Skookum Traveler: Peakbagging near Vegas (NV)

Before Thanksgiving I noticed that I could fly home to DC from Bellingham by way of Las Vegas for the same price as going direct from Seattle to DC. Surely, it will be mild and sunny in Vegas in early December, right? The normal high then should be around 60. There was also an early flight out of Bellingham and a late flight out of Vegas, which gave me a 12-hour layover in the desert city, just enough to dash off for a good hike in the hills. I’d catch a red-eye flight to DC and show up at the office right on time, bedraggled, but functional. I booked the flights two weeks in advance.

My research led me to the Mount Charleston area and two attractive summit hikes—easy Cathedral Rock and modest Fletcher Peak. Maybe I could knock ‘em both out in a day, although they were pretty high up and possibly snowy and icy by now. Fletcher was over 10,500 feet. I landed in Vegas on December 9 with a forecast high of, sigh, 40 degrees, the same as Seattle. I got to the 7,000-foot Spring Mountains Visitor Center around noon, with the temperature in the low-20s. I parked in the snowy/icy parking lot, which, of course, was not a good sign. Next, the ranger inside informed me that, regrettably, the Cathedral Rock Trail was still closed from a July forest fire. So nix that one. How deep is the snow on Fletcher? Probably a foot or two with some drifts. That meant much of the trail would likely be obscured, and since I don’t know this area at all, heading up seemed a little silly. Instead, I settled on a chilly trudge up the North Loop Trail toward Mummy’s Toe. I wouldn’t attempt the summit, since it is actually 400 feet higher than Fletcher. But I noticed an unnamed 10,089-foot nubbin on the map that was just off the trail.

45. The Nubbin: I drove to the trailhead at 8,400 feet and found a good boot track in about a foot of snow. At 1.5 miles, the path reached a scenic terrace where most of the snow had melted or been blown away. From there, the tread morphed into wandering snowshoe prints that led upward in deepening snow to the next ridge crest above. Here, I began punching through to my calves and a couple times up to my knees. But I was close to the top and managed the last 100 feet of vertical to the nubbin, which I proudly named the Mummy’s Toenail Clipping. But because the summit was over 10,000 feet and my nose was cold, I just had to count it as Summit #45. Only 15 to go!

Miles (RT): 4.8 miles; elevation gain: 1,700 feet
Cumulative mileage and gain: 199.2 miles / 52,200 feet