The Mountains of Nevada

WELDON F. HEALD

T HERE is a small but fast-growing group of Nevada mountain enthusiasts. It consists of those who have discovered that some of our most beautiful and spectacular mountain country is in the Sagebrush State. They are the ones who have climbed far above the parched desert valleys and found islands of alpine climate containing evergreen forests, rushing streams, shimmering lakes, and wild flower meadows high up under snow-spotted peaks. As a result, most of these people have fallen under the spell of this vast exhilarating land, with its sparkling air, blue skies, and magnificent distances.

For Nevada, usually thought of as the driest and most barren part of the “Great American Desert,” is actually one of the most mountainous states. Although basically a great plateau, 3500 to 6000 feet above sea level, there are 120 named ranges rising from it, and one-half of Nevada’s 110,000 square-mile area is occupied by mountains. Among them are scores of summits exceeding 10,000 feet elevation, many from 11,000 to 12,000 feet, and two that top 13,000 feet.

Mostly long and narrow, these ranges stretch north and south in parallel rows, alternating with broad, straight valleys, and roughly resemble the corrugations on an iron roof. Early geologists called this type of topography “Basin-and-Range” structure and, although found throughout the American Southwest, it reaches its best development in Nevada. For millions of years in the geological past the region was subjected to a gigantic squeeze play, and nearly all these ranges are fault blocks that have been forced upward above the general level of the plain. Now carved by erosion into peaks, canyons and cliffs, they still show their violent tectonic origin by the startling abruptness with which they rise 3500 to 9000 feet directly from the valleys.

It is this tremendous difference in elevation within a short horizontal distance that gives Nevada’s mountains such variety and fascination. The desert plateau receives little precipitation and almost the entire state lies within the Great Basin, where evaporation exceeds runoff and no stream reaches the Pacific. But moisture increases rapidly with altitude, while the temperature falls, so that there are some Nevada ranges in which, within the space of five miles, are compressed all the climatic conditions represented in 2000 miles of latitude.

This sharp variation in climate with increasing elevation is indicated by different bands of vegetation on the mountain slopes, one above another, almost as distinct as layers in a pousse café. Upward from the treeless valleys extends a zone of piñon-juniper woodland, 6500-8000 feet altitude, typical throughout the state. Many ranges are barren otherwise, or carry scattered aspen groves, which make ragged patches of gold in autumn. Others have a transition belt of ponderosa pine, bristlecone pine, Douglas and white firs, averaging 8000 to 9000 feet elevation, and the highest support subalpine forests of Engelmann spruce, firs, and limber pines. Tim- berline varies, north to south, from 10,000 to 11,000 feet; and above, the bleak arctic-alpine zone sweeps up to the loftiest summits. There is, however, no regional snow-line, but several peaks harbor permanent fields of snow and ice, and one has the distinction of possessing the only true glacier in the Great Basin region, east of California’s High Sierra rim.

Although most of Nevada’s mountain areas have a family resemblance, it is remarkable how much they differ individually. Each shows distinctive characteristics of vegetation, geology, and topography which set it apart from the others. Sixteen ranges contain timber or protective watershed vegetation important enough to be administered by the United States Forest Service and they compose widely separated divisions of the Humboldt, Nevada, and Toiyabe national forests. With a total area of more than five million acres, these publicly owned reservations provide local lumber and firewood, summer forage for cattle and sheep, wildlife management areas, and outdoor recreation. Forest Service access roads have been built into the mountains, improved auto campgrounds are numerous, and hundreds of miles of trails make the high country easy to explore.

However, there is little technical climbing in Nevada and most of the highest summits are walkups or simple scrambles. True, good rock climbs can be found in many canyons and the peaks are often heavily snow- covered in early summer. But there is not much to interest the serious mountaineer. On the other hand the state provides a superlative field for outdoor enthusiasts who indulge in hiking, knapsacking, camping, and horseback riding. In fact, perhaps even for the mountaineer, these little- known and seldom-visited ranges are worthy of a few days limbering-up exercises on the way to the Cascades, Rockies, or the Himalayas. Information about climbs in the Nevada mountains may be obtained from the Desert Peaks Section of the Sierra Club, an active group specializing in week-end outings among the desert ranges of the Far West. A chapter of the Sierra Club has recently been formed in Reno, called the Toiyabe chapter.

