Sandstone Peak Traverse (Red Rock near Vegas)

Sandstone Peak Traverse (Red Rock near Las Vegas)

I first climbed Sandstone Peak in 2006, after an earlier near-miss. I knew about a long tortuous route from Lovell Canyon, but was looking for something shorter. We found a better route down that day, but that trip and my 2009 trip were fixed in my memory. Since then the "original" route from the west has been improved.

I wanted to try from the east, but work and time got the better of me. In ~2010, John D and Richard N found a neat route up the east side, and I have wanted to try a traverse for some time. All I needed was equally crazy friends.

Harlan WS
Nov 29, 2017

Access to Sandstone from the E is really not hard. Coming back through the NV state land is more of an issue, but they are mainly concerned with folks who go west in the canyon and get lost.	A closer view of the ascent. The E route is well-cairned.	Starting out from the E parking.
The route	Finally we get above the dirt mixed with rock! Bonnie Springs Ranch to E.	The crux was pretty easy class 3.
Jim on the crux.		This section looked hard, but the polished dark brown rock at lower R had a nice finger crack
		Barb (top in red) and Jim (below in white) go over the too-many false summits
Monument and Hidden to R	Fork Peak is L of Jim	On top of Sandstone
View down interesting canyon	Monument and Hidden	Las Vegas
	View ENE from near top of Fork	Gendarmes that block access from western ridge
On Fork	Down steep slabs on W side of peak	Back in canyon that cuts SW from Sandstone Canyon
	Down SS Canyon, Steep walls of SS at L	Mt Wilson
Jim crosses a rushing stream	Burro who eyed us suspiciously	There is a western parking, closer to start of E route, that is "maintained" by Bonnie Springs Ranch, but is actually almost totally on BLM land.