easier than just hiking for miles up a trail. After topping out on the gully, the slope above opened up to a variety of options. I saw two bumps ahead of me but wasn't sure yet if those were the base of two more lower-angle rock ribs or the summit ridge itself. I decided to ascend the larger talus blocks on the right side of this open area while making my way to the bump ahead on the right. The rock was solid here, the larger boulders seemed pinned down well. The view to the south from up above here was still incredible!

There's obviously looser rock in the open area, but some are anchored down among grassy patches--nothing really took me by surprise by moving underneath me. I decided to angle below and to the left of the right bump ahead so I could end up between both mounds. I was definitely getting the feeling now that those rock piles were on the summit ridge! There was a gash between these two bumps that that I took care while maneuvering over since a fall into it would have been consequential. Soon I topped out at the small saddle overlooking Missouri Gulch!

There were numerous social trails up along the summit ridge. I followed one atop the left summit ridge hump until I could see the summit proper. And that was that! The east ridge cliff skirt route was a success after all!

I really enjoyed this route! Traversing along the bottom of the bluffs was pretty painless and didn't feel super loose, especially with my microspikes. The climbing up the gullies was engaging and solid--definitely not something worth relegating to my nightmares! If I tried this route again I think on the first section I would ascend & descend the large bump before the Missouri ridge headwall and try out the cool-looking canyon gully just for fun. Looking from above, that ravine opened up to the same low-angle talus area above the narrow gully I took.

I didn't return this way (came down the west ridge to check out the Clohesy Lake area), but I think this route would be feasible for descending as well. I would probably pass between the two bumps on the summit ridge like I did on the ascent then tread through the low-angle talus blocks on the upper slope until I reached the narrow gully. From there I might either climb down the gully or along the outside of the rock rib on skier's right. After that, I would traverse back to Elkhead Pass along the base of the cliffs.

There are already a few trip reports that detail descents of the east ridge, but they cut diagonally across the south face towards Elkhead Pass, either on small loose scree over huge drops or up and over gullies until they get cliffed out. These users seemed like they had some pretty sketchy experiences on this diagonal-cut high route--the descent down the route that I took appeared much safer and easier and doesn't have any unwelcome or invisible surprises.

I hope this ridge gets more attention, it was a unique, beautiful, fun, and safe route with lots of options and variations as well! The only real big crux of the day was on the way home getting stopped for construction at the Eisenhower tunnel at 10:30pm... and then waking up at 5:30am the next morning for work!

GPX route is approximate: