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I was back in the Lake Mead NRA for a second day, tagging some peak along
Northshore Rd found in Purcell's Rambles & Scrambles. Though they
were all fairly short, they were technically challenging with steep,
broken limestone rock, conglomerate, some sandstone and the spooky, steep
soft earth stuff on the last summit. After rescuing Tom and Iris at
Clipper Mtn in California the previous day, I had driven back to Nevada,
camping at the same spot between Searchlight and Henderson that I had used
the previous night. I was up in the morning, driving through Henderson
and into the NRA around sunrise.
Knob Peak
My first stop was to the peak I had aborted on when I got the distress
Snapchat from Iris the previous day. I drove back up West End Wash, then onto
a rougher road going up and around the of Knob Peak. Only
0.4mi
from the summit, the distance was short but there was still almost 600ft of
gain. The northwest side I climbed was somewhat loose, but fortunately
the angle not so great as to make it dangerous. There is a
where the face is steepest near its base, keeping things class 2-3. As I was
not really sure if I had
other options for the descent, I came back the same way.
After-Work Peak
Located south of Knob Peak and on of Northshore Rd, I
found this to be a straightforward class 2 pile of rubble with no fun
scrambling. Good views of Lake Mead to from the summit, but
as an
after-work exercise, there are far better alternatives closer to Las Vegas.
Mine View/Polytick/Murphys
This trio is found a few miles east on the north side of Northshore Rd. A
hihg-clearance gravel road goes up Callville Wash to get you close to the
three summits. Mine View and Polytick are primarily broken limestone slabs,
much like Knife and Slabs Peaks the day before. I
for the lower climbing up the
east side and then down ,
dropping to a saddle with Polytick Peak. The name derives from the large
(but mostly non-operational) surface mine found to .
Some decent scrambling can be had climbing
of Polytick. Seems Pucell & company picked up three
ticks while climbing this one - I was glad to see none of the critters today.
The
is a mix of limestone conglomerate and sandstone. Both and
had registers only a few years old. I continued NE across
the summit of Polytick, passing a large before
dropping into the western end of Bowl of Fire, a brightly-colored
. It was fun
to cruise through this area, a maze of narrow canyons and interesting rock
features. I then began climbing up to of Murphys Peak,
avoiding
the closer northwest side that looked a bit treacherous. The north side was
steep, but not overly so, and made for a to
>P33>the summit. I
descended an easier route down ,
eventually dropping into a
gully before emerging in the main
for a short walk back to the
jeep. This was the best hike of the day, hands down.
Basalt Peak
This was a summit I bypassed earlier in the year when I was doing a loop around
Hamblin Mountain and Hamblin Butte. It uses the same starting location on
Northshore Rd, at a paved turnout with trash receptacles. The distance is a
little over a mile as the crow flies, though the easiest route is a bit longer,
going up a wash to approach the summit from the northeast. I ignored the nice
line I had drawn on the GPSr to make a more direct effort
,
going over a couple of
with drops on the other side. I found some
in places and a lone ,
so I didn't mind the more difficult route option.
It wasn't
that great, so on the way back I took the easier route down
.
Northshore West
Purcell has this to say about :
This is an awful peak, littered
with loose scree. The north face is a treacherous, supremely dangerous route.
I didn't read this until after I had climbed it, but there was nothing there
I would disagree with. It WAS awful, and I didn't even use the routes mentioned
in the book. I went up , starting along a low shoulder,
finding loose,
spongey-soft slopes composed of powered rock and gravel. Higher up, the rock
quality improved, but only in comparison to the other stuff lower down. Not
wanting to return the same way, I descended , another
(though not as bad as the West Face), that had me crab-walking down more
of ,
wondering just how sturdy this stuff could be. It seemed to
hold my weight well-enough, but I was nervous almost all the way up and down
this thing. No fun found here.
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