McCullough Mountain, Potosi Mountain

7-Feb-87

By: Maris Valkass

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We met at 7 am in Nipton. The store and the restaurant were closed. They open at about 9:00. It took about an hour to reach the roadhead in the vicinity of Pine Springs. The AAA map is very accurate in leading to the correct roads. After a while the road turns into several washes, and depending which one you choose, will determine how much closer you can get. The difference can not be more than a couple of 100 yards.

I elected to head for the prominent saddle. Once there we side-hilled to the right with several ups and downs. Clearly, it was not the best route. In any event it is not a difficult hike, and we reached the summit in 3 hours. From the summit it was obvious that we could have followed a ridge almost all the way from the cars. Next time I will try it from the west.

After the climb we all went to Nipton to enjoy the store and the town. Here we had a big discussion where to eat dinner. It was finally decided to rough it at Whiskey Fetes. Next decision to be made was which of the 3 restaurants to eat. Barbara Reber was trying to give the mob some class by pushing the steakhouse. In the end the pigs and the cheapskates won and ate at the buffet for $4 all you can eat. Next project was to get everyone together to drive to Potosi. After uncountable trips to slot machines and bathrooms we finally got underway under the leadership of Bob Meador and Don Weiss who have been in the area before. Everything worked out beautifully, not only did we find a campsite, we also found a campfire. The campfire was started by Karen Leonard and Claire Beekman whom I had forgotten to meet there. As the saying goes, "all is well that ends well".

Next morning we left the camp at 7 am and tried to find the roadhead which would follow the power lines. All we saw were "private property" signs, so we decided to go to the spring and start from there. The power line is not the standard power line with giant towers, it is no bigger than a single line and a small pole.

The spring is a good starting point as well as an excellent camping spot. To gain the summit, just go up the ridge, and follow it to the top. From the summit we could see that the power line route (had we found it) was full of snow and would have had a difficult time ascending. Thanks to Jim Farkas astute leadership we reached the summit with minimum number of casualties.

The participants were: Anna Valkass, Jon Lutz, Betsy Lutz, Roy Bishop, Jon Fredland, Bobby Dubeau, George Van Tober, Don Weiss, Bob Meador, Martha Florez, Mario Gonzalez, Bob Wyka, Barbara Reber, Julie King, John Gibba, Gail Hanna, Karen Leonard, Claire Beekman, Jim Farkas, and Maris Valkass.


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