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| North Face Couloirs   | 
| Page Type: Route Location: Colorado, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 38.94720°N / 106.3778°W Route Type: Snow Climb Time Required: Most of a day Difficulty: Grade II, Class 3/Moderate Snow
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| Page By: Chris Created/Edited: Jul 7, 2004 / Jul 7, 2004 Object ID: 161448 Hits: 1136 Loading... Page Score: 0% - 0 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Approach
Trailhead: Missouri Gulch Trailhead. To reach this TH, take US 24 south about 19-20 miles out of Leadville, or north out of Buena Vista about 15 miles to Chaffee county road 390. This road is gravel, but easily passable in passenger cars. Go west for about 7.5 miles to the Missouri Gulch Trailhead, which will be on the left. There is ample parking and restrooms at the trailhead. The trailhead lies at 9,640ft.
Route Description
Follow the standard Northwest Ridge route up Missouri Mountain to approx 12,700'. The standard North Face couloirs are the 4 snow couloirs that ascend almost directly to the summit. The summit is almost directly south of you at this point. It is the high point along the East Ridge route (Class 4)The western-most couloir is the C Couloir, and is the easiest. They difficulty increases as you move east. The climbs are approximately 1000-1200 vertical feet long.
A mistake we made was thinking the summit was the western-most high point, just east of the saddle between Missouri and Point 13,764. It is not the summit, although looked a bit higher from the vantage point in the basin below Missouri. As such, we climbed the steeper of the 4 couloirs reaching to *that* summit, which was actually Point 13,930 on the USGS topo maps, then had to backtrack along the NW ridge to the actual summit. The actual North Face couloirs are almost due south of where the trail to Missouri's Northwest ridge route breaks off from the trail leading over Elkhead Pass.
The routes are straight-forward snow climbs of moderate steepness (approx 45-50 degrees at the steepest points).
Descend the same routes or the Northwest Ridge (standard) route.
Total distance: 9.0 miles, Elevation gain: 4,450 feet.
Essential Gear
Bring typical Fourteener gear plus ice axe, stiff mountaineering boots, and possibly crampons, depending on time of day and time of year. Late in the year the route may become icy, or it may just melt out... I'm not sure. Judging by the snow conditions in the couloir we climbed I'd guess they just melt out as the season progresses.
Miscellaneous Info
If you have information about this route that doesn't pertain to any of the other sections, please add it here.
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Sawatch Range
