Continued...
We had had spent part of the previous day hiking some peaks northwest of Las
Vegas that had gotten a bit of snow, less than an inch, but enough to keep
things interesting. Overnight there was more precipitation with the snow level
dropping to the valley floor, leaving a winter wonderland scene when we met up
around 7a, south of town. Neither of us had ever seen so much snow in the desert
before and this was certainly going to add a new dimension to our desert
peakbagging. The peaks were clustered around the small town of Sloan found
along Interstate 15. Our starting point for the first two peaks was at a dirt
road access point in the Enterprise neighborhood southwest of Las Vegas. We left
Iris' car here and headed out on the dirt/rock road, somewhat rough but
something any high-clearance vehicle can navigate (the first mile to the
Great Basin Institute site can be driven by any car).
Mt. Turtle Island
A bit less than two miles along we turned left onto a rougher road that we
could drive for another mile and a quarter to on the south
side of Turtle Island. We parked next to an old ,
now without a roof,
and started up class 2 slopes to the summit, only 1/3mi away. It took us only
15min to reach , a bit slower than usual because of all the snow
encountered. Though only a few inches, we would have to walk carefully to
avoid unseen cacti, watch for loose rocks and slowly expect our feet to be
completely soaked before we were done. There was snow in
from our summit perch, a very un-desert like look. We found a Kevin Humes
register with a few entries. A rather easy peak, even when
snow-covered.
East Tim Peak
Our second peak was unnamed Peak 3,909ft, easily the longest hike of the day
with almost 5mi roundtrip from our starting point to the northwest. We drove
up only
on the spur road going up the hill, finding it far
too rough for my liking rather quickly. A better driver could probably have
driven another 500ft higher to its end, but I doubt it would have saved any
time over walking.
along the undulating ridgeline was very wet on our
way to the summit and we would both be swimming in our boots before reaching
it. All of the going is class 2, though there are a few small class 3
opportunities if one must. East Tim Peak was the name given to
on the PB website. We found a more recent
at the summit,
this one less than a year old. I had joked that I had picked the furthest
possible starting point and this wasn't far from the truth. Interstate 15 is
less than 3mi to the east and there are dirt roads coming in from that
direction that get one within half a mile of the summit. On our way back, we
went over
which we had traversed around, finding
there though the summit has little prominence. At least we figured out where
the name East Tim came from. The hike back was much nicer as we found a good
deal of the snow had melted, leaving us a route across the sunnier side of the
ridge that was mostly snow-free now. It was almost noon before we
to
the jeep, and time for Iris to be heading home (hoping, unsuccessfully, to
beat the returning holiday traffic to SoCal).
Sloan Peak/Pleasant Peak
After dropping Iris back at her car, I headed out to the Interstate for some
unfinished business from two days earlier. We had climbed South/North Twin
and Dog Skull on the east side of the freeway near Sloan, but had run out of
time for Sloan Peak and Pleasant Peak. With the jeep, both of these were
rather short affairs. I drove from the Interstate on a rough dirt road through
the many shooting areas found around here. Like two days earlier, gunfire in
the background would be a regular part of both hikes. I a mile
and a half from the freeway where the road goes over
on the NE side of .
The class 2 ridge from the saddle leading to the summit makes
for the obvious route. Just as I was crowning the summit ridgeline, I spotted
a pair of bighorn ewe horns poking out from the rocks above me, not 30ft away.
Knowing what they were immediately, I started moving very slowly while trying
to get my camera out. Unfortunately the ewe spotted me too soon and was
immediately gone. I went over to
at the southwest end of the ridge,
found no register, and began returning the same way, wondering what had
happened to the bighorn. It had apparently circled around me and was on the
NE Ridge as I was descending right towards it for second time. This time my
camera misbehaved when I went to use the zoom and was left without a photo
once more. Rats. Back at the jeep, I continued driving over the east side
of the saddle into the wash system below. This road was rougher, but I simply
drove slow to save the abuse on the jeep, and had a fine time making my way
to of Pleasant Peak. I managed to drive partway up the
slope on a spur road, within a quarter mile of the summit. The
climb went steeply up somewhat loose limestone rock with some class 3, taking
just over 10min. I found the 4th Kevin Hume register of the day, this one
. There were
a few others signatures from the same year, but no one bothered to sign it
since. I finished up soon after 2:30p, calling the day early. This would allow
me to get back to town, freshen up, and take my wife out to dinner - she'd
been reffing volleyball all weekend and deserved a treat from her slacker
husband...
Continued...