Knife-Edge, Hanging Valley, Division, Unity

Knife-Edge, Hanging Valley, Division and Unity Peaks: 3rd and 4th Post-COVID-19 Hikes
(East of Las Vegas, West of Lake Mead NRA)

Pics by Harlan W S
January 28, 31, 2021

Crystal D. recommended these nice little peaks, knowing that I was trying to get in shape gradually (I was on oxygen less than 2 weeks ago), after the devastation of serious COVID. These peaks are unimpressive from the highway, mainly because they are on sharp ridges sub-parallel to the road; but the end-on views are neat. Several have significant knife edges (one can largely avoid) that helped me practice my balance.

Context map.	First hike, Jan 28. I started up the N side of Knife-Edge (K-E), then went up W side Hanging Valley (HV). I circled back to look for better route on the N side of K-E. Red is my track, blue is normal slog (off PeakBragger). All told it was 3h 20m., about 4 miles.	View S to Knife-Edge. The normal route is on the east side; I came in from north, and mistakenly went to a deep red gully, which is class 4 dirt (10' near vertical crumbling start)
View SW on ridge; Brown summit of K-E at L, grayish Frenchman Mt at R	I walked on very top edge as much as possible; in fact...	...I stepped on that whitish point (view back NE)
		View NE to HV peak. I saw a trail (sheep?) all the way to the ridge.
View NE. I dropped off K-E here; the talus became incredibly steep, and I don't recommend this way.	Now looking NE along W side of HV peak	From just beyond summit of HV, view SW over K-E to Frenchman
Slightly zoomed, showing where one crosses valley between peaks.	View of Muddies.	View over Lava Butte.
NNW over Division and Unity to Sunrise Mt	Spring Mts over N edge of Frenchman, from HV peak.	View to Henderson from HV.
View SW to Frenchman, showing valley between K-E and HV.	Springs.	I crossed back N of K-E to look for a better route. This is the route I first used. Avoid the red stuff. View is UP.
K-E from NW	Division and Unity to N	Neat gully I took back to car
Should have turned W here, went E. Route up K-E shown.		Lots of spent shells as I neared the car.
Jan 31, I went to Division Peak by a fairly standard route from the ESE, then over Unity Peak and back down the SE side of Unity. All told it was about 2 h, 3 miles.	I'm NE of Division, looking SW. The summit is at L; there is an occasionally knife-edgy ridge NW of the summit, but I climbed the peak by entirely class 2 or lower route, walking on the sharpest edges only for balance training.	Closer to the summit, Frenchman Mt in back on R (to SW).
Stll closer...
View N from Division, Sunrise Mt on L, Unity at R.	Frenchman again, Potosi at R in distance	Spring Mts, with Charleston, W across Vegas Valley.
Knife-Edge to S; Rainroad Pk (Black Hills) at L on skyline.	Muddy Mts on skyline to ENE. I came up valley at L in shadows.	Unity to NNE. Note zig-zag sheep trails in talus to L of peak.
Now I'm near top of Unity. While the route need be class 2 at most, all the way up I walked on the sharpest, highest edge for balance practice. In this shot, I'm standing on a sub-fin and will eventually walk on every highpoint of the fin to the top. I put my hands down about 3 times, and used my arms as counter- balance.	View of Frenchman (L) and Potosi (R, distance) from Unity.	View down at valley W of Unity; I would have gone across this to Sunrise that day... but I had a plan for a surprise visit...
Sunrise to NW from top of Unity.	Hanging Valley (L) and Kinfe-Edge (R) from Unity

Now I'm descending SE slopes of Unity, and suddenly the terrain drops off steeply. Rather than risk a cliff, I cut L...	...and came down these steep but manageable rock slabs	lots of degraded children's footwear around there. ???
View back at my route, Division on L and Unity at R, but neither summit is visible.	When I got down I called Gina to see if we could walk. She is a fellow survivor, but is shy about photos. She looked great and seemed fit. We both have sars-cov-2 antibodies, but I should have kept my mask on to hide my wrinkles.	...just before I finished my hike, I slipped on a near level spot, and got ~20 barrel cactus spines in my arm. One broke off and is still in my arm. The others were quite hard to extract, and my skin tented up as I pulled. I washed down the area with isopropyl when I got back to the car.