Along the west border, neighboring California contributes considerably to the state’s mountainous area. There the eastern spurs of the Sierra Nevada extend over the line and rise in a granite-ribbed escarpment, fifty miles long. One-third of famed Lake Tahoe is in Nevada and several Sierra summits here reach altitudes of 10,000 to 11,000 feet. This section receives the state’s heaviest snowfall and Mount Rose, 10,800 feet, twenty miles south of Reno, is Nevada’s foremost winter sports center. Again, further south, the state line snips off the most northerly summit of California’s lofty White Mountains, thereby giving Nevada its highest point, Boundary Peak, 13,145 feet elevation. Neither of these areas is typical, however, and Boundary Peak is not as impressive as many other Nevada mountains. Also near the California border, but more representative, is the Wassuk Range, which rises steeply from the west shore of thirty-mile-long Walker Lake. A narrow mountain road ascends almost to the summit of Mount Grant, 11,303 feet, the highest point.

In the far southern tip of the state, Las Vegas has a popular summer and winter recreation area in the Spring Mountains, generally known as the Charlestons. This range extends north and south for seventy miles and culminates in one of Nevada’s highest and most majestic groups of peaks. Here, evergreen-forested slopes soar abruptly 9000 feet above the arid valleys like a green island in a sea of desert. A paved road leads to a resort situated in a great horseshoe of 4000-foot limestone cliffs, and an eight-mile trail climbs Charleston Peak, 11,910 feet. On the way is one of the finest stands of bristlecone pines in the United States, and the superb view includes points in Nevada, California, Arizona, and Utah.

But the greatest concentration of high ranges is in central Nevada, where four stand in a row between Tonopah on the south and Austin to the north. Farthest west are the Shoshone Mountains, with several summits over 10,000 feet elevation. East of them, the twin Toiyabe and Toquima ranges face each other for a distance of eighty miles across deep, corridor-like Great Smoky Valley. High point of the former is Arc Dome, 11,775 feet; and Mount Jefferson, 11,807 feet, tops the latter. A paved highway traverses the valley and spur roads reach several campgrounds from which the mountains are accessible by trail. Next east is the Monitor Range, a hundred miles long, with many summits between 10,000 and 11,000 feet elevation.

Another group of high ranges is in the eastern part of the state, paralleling the Utah border. Among these are the White Pine Mountains, with Duckwater Mountain, 11,493 feet, and the Grant Range, rising to Troy Peak, 11,268 feet. South of the copper-mining town of Ely is the Egan Range, and to the east, the Schell Creek Range, culminating in North Schell Peak, 11,890 feet. In the former is located a well-developed winter sports center and the latter is a noted hunting and fishing area, with an access road leading to a half dozen forest campgrounds.

In this group, too, is the Snake Range, Nevada’s highest and considered by many to contain the finest mountain country in the state. More than eighty miles long, the top point is Wheeler Peak, 13,063 feet, which rises in one continuous sweep, 8000 feet above Spring Valley, to the west. Under the rugged crest on the east side is a series of high, glacier- carved basins which make an enchanting mountain oasis. The extensive spruce forests, cascading streams, alpine lakes, great cirques, and rugged peaks resemble a piece of the Colorado Rockies dropped by mistake in arid Nevada. At the east foot of the range is Lehman Caves National Monument, created in 1922 to preserve small but singularly beautiful limestone caverns, and nearby are two campgrounds from which good trails lead to the high country around Wheeler Peak. Further north is Mount Moriah, 12,049 feet, in a remote, little-known section of the range.

Rivaling the Snake Range, but scenically quite different, are the Ruby Mountains and their northern continuation, the East Humboldt Range, east of Elko. More than a hundred miles long, and eight to ten miles wide, the Rubys have a dozen peaks over 11,000 feet altitude, which rise impressively above deep, cliff-walled canyons and are separated by cup-like timberline basins, studded with sparkling lakes. A good road follows Lamoille Canyon far into the range and a skyline trail winds along the crest for a distance of thirty miles.

