North Kingston Peak, CA (point 7143')

pics by Harlan W.S.
Jan 03, 2012

This is the benchmarked peak in the Kingston Range (S of Pahrump, near the CA-NV border). It is NOT the DPS Kingston, which is to the S, across a rugged canyon. The north peak is shorter, far less brushy by the NE ridge, and wilder than the DPS Kingston. When you finally face the summit from 400’ to the east, the last climb looks technical. In fact, there is a hidden ramp that runs from lower L to upper R behind the 1^st promontory on the ridge; at the top of this ramp is a short class 3 climb almost straight up; then comes an exposed left traverse L across a loose chute, then another partially-hidden easy class 3 chute that runs up the SE side of the mountain, then over blocks, to the summit.

Topo map of the climb. It’s only 4 miles RT, but the route involves a lot of scrambling up and over granite blocks and promontories.	Just starting off—it’s about 9:12AM	From just looking at the map, I had considered ascending, or running down, this “gentle ridge.” Alas, contour maps with 10m intervals can be deceiving.
View N, as we sneak around a cliff. We immediately hit a very steep granite monolith on the ridge, traversed high on the E side…		…and found one little break in the cliffs, yielding an exposed class 2+ chute. The “thumb” of rock is an important landmark for the descent.
We always found a way around the steep granite lumps that comprise this ridge.	One short cairned route brought us up through a thin crack, and over this giant nolina, which is another good landmark.	From here, the peak doesn’t look bad; but wait till you are on the L, facing it. On the way back, we tried to side-hill on the L of that lump on the ridge, only find lots of little cliffs, so we cut our losses and went back up the ridge.
		On top!
The DPS Kingston Peak is to the S.		The route from the W looks gentler, but involves more elevation gain.
	Last sign-in was 6 years ago.	Mountains of Death Valley to W.
		On the way back, when I was no longer worried about route-finding, I began to notice the very pretty scenery.
		We’re coming down the chute on the E side, looking up at the “thumb” of rock that is a good landmark from above (Gina suggested it was another body part).
Cory has gotten the bright-shirt bug!	Once again we sneak around the E side of the low ridge. Now we are grateful that the sun is on the other side.	Cory didn’t see the T Rex on the ridge.