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Route : Northwest Ridge
10.5 miles, ~4600 ft.
Began at the Missouri Gulch trailhead around 6:15am. As usual, the parking lot had begun to fill up with eager climbers. The weather looked beautiful in the morning, with no signs of bad weather.
Most climbers were headed towards Belford/Oxford so I pretty much had the upper part of Missouri Basin to Elkhead pass to myself. Upon reaching Missouri's northwest ridge at about 13,900 feet, I could see to dark clouds rolling in behind Mt. Huron.... oh crap!
I continued to the summit, reaching it around 10am and promptly begin my decent as the snow began to fall. Myself, and many other climbers, experienced some buildups of static electricity on the ridge... quite scary.
Returned to the parking area around 1:45pm for a round trip time of ~7.5 hours.
Route Conditions : Trail was clear. There are several areas of snow pack that can be easily walked across. I postholed a couple of times. On the summit ridge, there were a couple of sections of trail that were covered in snow. Following either the paths made by other climbers OR bypassing by losing some elevation solved these problems. There were also some opportunities for glisade back down to the basin.
If anyone would like more detail... just ask. |
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