Continued...
I had traveled to Nevada to finish up the list of peaks found in Andy Zdon's
Desert Summits. Bob Sumner and I had been separately working on this
list for several years now, though neither of us had put any real priority to
it, despite knowing that not even Andy Zdon had climbed them all yet. Some
months ago I had traveled to the Gold Butte National Monument near the UT/NV/AZ
border to do a handful in that area, leaving me just three peaks in West Central
NV and a lone summit in Death Valley. The weather in that part of Nevada stayed
very cold for a number of months and I let the project simmer. Sumner had
asked me in December if I was going to be finishing it anytime soon to which I
indicated probably not until March. This would give him some months to have a
crack at it, but he had other life distractions keeping him from the task. And
so in April I noted the weather and timing had finally come together and I set
out with a four-day window to finish it off. I had other peaks in mind as well,
some from Walt Wheelock's Desert Peaks Guide as well as Courtney
Purcell's Rambles and Scrambles, and some bonus peaks, too.
Black Mountain
At close to 10,000ft in elevation, Black Mtn was the main peak I had any real
concerns about, not knowing just how much snow there was in the White Mtns and
what the snow levels were. Would I be able to drive to the TH? Would I need
snowshoes? I brought the snowshoes for just this contingency, but never needed
them. Black Mtn lies on the eastern side of the White Mtns in Nevada, really
just a local highpoint along a long ridge leading west up to Mt. Dubois. I had
initially planned to approach the peak from the north via Middle Canyon, but
during
I was surprised to see there was less snow than I had
expected. On the fly I decided to approach from the south via Chiatovich Canyon,
hoping I could get away with not having to carry the snowshoes. There is a USFS
gate near the ,
unsigned and not all that obvious. Once
past this gate, one can drive a considerable distance up the canyon but I had
only a short distance to go to reach my for Black Mtn.
There is an initial short but steep drop to , a bit
brushy and a little tricky, but once past that obstacle I found the going
pretty straightforward though no picnic.
It would take me well over two hours to make 2,500ft over the
course of two miles to reach the summit from the east. The snow started around
9,000ft, but by the time I
reached 9,500ft. The warm
weather had meant that the snowpack had not frozen for several days and it was
now a wet, heavy mess. Though the snowshoes weren't needed or really wanting,
it was impossible to keep my boots dry in this snow as they would sink in 6-8"
with almost every step. I found and
a short distance , and below the
highpoint. I found no register there nor at that I
visited next. Hoping to find a drier way down, I decided to descend more
directly off the summit, south and then southeast following a steeper but
drier subsidiary ridgeline off . This worked nicely enough
that, had I used it for the ascent, my
boots would have stayed relatively dry by the time I got back. Luckily I had
brought two pair of boots, so I wouldn't have to spend the rest of the day
wallowing in the wet ones. It was well before noon when I
back at the jeep, leaving me with plenty of time to get ahead of the schedule
I'd set out for the next few days.
Pinto Hill
This is a fairly minor summit 10mi northeast of Black Mtn, and it took me about
30min to drive from one TH to the other. is the lowest of
five summits in the area between Trail Canyon and Sand Spring Canyon, and a bit
of head-scratcher how it made it into a guidebook as opposed to the higher, more
prominent and better-looking Pinyon Hill nearby. I was able to drive within
and make of it from the
south, taking all of 30min for the roundtrip effort. There was a particularly
fine view of snowy to
from the summit.
Mineral Ridge
The last two summits are located in the Silver Peak Range, to the east across
Fish Lake Valley from the White Mountains, and it would take another hour of
driving to get from one range to the next. I had been to the area two years
earlier with Tom and Karl. At that time, we had approached Mineral Ridge from
the
northwest where there is an active quarry adjacent to the peak. We were unable
to convince the manager to give us access from that side, so we had to leave it
unclimbed. This time,
I had worked out an approach from the southwest that would skirt
the quarry property, but it was not a simple effort. To start, there was a
rough 4WD track I negotiated from the main road (which is good shape). This
only garnered me an extra half mile or so and a few hundred feet, so not all
that necessary to use the route. The bigger issue is that the route goes across
the
grain of the drainages, resulting in three significant drops along the way. The
, starting immediately from where , was
the steepest and required some care to avoid minor cliffs. It was tiring work,
going in and out of the , but it was
too, with old from
found outside the active mine boundary to the south. As
expected, I skirted right up against of the mine as I made my
way
northeast towards the summit. It took an hour and a half to reach the summit
where one gets a of the quarry in action, really just a
couple of
guys pushing gravel around with bulldozers today. There is also a nice view
to Clayton Valley with more mining activity there, a
lithium brine operation in continuous operation since 1966. My return route was
more efficient, helped by extra knowledge gleaned during the ascent, cutting
the return time to only an hour. I spotted high on a
ridge during the return and she kept on me until it was
clear I was heading in another direction. It was just after 4:30p when I
returned, giving me time for one last summit.
Red Mountain
is found about 3mi southwest of Mineral Ridge and a much more
impressive
summit. It was easily visible as a high, bulky summit during most of my way to
and from Mineral Ridge. It took about 30min to drive between them, the
for Red Mtn found at Coyote Summit where the main road
goes over the crest of the range. I was hoping this would be a quick, easy
summit, but I hadn't realized it has 1,500ft of gain with the peak rising to
almost 9,000ft. The approach is fairly short,
about 1.4mi each way, but it had enough snow (more of the soft, heavy, wet
stuff) to be somewhat troublesome. I spent an hour dodging my way through trees
and around snowdrifts to make it to the by 6p where
a held the only register I found on the day. Placed by
Barbara and Gordon back , it was quite busy with more than 30
pages of entries. I managed to to the jeep by 6:45p with just
a short time remaining until sunset.
I drove down to a more protected spot in order to
shower, then headed back out of the mountains to US6/US95. I was well ahead of
schedule for the trip and knew I'd have extra time. So I drove north into the
Monte Cristo Range to do a couple of summits there in the morning. There is a
small network of long, dirt roads that wind their way into the range and it was
not hard to find a quiet spot to spend the night...
Continued...