I made it up to the Missouri Gulch TH on 1/10/16 in my F150 without chains, but it would have been a stretch without a combination of gnarly tires, clearance, and 4wd. There's a great, well-packed trench up to treeline and then it pretty much disappears. Conditions in Belford's NW Gully were excellent. It's mostly 3-4 inches of powder on a stable base with areas of hardpack on some steeper sections. Very nice for skinning. Coverage thins out at about 13.5k where I had to hoof it in crampons to the summit. The ski descent from the summit back down to the gully was sketchy at best. Lots of rock/scree survival skiing just to get back to the main line. Skiing the gully was the tasty stuff that dreams are made of though!
I was absolutely confident in the snow stability the entire way up the gully. I took a few photos of some of the flanking slopes that would have the potential for loading, but coverage was still so thin that it was never really an issue. There is one slope leading off the summit area that I was a little weary of, but I avoided it pretty easily. If you're looking for a beautiful, long ski descent right now, Belford's NW Gully is there for the taking! I was obviously the only one who had been in there, and the trailbreaking was absolutely worth it.
Also, I dropped my little Kodak digital camera somewhere right around treeline where the trail leaves the forest just up and to the left of the old shack. If anybody happens to be up there and finds it, maybe you could let me know.
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