Good scrambles in RR
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Rained and we're stuck in town waiting for family (in a good way!). Anyone have a nice 3rd 4th ish class scramble or loop around the canyons? Possibilities seem nearly endless, but maybe there's something especially scenic. |
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Hi Matt, |
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Thanks for the reply! We actually did that yesterday hahaha, but bump for others because it's incredible! |
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There are tons of Class 3/4 scrambles out there. It sounds as though you are looking for something longish to take up much of a day, so here are some favorites: |
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Thanks! These are exactly what I was looking for. Appreciate the reply! |
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Added: you can also do Red Cap and Calico Tank Peak from Calico Basin if you want to skip the Scenic Drive. You can go up Ash Canyon and find a Class 4 route to Red Cap from the head, traverse to Calico Tank Peak, descend to the saddle above Calico Tank, and then go down Ash Canyon, but by a different, more challenging branch. |
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The hills in and around calico basin has some pretty awesome scrambling if you aren't looking for a specific route and want to just fuck around on a rest day. If you want to sleep in till noon on a rest day it makes for a nice half-day adventure. |
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There is a substantial guidebook of class 3 + 4 + low 5th scrambles around Las Vegas, if you check local shops. And another one for SW Utah by the same author, |
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- Mescalito loop, up the N Fork of Pine Ck (aka Fern Canyon), over the saddle and out the S Fork. |
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Calico loop is a great one |
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I am also interested in this thread. I'll be in vegas from Feb 9-21. From the 13-17 I am without a climbing partner. Assuming I cannot shore up a partner any of those days I am hoping to do some fun hikes/scrambles. I'm very interested in 4th class to low 5th scrambles. Any other advice would be appreciated. I had some of the scrambles listed on my radar, Calico Hills, Mount Wilson, Bridge Mountain, Rainbow Mountain. |
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Bradley Pazian wrote:I'd be very interested in exploring some dry slot canyons if there are any nearby.Check out Bluugnome for the slots. Many of the more popular scrambles are detailed on Summitpost (I would look there before you buy the guide). |
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I scrambled up and over Mescalito today before the rain and it was awesome! I think I went up the S fork and out the N fork, as I had planned on soloing CITH if there was no crowd (lol), and continued up the canyon once I noted the gong show. Super super fun! occasional 5th class moves on the up and down, tons of choose your own adventure climbing through the bands between terraces. Would recommend for a nice half day outing. |
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Glad it worked out, Matt. |
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South Calico ridges were great for me today. Lots of interesting low 5th on pretty rock. In two parts. |
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My recent exploration of the Calico Hills got me sufficiently excited that I created a new sub-Area under the Red Rock canyon area on MountainProject for scrambling routes on summits and ridges around the Calico hills ... |
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Short access is a key advantage drawing me to explore the Calico Hills -- so I get a high proportion of scrambling on interesting rock with non-long approach hike. |
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Map -- took more work than I'd have guessed, but I posted a "simple" schematic map of some key ridge lines and summits of the Calico Hills: |
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Got out late yesterday afternoon (after getting off the airplane), started from Sandstone Rd parking (N36.1568 W115.4207) on E side off Calico Hills, up to Calico Peak (N36.1602 W115.4387).(elev 4890ft) -- my first time. I guess it's the highest point in the Calico Hills. The "tank" lake below N from Calico Peak / Tank Pk pass was bigger than I expected. My main goal was to check out extending the S->N ridge grand traverse from Red Book Point . . . but So my next working assumption is that the way to continue the ridge traverse N from Red Book Point (N36.1558 W115.4336) is to go around the SW side of Calico Peak, then get up onto the NW ridge and take that to the summit of Calico Peak. Then descend NE to the Calico - Tank pass. My scramble from the pass to the peak was fairly nice. I took a ramp running N -> S (aimed down straight at the "tank" lake). Pretty clear from vegetation, one fun little climbing section with hands on a rail, then high up a delicate exit (N36.1603 W115.4381) W up from the ramp on slopy holds for like 20 feet to reach the summit plateau. I'd call it hard class 3 (especially for those inexperienced with down-climbing) - or easy class 4. Finding the ramp connection from above during the Calico Hills S->N "grand ridge traverse" could be tricky: My idea will be to look along the SE edge of the summit plateau for a couple of 4ft x 1ft long rocks with a bush. I think today I'll explore the NE end of the grand traverse, hopefully then I'll have a good enough GPS track to link up the whole thing in one long day with a bike or car shuttle. Ken |
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This may be a bit more than your asking for, but a few years ago my partner and I traversed the entirety of the limestone crest behind the major RR peaks from North Peak to Windy peak. We got dropped off on the Rocky Gap Rd. about a mile up from Willow Springs and spotted a car at the parking area for Windy Peak. It was a fantastically rugged traverse and we hit about half of the summits, including North Peak, Sandstone, Hidden, Black Velvet (which was awesome), and Windy. We tried to tag Bridge Mt., but got confused (we tagged it later, from Pine Creek) and we skipped Mt. Wilson because we were just knackered. We did this over a leisurely (!) 1.5 days with a bivy near Hidden Peak. This is mostly cross-country, although you do hit bits of real trail near Bridge Mountain and there are herd paths and climber's trails that help along the way. It's mostly just rough 2nd class hiking, but there is plenty of 3rd class and even 4th class if you want it. And yes, this could be done in a long day (my friend Jerry did it once in a day, hitting ALL the summits, but he's an animal), but it would be a VERY long day. This is also a dry scramble: we encountered NO water on the entire traverse. A great adventure, rarely repeated. |
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Wow -- that's amazing! |