Eagle Mountain #2, Nopah Range

2-Feb-92

By: Larry Tidball, Scott Jamison

16 of met in Shoshone early Saturday, and we left the passenger cars in town and carpooled in the trucks to the Nopah trailhead. Note that in the driving instructions for Nopah that after leaving the "excellent dirt road" and bending North, the road trends back East and you have to make a left turn (North) before you complete the 1.3 mile and make the described right turn an additional 1.3 miles to Twelvemile Spring. We took the wrong (right) turn and when the track looked like it was heading the wrong way I radioed to Scot (via C.B.) sweeping the caravan. While we all made a turn-a-round and waited, he checked out the other road, found Twelvemile Spring and guided us in via the C.B. (very handy).

We started hiking at 7:45 and followed route A to the top. From the saddle 0.1 miles north of point 1519 we directly ascended the rocky ridge (3rd class ). This can be bypassed (class 2) by going around the corner to the right.

The group arrived on the top at 11:45 to 12:00 and we all had lunch on top. A note on the descent, if following route "A", mark your point of departure from the ridge near 1519. It is easy to be fooled by following the ducks continuing on down the ridge. These ducks mark route "B" After making this mistake and descending a few hundred feet too far, we realized our error, and made a descending traverse across the face on easy terrain until we regained the saddle 0.1 miles north of point 1519. The remainder of the hike went easily and we arrived back at the cars in 8 hours round trip, including 1 hour on the summit.

Saturday night we camped at the "Mud Cliffs", and after dinner a number of us went to Death Valley Junction to attend the show at the Amargosa Opera House. (Now $8 and only half as long as the old show)

For Sunday's hike of Eagle #2 we were 14 and followed the Peak Guide to the top except for an enjoyable knife-dge traverse over the false summit, A use trail leads you to the base of this but the ducked easy bypass drops down on the East side to avoid the false summit.

On the trip and climbing his first 2 DPS peaks was Joe Schaak. Also on her first DPS trip but not climbing (maybe next time) was Pat Jamison. Thanks to Scot for sweeping both days in his tennis shoes. After leaving his boots at home he did a lot of slipping and sliding and ended the hikes suffering from "toes-zills" This could only be eased by a stop at the 'Tecopa Hot Springs on the way home. Rumor among the locals at the hot spring was that someone is buying up all the hot springs in the area, plans to take over the county facility and charge $10 a head.