We'd heard that the Ruby Range was the closest thing to the Sierra to be found in Nevada. Not that we were necessarily looking for, or wanting Sierra-like peaks while in the state, but the description was at least a little intriguing. The Ruby Range is located in the northeast part of the state, just about as much in the center of the Great Basin as one could get. The local climate must be somewhat interesting to bring larger amounts of precipitation here than elsewhere, and indeed the surrounding communities of Elko and Pleasant Valley were greener than we'd found outside the area. The range has canyons carved by ancient glaciation, unlike most of the canyons in the typical Nevada range. A paved road winds its way up the most impressive of these canyons, though we would not have the opportunity to visit it during this trip. The highpoint of the range, Ruby Dome, oddly sits off the main crest some distance, along a spur ridgeline trending westward. We'd heard that a Sierra Club party had been rebuffed in their attempt to climb the mountain a month earlier due to heavy, unconsolidated snows. Bob Sumner had warned in an email not to take the mountain lightly at this time of year.
Matthew had driven out from San Jose to join us for the weekend, a remarkably long drive for only a few days' effort. It seemed Matthew was as interested in this peak as ourselves, perhaps more so. When I awoke in the back of the van shortly after 5a, Matthew's car was parked just up the road, as expected. He's rather reliable in this way, among others. It had been more than a month since I'd last seen him, so we caught up on things while getting our gear ready. Our packs would be full with snowshoes, axe, and crampons. Adam decided to forgo the axe and crampons, hoping to get away with just snowshoes for the summit effort. None of us knew enough about the climb to be able to judge whether this was a reasonable move or not.
The sun had risen shortly before 5:30a, lighting up
the Rubies to the east. We
could see there was abundant snow up high, though none down lower. It was only
afterwards that we realized that both peaks
were visible from our start. At
6a we were in front of the
gated road to the private campground. Apparently they
only want to keep out unauthorized vehicles and are ok with individuals on
foot, so we hopped the fence and started up the road. The campground was
deserted with the exception of a
small herd that had the run of the place. Only
in Nevada could they combine camping and grazing so seamlessly. It was easy to
find the TH thanks to a fine,
new-looking sign. There was even a 
small bridge
to help us across the swiftly flowing creek and
onto the trail on the north side.
Over the next hour the trail took us up into Hennen Canyon, out of the
desert lowlands. Aspens line much of the canyon.
Green and leafy in the 
lower reaches,
the trees were 
winter-like bare
as we hiked higher into the canyon. The ground
was saturated in most places with water running haphazardly everywhere. We did
our best to hop about and pretend to keep our boots dry, but it seemed
a losing battle with so much water about.
Around 8a and before reaching Griswold Lake, we found ourselves on
continuous snow and quickly switched to snowshoes.
We found 
the lake nearly frozen, though
open water could be found about the edges. It didn't seem wise to try and walk
across the lake, so we navigated 
around the perimeter.
There was a steep slope
immediately above the lake and with snowshoes the snow was about as slick and
steep
as we'd have liked to see it. None of us was altogether comfortable
hiking up and 
traversing across it, but we managed without incident.
By 9a we were in 
open country above the trees
near the head of the canyon. 
Ruby Dome and
Ruby Pyramid
were the two highest summits in the area, rising more than
1,000ft above us at the south end of the canyon. We traversed
easy ground
towards the base of the headwall leading to the saddle between the two peaks.
Matthew and I paused here to
switch to crampons while Adam continued off 
to our right
on his snowshoes. We thought we'd have the advantage at this point,
but Adam was out to prove the snowshoes more than adequate. We ran into
thick, 
steep snow, slowing our progress considerably,
all the while Adam racing out 
in front of us.
He beat us handily to the pass and was relaxing 
on some rocks,
eating a snack, when we finally caught up with him.
The East Ridge leading up to Ruby Dome caught all of us by surprise, finding it
surprisingly steep
and nearly knife-edged 
in places. Adam showed considerable skill and
pluck in 
digging in with his snowshoes to climb 
the ridge
that was hard enough
with crampons. The snow had not hardened in the night, perhaps not for many
nights, and was quite a chore to climb through. The
final 100yds to the summit
saw the angle ease off considerably, and just before 11a we found our way to
the very top.
All but the upper portion of a large cairn was buried in snow. Matthew made a
weak effort
to find a register at the base of it, but none of us felt much
like digging out the snow to find it. It had been overcast for much of the
morning and clouds were 
swirling about us near the summit.
When the clouds
parted momentarily we could see far in 
the distance,
but these 
moments did not
last long. We were on an island of white stretching out for miles, down to
the valley floors that were green and verdant. It had an odd feeling of
remoteness, but on a limited scope.
After we all 
descended
safely back to the pass, we then 
headed east up the
opposing ridgeline to the unofficially named Ruby Pyramid. It did not have
the steepness of Ruby Dome and felt a good deal safer. The
final 50-60ft of the
climb was over class 2-3 rock that the winds had swept clear of snow. The
rocky summit was likewise snow-free,
but we had no better luck locating a register
there either. Matthew had been initially keen to continue
traversing east
along the ridgeline to Mts. Silliman and Gilbert, an idea I thought was
overly ambitious. Now that we were at the summit of Ruby Pyramid and could
better judge the effort involved to reach Silliman, Matthew was no longer so
keen. I tried to encourage he and Adam to continue on and make a loop of it if
they so chose, but I'd had enough for one day myself. They decided in the end
that they had had enough as well.
We we back down to the saddle and then downclimbed the initial
steep slope.
After that Matthew put away his crampons, the two of us in turn
glissading down the slope.
With little previous practice at it, Adam did a 
poor job of
it in turn, prompting jeers and jokes from Matthew and I. He got better with
successive efforts on our way down, but they were still pretty weak. Switching
back to snowshoes, we continued 
traversing and 
glissading
our way back to 
Griswold Lake and the
wet, muddy trail below it. We were slower on our return, stopping to
take pictures of 
flowers and 
scenery, reaching
the campground and then 
our cars shortly before 3p.
After showering roadside with our warmed jugs of water, we made plans to head
to another county highpoint, Granite Peak, on our return to California. We
stopped in Elko for dinner at a mexican restaurant on our way back to Interstate
80, then several hours east to
Winnemucca and more time driving north to
Paradise Valley, not far from Granite Mtn. We bedded down for the night just
off the dirt road, not far from pavement's end outside Paradise. Only a few cows
would be around to disturb our sleep tonight...
Continued...