Missouri Mountain to Belford Via Elkhead Pass/Ridge

[BigC]

Hi there,

Gearing up to tackle Missouri Mountain --I skipped out on the peak a few summers ago when doing BelOx due to a fast moving storm. I've always thought the ridge between Belford and Missouri looked like a delicious traverse. Has anyone here ever done Missouri to Belford via the Elkhead ridge/pass? If so, can you explain the level of difficulty and commitment, and if you thought it was worth doing?

[the_hare]

Here's a report I made going up to Missouri from Elkhead pass that skirts below the cliff faces and ascends a south-facing gully to reach the summit. I've heard the routefinding more up on the ridge proper as going from nightmarish to interesting & seen some other forum threads about it but this way avoids that at least to make it pretty interesting and reliably feasible I think

https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... m=tripmine

[bigredmachine]

Scouted it both from the top and bottom. It goes, but would not be any fun at all. It’s a ton of dinner plate talus. It’s sketch as hell. If all you are doing is Missouri, just hit the standard.

[dwoodward13]

Gerry Roach says the ridge "is so rotten that is its relegated to this author's nightmares"....

[nyker]

I was under it a couple years ago doing Iowa/Emerald and thought about hitting Missouri again while there, but it didn't look like it would have made for a pleasant afternoon.

[DaveLanders]

If you decide to do the ridge direct, I would go from Belford to Missouri. The route finding is supposed to be easier in that direction. The last time I was on Missouri's summit a guy approached from the east. I asked him if he had just done the east ridge, and he said no; he had summited Missouri earlier and then tried to descend the east ridge to get to Belford but couldn't figure it out, so he was retreating back over the summit of Missouri.

[BigC]

Here's a report I made going up to Missouri from Elkhead pass that skirts below the cliff faces and ascends a south-facing gully to reach the summit. I've heard the routefinding more up on the ridge proper as going from nightmarish to interesting & seen some other forum threads about it but this way avoids that at least to make it pretty interesting and reliably feasible I think

https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... m=tripmine

This is super, super helpful and informative, thank you.

[justiner]

I've re-read Roche's description of the east ridge route, and it's actually bang on. The big blunder are people going south rather than north, when they come to the large buttress. Here's what I wrote 6 years ago,

If anyone with good experience on loose terrain wants to try the East Ridge of Missouri, I do have some suggestions:

Easier to go from Elkhead Pass to Missouri summit.

There's a pretty obvious crux to it, where you stare west at a very, very loose gully. Don't take the gully! Instead traverse on the N side of things. You'll find a sloping ledge below an overhang. Traverse that, and carefully scramble up steep terrain. On climbers left (south), you'll see very very loose terrain that almost looks like fish scales. Your job is to avoid that - best climbing is on climber's right (north). You'll find yourself below a V-Notch with steep climbing above. You may have to stem up beyond some loose blocks into the notch itself, but then the climbing gets really good. There's a crack on climber's right that proves to be good hand/footholds.

Once at the top of the notch (a full pitch), exit to the left (south) and onto the crest of the ridge. All Class 3 (or lower) after that. Doesn't remove all the danger from the looseness (and obv. objective danger from the steep climbing), but it's passable as a route.

V-Notch should be done one at a time. Could also be potentially protectable but I don't know anyone who would haul gear up for that. Decending the V-Notch would be pretty heads-up, which is why people probably take the very loose (think of a 45 degree scree slope with no real bottom) gully down from Missouri to Elkhead Pass.

This route is appropriate for people who have solo'd solid 5.easy and can handle a good bit of choss-a-neering.