Red Mountain (8,957)– 05.23.08
I met Sooz, Chip and Joe at Red Mountain Pass Thursday evening. We all beat the LA thunderstorms, hail, and tornado, but could tell that the Sierras, Inyos and western Nevada mountains had received a powder dusting in the past 24 hours. It was much colder than anticipated and I regretted not packing my cold weather clothes. We awoke Friday to dry ground and cloudy skies. Sooz, Chip and I took off for Red Mountain Peak and Silver Peak. Snow flurries started falling about a quarter of our way up Red Mountain and we met them with childish excitement (giggle giggle, isn’t this cool). Our enthusiasm waned as the temperatures dropped, the wind blew harder, and the snow blasted our faces. At the summit, the snow was blowing sideways and we were astonished at this winter-like storm on the cusp of summer.
We discussed proceeding onward another 3.5 miles to Silver Peak, which lay somewhere in the fog, but agreed on the more conservative choice to return to base camp. Within an hour, 3 inches of snow had fallen.
Visibility was poor so we used our GPSrs to keep us on track back to the TH.
It was early afternoon upon our return to camp, and looking northward, Sooz and I were enticed by an elegant ridge resting under blue skies. So, off we went. As we climbed the triple hump ridge to its high point, snow capped Red Mountain and Silver Peak appeared from time to time from under the clouds, adding to the even otherwise spectacular views from this nameless ridge.
Rhylolite Ridge (8,550) – 05.24.08
TomG joined camp at 0300 and got a few winks before we hit the road to North Spring. We headed for the east face of the 6 million year old fragile rhyolite. As we climbed the sandy base and made our way into a small chute, Saturday’s storm front came upon us with fog and wind, but less snow than Friday.
By the time we summitted, the storm had passed and we enjoyed fab views of the area.
Because we were able to drive all the way into the spring, our hike was short, allowing us to leisurely drive to our next base camp near Blue Dick Peak.
Blue Dick Peak (9,286) – 05.25.08
We all turned into our sleeping bags Saturday night excited that we were under stars and not clouds. We looked forward to a clear and dry day on Sunday. I started getting annoyed by this freaky, wild weather pattern Sunday morning when I could not see out my 4Runner windows because they were snow covered.
We all arose leisurely, found some dry wood from which to start a warm-up fire and waited for a break in the clouds. Cori showed up sometime around 0900, providing inspiration to get our arses moving and onto Blue Dick. The drive through the pinyon forest was spectacular and we reached the saddle between Blue Dick and Palmetto without incident. The short 2.5 mile ridge climb to the summit of Blue Dick started off warm and grew progressively colder and wetter.
By the time we reached the summit, it was 33 degrees and snowing sideways…. again.
We rested briefly, then high tailed it off the summit to warmer ground. All was good back in camp where we celebrated Sooz’s birthday, with what else but…..
What a wild weather weekend. We awoke again today with snow covered vehicles…. 5 days of snow. Unbelievable. That is the last time I will not take a down jacket to the desert in summer!
