Mummy Chin and Forehead Circumnavigation (6 year anniversary)

pics by Harlan W.S. and others
Aug 03, 2011

I intended to recreate—in reverse—a quick descent we made from Mummy’s Chin in 2005, when thunderstorms chased us off of an attempted head-to-toe traverse. It was a fun trip, but I missed our descent gully, and ended up traveling over some very sketchy rock on the SW side of the peak; I had just 60’ of webbing, and often outclimbed my cordage. I finally intersected our old gully, and realized that I had been one gully too far north.

I went over the chin, and heard shouting; I thought it might be the Hiking Las Vegas crew, who were supposed to be climbing Mummy’s Forehead by a class 3 route. The only class 3 route I knew involved dropping into the gully east of the peak, so I imagined they were there, and directed my responsive shouts that way. Actually, they had come up the short class 4 cliffs.

I crossed over to Mummy’s Forehead via the knife edge. After 15 minutes on top, I heard MJ shouting. I walked N, and heard her ask, “Is that where we are supposed to be?” Bemused, I answered in the affirmative. Soon Rick B and MJ were trudging up the last stretch.

I spent perhaps 45 minutes on top with the HLV crew, then descended with them on the NE side.

My route as a GPS trace.	Mummy’s Forehead—actually just the lower western part—from the chain-up parking lot.	Nothing says “welcome back” like a “road closed” sign.
View to the true Forehead as I head S on W side.	Water supply.	OK, the SW gully looks rough, but is pretty much like a series of steps.
Looking UP. It just got cliffier, and I took few photos		Again looking UP.
I finally found myself in a dead end, surrounded by cliffs. I climbed up to this notch, and finally saw the true gully 180 degrees away.	Finally, at the saddle on the SW of The Chin.	View back at Mummy from The Chin.
Charleston from The Chin.	The Forehead (L) and The Nose (R) .
Two business cards from previous trips.	Macks on L of Forehead.	McFarland.
I went up over this crappy stuff.	View back over serrated knife edge.	Forehead sign-in.
		Folks from HLV come from NE.
MJ comes up.	Cory on L.
MJ or Rick took this pic.
I ran down to photograph HLV folks climbing down the N side.
Blu’s photo of me serving as a meat anchor at class 4 cliff.	OK, I was bored.	Janice’s photo of folks on class 4.
Rick took this pic.	Rick took this pic.	More class 4. I was still a meat anchor up above. Rick took this pic.
And Rick took this pic!	Back down in gully on W side, between Nose and Forehead.