Nevada alpine style: TR

[freeclimb9]

Midweek snows in the Teton pushed me southwards to feed the rat. Instead of a run to Jackson for a go at the Middle Teton, or Mt Owen, I made the lonely drive to Great Basin National Park (GrBa) for some alpine climbing. The GrBa exemplifies the best of the NPS: it's free; the rangers are friendly; and when I asked about information on climbs at the Visitor's Center they photocopied all they've got for me, and gave me the stapled copy. Plus, it's a spectacular place. Some of the biggest Mountain Mahogany I've ever seen is there plus these really old Bristlcome cone pines (walked past one with a sign indicating it's 3200 years old). The mountain centerpiece, Wheeler Peak (13,000' elev) has a gnarly 2,000' northeast face of bullet quartzite broken into shoebox-to car-sized pieces, none of which is joined to another. The sound of rockfall in the glacier cirque was constant during the day. The rock is total crap. But I was there to climb snow and ice.

On Friday morning (5-24), from the Bristlecone Pine trailhead, I shuffled through fresh powder (it stormed the previous day) to the Rock Glacier (could the southermost glacier in the US?). Started up the Northwest Passage couloir (AI2) to test the start of Wandering Aengus (WI4). The Aengus couloir featured a crust of 1" ice over knee-deep sugar, so I kept up the Northwest Passage to the Pleiades couloirs. I opted for the Lost Pleiad variation (WI3), then wandered among the tottering gendarmes higher to top out about 50' below "Nameless Tower" (peak 12630). Route conditions were mostly neve topped with a few inches of dry powder. There was water ice in the Lost Pleiad but it wasn't the WI3 difficulty the Park's guide indicated. Maybe 2+, at most. The crux of the climb was the last 300' where sun-softened snow balled in the crampons, and especially where I climbed over wet and snow-covered rock --5.easy-- to gain the shoulder of the Nameless Tower. Total climbing elevation was 1600' by my altimeter. I opted out of standing on the summit of the Nameless Tower since gaining it involved a class 2 way-scary traverse: a two foot wide ridgelet of stacked rock with fatal consequences if something slipped. I scrambled over Wheeler, and was back to the trailhead in a few hours.

The climbs were in descent shape, but will be better in June by my estimation. Right now, the Northwest Passage and other chutes off of Jeff Davies Peak looked prime for a ski, or snowboard descent.

If you're ever in Eastern Nevada, and need a fix, the Great Basin National Park is a worthy stop.

More climbing info at http://www.iceclimb.com/NV.html

Routes on the Nameless Tower (the most routes are on the Tower since the rock is relatively more stable):

[layton]

Sounds cool, I always wondered what Great Basin NP was like. Thanks for the TR of those exotic places we PNW only dare dream exist.