Thu, Feb 17, 2022
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| With: | Patrick O'Neill |
Our second day in Clark County had Patrick and I in the Eldorado Range south
of Boulder City. I originally had a plan to do five summits found in Purcell's
Rambles &Scrambles, but Patrick was doing so well (he ran the last few
miles on the previous day) that I sort of snuck in a few extra summits not
found in the guidebook without ever mentioning they weren't part of the plan.
It worked out even better than I expected, keeping us busy for more than eight
hours, filling most of the day. We spent some time in the early morning
driving south from Boulder City and into the range, dropping my Jeep off at the
south end of our hike and then driving back to 
the north end. This would
save us 3-4 miles of walking at the end of the day. Though it wasn't until after
8a that we got started, we didn't mind because it was quite cold before the sun
came up, around freezing. It had warmed up a bit, but we still started with an
extra layer on to keep out the chill. This would come off and back on throughout
the day, as conditions dictated.
Pilot Cone was our first stop, about a mile and a half northeast of
where we parked. A third of this was on the desert flats going around Pt.
2,410ft, then up an initial slope over a false summit before tackling the
highpoint. 
The terrain is dark, rough volcanic rock that grows
increasingly tedious as one 
nears the peak. The final cone is a steep
pile of rubble that looks equally uninviting from all sides. It would take us a
little over an hour to reach 
the rubbly summit where the broken shaft
of a surveyor's wooden post sticks out from the rock, partially entwined in
rusty wire. The summit offers a good view 
looking southeast to the next
collection of peaks on our route. None of it looks to have any technical
difficulties, but it seems to be more of the same dark volcanic rock. Luckily
the travel along the route would improve after leaving Pilot Cone.
Peak 3,220ft was one of the bonus summits and our second stop, about a mile
ESE of Pilot Cone. It would take us an hour to travel from the first summit,
dropping about 400ft along the ridgeline. We bypassed an intermediate highpoint
by traversing across the SW side before climbing Peak 3,220ft from the west.
Like the first summit, 
the rockiest parts were found in the last few
hundred feet. Our third summit was now lined up to 
the south, a mile
away, along an easier ridgeline with a shorter drop, only about 300ft.
Unofficially named Pilot Mesa was named by Purcell for the nearby Pilot Cone
and has more than 600ft of prominence. It took another hour
to reach it, the summit not clearly defined at the flattish top. We ducked off
to the leeward side to get out of the wind blowing across it, 
pausing
for a snack. There were no registers on any of the first three peaks.
Yucca Camp Peak would be our fourth summit, another mile to the south.
Though lower than the last two summits, it would require more work since it was
necessary to drop all the way down to the valley floor enroute. It's the best
looking of the day's summits, at least from our vantage point. Between the two
peaks, we crossed over Yucca Camp Rd, though we don't really know where Yucca
Camp is (or was) located, for which Pucell named the summit. We went up the
rugged 
North Ridge with some 
decent scrambling, really the
only 
such travel we found all day. It took about an hour and a third
between summits. We found the first register of the day here, left by Kevin
Humes 
in 2018. Stav Basis was the last to visit, back in November.
Midway Peak is less than half a mile southeast of Yucca Camp Peak, but
it would take 40min to 
reach it since we had to drop all the way back
down again. Unofficially named, Midway stands isolated, much like Yucca Camp,
and is slightly higher though less prominence. We descended steep slopes on
Yucca Camp's SE side before climbing the easier gradient found on Midway's NW
Ridge. Midway had another register from the same LVMC party as Yucca Camp,
though it was mistakenly dated 
to 2017 - I've done the same on more
than one occasion, usually during the month of January. Peak #6,
Forlorn Hope Peak, was our second bonus peak. It is named after a
spring of the same name found about half a mile west of the summit. The peak is
located about a mile and half southeast of Midway and would require another drop
nearly to the desert floor. We followed 
the low ridgeline between the
two summits, eventually climbing 
onto the North Ridge of Forlorn Hope,
a 
pleasant traverse taking us another hour from Midway. It was both the
highest and most prominence summit of the day, with more than 750ft of
prominence. It commands a view stretching across the Eldorado Range and
Wilderness, 
east to the Colorado River and beyond into Arizona. We
paused here for a longer break, once again ducking off the leeward side
where it was pleasantly warm.
Our last summit was Peeper BM a mile to the west. The Jeep was parked in the
wash between these last two summits, allowing us to visit the Jeep if needed
before climbing Peeper BM. Patrick had dropped one of his water bottles
somewhere after the first summit and had been concerned about running out ever
since, though I told him I had plenty to share. The chilly conditions had
allowed us to conserve our supplies much more than normally, leaving us with
plenty at the end - so much so, that Patrick didn't run out and we had no need
to restock from the Jeep. We descended moderate slopes 
off Forlorn Hope
to the northwest, then worked our way west back 
towards the Jeep tucked
into the wash. As we 
started up the east slopes of Peeper BM, the sun
ducked 
behind the summit, leaving us in the shade where we paused to
add a layer to ward off the increasing chill. It was just after 4p
when we reached 
the summit, finding 
a benchmark from 1934 and
the detritus of a lighted survey tower that once stood here. There is
a nice afternoon view of Forlorn Hope Peak to 
the east. It would be
nearly 4:30p before we 
got back down to the Jeep. We didn't realize it
at the time, but our ending point was some 500ft higher than our starting point
- this one would be a bit easier run in the opposite direction.
We drove back out to the Grand Cherokee, showered in the last rays of the setting sun, then headed back to Boulder City for the night. We had dinner at the BBQ place there, then out to the empty desert spaces on the south side of town. Iris and TomG would be joining us the next day for a return visit to the AZ Hot Spring...
Continued
This page last updated: Mon Mar 14 10:50:38 2022
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