Day 2 in the Spring Mtns saw me tackling a group of summits west of Lee Canyon. In his book, Rambles & Scrambles, Courtney gives high praise to the traverses between North Macks/Macks and South Sister/North Sister. The former he describes as "Perhaps the finest alpine(ish) adventure in Southern Nevada" and "Even better is a link-up of the Macks Peak traverse and the Sisters traverse." With such glowing reviews, it seemed a no-brainer to give it a go.
I had spent the night camped about two miles along the maintained gravel/dirt
Macks Canyon Rd. Courtney (and others) say high-clearance is recommended, but
that might only be true if you're in a hurry. I found it driveable by any
vehicle, including my van. It never got below 70F during the night, a bit
dicey for car camping imo, but I slept decently and was up around 5:20a. I had
planned an even earlier start to avoid afternoon thunderstorms, but I would
finish with hours to spare before the first raindrops fell. In fact, the
afternoon rains were all over Las Vegas, but none in the Spring Mtns. Go figure.
Starting at 
sunrise around 5:45a, I plied 
the road into Macks
Canyon on foot for 1.7mi before turning abruptly right for a westerly
cross-country jaunt towards North Macks NE Ridge. The ridge looks tough from a
distance, particularly the start. My wandering up slopes led me to the right
edge of the 
East Face where I picked up a 
ducked trail leading
around the base of the cliffs to the north side. 
The start of the
NE Ridge was a bit steep for my liking, despite the limestone rock that
generally provides excellent traction. I started up about 10-20ft of this ridge
before backing down and perhaps more prudently deciding to follow the ducks
further around to the North Face. I had thought I had wussed out on Courtney's
four star route, but later found that he describes it as " via North Face to NE
Ridge" which is pretty much what the ducked route did. The peaks are also on
the LV
52 Peaks Club list so it was no surprise to find ducks marking the various
routes. Although Courtney describes the need for careful route-finding, one
simply needs to pay attention to the ducks for all the tricky sections along
today's route.
The North Face ducks lead to the 
NE Ridge where one gets some fun
knife-edges,
limestone slabs (as easy as it gets), and then a few diversions on the west
side of the ridge where the ridge cliffs out. It took me two hours to complete
the route to the 
first summit where I found the usual busy
register found on these popular peaks. 
The traverse to Macks P
eak would take another hour, again made easier with ample ducks to mark the
route. There were two 
handlines
installed to facilitate the effort, one just below North Macks and the other
about halfway along the route. Neither was used, but I could see that others
might find them useful for these short class 4 sections. Wherever the traverse
deviates from the crest, the route drops on the west side, which probably
makes up 2/3 of the traverse. An ammo box held the register
atop Macks Peak with ample entries dating back only a few years. There
are fine views from the summit, including The Sisters to 
the east and
MacFarland/Bonanza to 
the west.
I followed the continuing ducked trail off the south and east sides of Macks
until I was through the cliff section and could traverse around the Macks
Canyon periphery on my way to South Sister. The going gets much easier once
through Macks' cliff band, with a use trail appearing as I climbed up towards
the ridge connecting to South Sister's 
SW Face.
More ducks begin to appear as
my route joined the regular South Sisters route up from Macks Canyon below.
South Sister has a lower subsidiary summit to the SE that provides a good view
of Mt. Charleston and the Lee Canyon Ski Area below it 
looking south.
The higher summit 
to the NW is climbed via some easy class 3
scrambling, bringing me to 
the highest peak of the day at 10,170ft.
Another ammo box is found here, this one with three books attesting to its
popularlity.
The traverse to North Sister is an easier effort than the Macks
Traverse,
going at class 3 instead of class 4. Ducks mark the route as it first deviates
to the east side (with a cool 
tunnel and a think twice
exposed ledge before moving to the west side (some 
neat caves)
where it stays until just west of North Sister, the crest proving
a striking sight but hardly a reasonable scramble. From North Sister I
ropped off its 
north side onto easier terrain for the traverse to B
lack Rocks Sister. With imposing 
summit blocks when viewed
from a distance, the summit proves no harder than class 3 via a chute on the
west side of the summit. A slightly easier route can be found from the north.
From Black Rock Sister, I continued 
northeast and north along the crest
separating Macks Canyon from Lee Canyon, eventually descending into a drainage
where I found an easy route which soon dropped me onto a
Forest Service road I could follow back to Macks Canyon Rd. It wasn't
yet 12:30p when 
I finished the 9mi+ outing - not enough time for the
Mummy Mtn effort I
had scheduled for the next day, but perhaps plenty for a visit to Pioneer Rock
in Lee Canyon. Courtney describes this one as class 4 which was inticing, but
I found all the roads leading off the main Lee Canyon Rd closed and signed
for No Trepassing. Not that that would stop me normally, but it was enough to
recommend I call it a day. And so I did - off to find a place to shower and
clean up...
Continued...