Copper Mt, NV (Near Lake Mojave & Searchlight)

pics by Harlan W. S.
Feb 20, 2008

This peak is reached from a minor branch of the Cottonwood Cove Road, east of Searchlight, NV, and is well-described in a Summitpost page. If you can get over that fact that Searchlight has a greater elevation than this peak, you can have a thrilling and wild climb/hike. Anya D and CP kept telling me this was a nice climb, and I ignored them until weather shut me out of other goals.

The 100k topo with GPS trace.	24k topo. The purple-dashed lines indicate drivable roads; Road 35 has soft sand, so be wary if you have a 2WD vehicle.	This is the view of Copper in the distance, as one leaves Cottonwood Cove Road and heads NE on Road 32.
A primrose family member.	Phacelias.	View of Spirit Mt. to S, as one climbs the ridge.
View N to summit, just below prospect.	Cuprite (brown) and azurite-chryscolla.	View SE to Lake Mojave, near single class 4 gap.
Cholla “garden”.		Still more views N.
	Finally, the last ridge before summit.	View N, as one climbs up the W side of summit block.
View NE from summit.	A face.	View N from summit.
View S toward Spirit Mt.		View N again, while descending W side of summit block.
View back up to the window, which I somehow ignored on the way up.	Now I’m on the ridge W of Copper; view N.	View back E at Copper, showing largely class 2 valleys up to summit block.
	View S, as I travel farther up the ridge.
View S to Spirit, which was getting a bit of rain.	Interesting park boundary sign in the absolute middle of nowhere.	More view S on the western ridge.
	Amphibolite cut by felsic ?migmatite? veins, similar to those in Ireteba peaks.
Who lives here?	Monkeyflowers.