Cuprite Hills HP (Peak 6071) 6071 ft (1850 m) — 1503 ft gain 2021.03.10 When I first imagined a quest of climbing to the high point of each of Nevada’s named mountain ranges, as I studied my collection of topographic maps, it came as a solution to a problem. As…
Nevada High Points #79: Monte Cristo Mountains and Gabbs Valley Overland
Mount Anna 6908 ft (2106 m); 1755 ft gain 2021.02.12 (edit 2022.07.06) It is once again ‘Second Friday’, time for an overland. Darren and I hit Highway 50 in the late morning, expecting the forecasted wind to catch up with us later in the day. A storm was forecast but…
Landscape Photography: Snow Recce in Antelope Valley CA
Snow filled the valleys of the western Great Basin at the end of January, when lake-effect squalls, energized as they traversed Lake Tahoe, cycled through the valleys southeast of the lake. We approached two feet of coverage at St0neHeart, with deep drifts along fence lines and out-buildings. So early on…
Landscape Photography: Late Snow and Last Light on the Black Rock Playa, Nevada
I spent the day, having started well before sunrise, on an overland obsidian recce focused on the geomorphology and distribution of the Majuba and Seven Troughs toolstone sources. A series of dramatic snow squalls cut that effort short just as I reached the ‘High Road’ from Sulphur to Gerlach. However,…
Nevada High Points #77: Desert Creek Mountains
Desert Creek Peak 8969 ft (2734 m); Gain 2740 ft 2021.01.17 With the post-holiday, pandemic surge still upon us, Darren and I continue to focus on target High Points in relative close proximity to home. The Desert Creek Mountains are basically a northern extension of the Sweetwater Mountains, but the…
Nevada High Points #76: Montezuma Range and Clayton Dunes Overland
Montezuma Peak 8373 ft (2552 m); Gain 1624 ft 2021.01.09 It was time for the initial ‘Second Friday’ excursion in 2021. Snow squalls had come and gone during the week, so our plan was to head south into the southern Great Basin so that the daytime temperatures would be somewhat…
Nevada High Points #75: Trinity Range
Trinity Peak 7337 ft (2235 m); Gain 2005 ft 2021.01.03 I have a long-held goal, contrived in the early 1990s, of climbing the high points of Nevada’s named ranges. I have known a few who claim to have achieved the feat, and I do not doubt their success. Although I…
Twelve for 2020
Twenty-twenty might not be a year to look back on, especially for those whose lives suffered in the wake of economic setbacks, storms of fire or weather, and the unknowns and uncertainties of the insidious and unrelenting Covid pandemic. Communities, families, and friends suffered as misinformed and misguided (or worse)…
Landscape Photography: Overland in Nevada’s Carson Sink
The Carson Sink is the terminal basin of the Carson River, draining from the Sierra into western Nevada. The sink is also, at times, the terminus of the Humboldt River; in years of high winter precipitation, the combined flows can result in an expansive, shallow lake in the typically barren…
A glow that had to last — Death Valley, Part 3
It was time for a shower. Climbing out of Death Valley, we arrived at Lone Pine, California, in the late morning, seeking refreshment and food. The hotel was not crowded so we checked in easily, cleaned up, and wandered across the street for BBQ. It was not that we ate…