Boulder + Bonus Peak (Lake Mead, NV Area)

January 01, 2008

pics by Harlan W. S.
Jan. 01, 2008

No better way to start the new year, than with a little leg-stretcher. Normally this is an 18 mile RT, but we managed to make it 20 with an exploratory “oops” and a neat little bonus peak. The daylight was limited, but we used methods to shorten the time taken for the leveler stretches (for me, the solution involved jogging a total of ~11 miles).

One starts at the same trailhead as Hamblin Mountain, in Cottonwood Wash. Navigation in the numerous confusing washes is very hard.	We enter the Pinto valley, and get the 1^st view of Sentinel.	View E to Sentinel.
Now we climb out of Boulder Wash, up the eastern shoulder of Boulder Peak. View is NW up backside of Sentinel.	A rare view of CP behind me. The Muddy Mountains are in the distance. Pkt consists of Paleozoic limestones on Pinto Ridge, Ja is Jurassic sandstone . Ti is the intrusive rock thought to have fed the Cleopatra-Hamblin Volcano. The Pinto Valley is between Pkt and Ti.
View ~NE from the top.	View NNE to Redstone Peaks.	View SW across Lake Mead
Snow-covered Spring Mts. are to the W.		View SE. Guardian at L, Arch Mt at R.
What’s wrong with this photo?	Muddy is in distance; the pink “Bonus Peak” is in the middle. Here’s a view of Bonus Peak, view S, from across the valley (it’s R of middle in the latter pic).
We descended the more western ridge of Boulder.	Now we’re in Pinto Valley, looking S at Bonus Peak for ascent routes. CP had a nasty chockstone on his route. I had some10’ dryfalls, but all had lots of texture, the biggest danger was the friable rock.	Looking down my ascent valley.
The top is up there somewhere to W.		CP gets the better of his chockstone. Sentinel is at R in distance.
Down…		The pass where the old road descends and turns L (near 736.6)