Missouri Mountain Trip Report 06/06/2010

Report Type	Mini
Peak(s)	Missouri Mountain - 14,071 feet
Date Posted	06/06/2010
Date Climbed	06/05/2010
Author	RobertPetrowsky

3rd times the charm
AP Snow and I drove down to the Missouri trailhead and started up the trail a little after 6:30. It was painfully warm and after the 6th switchback we were stripping off gear. I stashed my compression sack with all of my winter clothes and climbed to snow in my long underwear bottoms and topless. I'm still used to extreme cold and was sweating profusely until treeline where the wind cooled us off. The trail is still hit or miss on snow cover after treeline and it took some creative routfinding to cross a river that was either too deep to wade or had sketchy snow bridges. Finally we got to around 12,600 feet and put on the boots and crampons. We had originally decided to climb one of the north face couloirs but there was a nice bootpack up the tourist route and breaking trail in the heat didn't sound fun. We climbed what was essentially a nice ladder to about 13,300 feet when we noticed that the snow between us and the north face had released around some rocks and sent down a nice slide. We picked it up from there and gained the ridge a few minutes later. The snow near the rocks at the top was mashed potatos and had some ice at the bottom. The traverse across steep snow on the back was uneventful and we summited about 10 minutes after gaining the ridge. Austin wanted a full summit ski so we quickly threw a few shovel fulls of snow up to the summit and filled in the ramp. After some quick pictures we were both on the way down. I crossed back over the traverse which was icing quickly as the sun hit it. Austin skied one of the couloirs. The top of the downclimb was scary where our postholes were melting out and filling in with water over some loose ice. After that I glissaded the rest, fell through the willows into the creek twice and had a wet but uneventful walk back to the car. I'll try to post a few pics when I get them off my camera.

3rd times the charm

AP Snow and I drove down to the Missouri trailhead and started up the trail a little after 6:30. It was painfully warm and after the 6th switchback we were stripping off gear. I stashed my compression sack with all of my winter clothes and climbed to snow in my long underwear bottoms and topless. I'm still used to extreme cold and was sweating profusely until treeline where the wind cooled us off. The trail is still hit or miss on snow cover after treeline and it took some creative routfinding to cross a river that was either too deep to wade or had sketchy snow bridges. Finally we got to around 12,600 feet and put on the boots and crampons. We had originally decided to climb one of the north face couloirs but there was a nice bootpack up the tourist route and breaking trail in the heat didn't sound fun. We climbed what was essentially a nice ladder to about 13,300 feet when we noticed that the snow between us and the north face had released around some rocks and sent down a nice slide. We picked it up from there and gained the ridge a few minutes later. The snow near the rocks at the top was mashed potatos and had some ice at the bottom. The traverse across steep snow on the back was uneventful and we summited about 10 minutes after gaining the ridge.

Austin wanted a full summit ski so we quickly threw a few shovel fulls of snow up to the summit and filled in the ramp. After some quick pictures we were both on the way down. I crossed back over the traverse which was icing quickly as the sun hit it. Austin skied one of the couloirs. The top of the downclimb was scary where our postholes were melting out and filling in with water over some loose ice. After that I glissaded the rest, fell through the willows into the creek twice and had a wet but uneventful walk back to the car. I'll try to post a few pics when I get them off my camera.

Comments or Questions

ngoodnight	Nice job 6/6/2010 6:22pm Nice job... battling the horrible snow conditions on that mountain. We climbed it Friday via the full ridge traverse. The snow up there is a mess - inconsistent, pockets of air and water running to the ground. We saw a cornice break at 7:30am, and even the shallow snow drifts are prone to wet slides.
Dancesatmoonrise	Nice! 6/6/2010 7:24pm Mo‘ was tricky yesterday, that‘s for sure. Nice job getting it. And congrats to Austin on his 34th 14er ski.
stevevets689	Chatted with... 6/8/2010 3:26pm Austin on his hike out after James‘ and my successful snowshoe rescue, glad you guys had a good time out!
RobertPetrowsky	thanks! 9/18/2013 7:44pm Yeah it was rough. The small slide was just sloughing off around the large sunbaked rocks. We stayed in cooler parts of the snow and it wasn‘t bad other than a few feet of traverse back to the rock/dirt slope. The boot tracks melted down to a swamp in just an hour. I think snow climbing is done for the season.

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