Seventy miles north of Elko is a five-mile row of rock peaks, topped by the Matterhorn, 10,839 feet. It dominates a mountain region of high ridges and forested valleys, which stretches along the Idaho boundary. Usually called the Jarbige Mountains, this area is crossed by several roads and is a favorite with hunters, fishermen and campers. Further west is another mountain recreation area in the Santa Cruz Range, north of Winnemucca.

With such a wealth and variety of high country it is surprising that Nevada’s mountains are still generally so little appreciated. For more than a century the state has been a main transcontinental route and its vast mineral riches led to early exploration and settlement wherever strikes were made, even in the remotest mountain sections. Yet practically the only accurate descriptions of Nevada’s ranges and records of mountain ascents were made by members of gevernment surveys from the 1850’s to the 1880’s. Most prominent of these were Clarence King’s Geological Survey of the 40th Parallel, 1867-1879; a geographical reconnaissance of central and eastern Nevada under the direction of Captain George A. Wheeler in 1868 and 1869; and the Coast and Geodetic Survey’s Nevada Series of Triangles, from 1878 to 1890.

The exhaustive reports, meticulous maps, and fine steel engravings of these early government mountaineers now rest undisturbed in seldom visited library stacks, but they contain records of first ascents of Nevada’s highest summits and detailed descriptions of nearly every range in the state. Typical of the strenuous climbing involved in line of duty is the report of Captain A. F. Rodgers of the Coast and Geodetic Survey. In September 1876 he scaled Carson Cone, Pah-Rah, Corys Peak and Augusta Peak, “ascending the mountains through formidable fields and slopes of snow and ice.” Again, in October 1882, his Assistant, William Eimbeck, reported snowdrifts ten to twelve feet deep on Wheeler Peak, and a temperature of 20 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. He stated that: “The high snowdrifts which covered the living tents to within a foot or two of the apex saved the party from freezing to death.”

One of the few popular contributions to the meager Nevada mountain bibliography was made by John Muir, California’s famous naturalist and student of glacial phenomena. In 1878 he accompanied the Coast and Geodetic Survey party and climbed Mount Jefferson, Troy Peak, and Wheeler Peak, finding strong evidence of Pleistocene glaciation. Muir wrote a series of letters to the San Francisco Bulletin about his trip, which later formed five chapters of the book, “Steep Trails,” published posthumously in 1918.

But, on the whole, the mountains of Nevada have remained strangely neglected. So much so, in fact, that not until two years ago was the active glacier on Wheeler Peak discovered. In 1882 Eimbeck described a permanent icefield in the mountain’s great north cirque, and Ralph Kauffman of Baker, Nevada, suspected glacial movement there in 1928. But the existence of a true glacier was not established until Albert Marshall and I visited the hidden floor of the cirque in September 1955. After an exceptionally dry year, with little snow, we found névé, bergs- chrunds, crevasses, and active moraines exposed, and glacial action was readily apparent. True, the body of moving ice is small, its greatest dimension probably not exceeding 2,500 feet, but it is of more than usual interest as being, so far as is known, the only active glacier in the state. Also unique is the fact that it had lain unknown and generally unsuspected in its well-guarded cirque since white men first came to the region a century ago.

The gigantic rock basin in which the glacier lies is perhaps the most spectacular single feature in the mountains of Nevada. Bearing a strong resemblance to the celebrated East Face of Colorado’s Longs Peak, it is deeper and more sheer-walled, and is one of the largest and most impressive glacial cirques in the United States. Steep cliffs rise on three sides and Wheeler Peak soars at the head in an almost perpendicular unbroken precipice, 1800 feet high.

Possibly Nevada’s desert ranges will continue to be bypassed by serious mountaineers—perhaps rightly so. But one thrilling ascent I can postively guarantee: the party that tackles the loose quartzite of Wheeler Peak’s tremendous north wall will undoubtedly find one of the most terrific rock climbs in the country.

*Heald, Weldon F.: “An Active Glacier in Nevada,” A. A. J., 1950, 10:1, pp. 164-167. (In this report the suggestion was made to include the alpine section of the Snake Range in an enlarged Lehman Caves National Monument or a newly created “Great Basin Range National Park.” The project has gained considerable momentum in Nevada and among conservation organizations.)