Moapa Peak (6,471') and Virgin Peak (8,075') November 22-23, 1986 Leader: Paul Bloland, Co-Leader: Ed Lubin Moapa Peak (6,471') Ed Lubin and I first saw Moapa Peak back in March. The top third of the mountain had been obscured by a cloud bank as we started up the wrong canyon, killing most of the morning. By the time we aborted the climb and headed down the road to Las Vegas the summit was, of course, clear but we agreed that we would be back. Eight months later, night found us pounding orange cardboard markers into the sand at critical intersections along the dirt road leading out across the Nevada desert to the loop turnaround shown at Jacks Pockets on the Moapa Peak 7 1/2 minute quad. (Driving instructions: Drive NE on I-15, beyond the town of Glendale, to Exit 100, Carp and Elgin. Go under the freeway to the N side and turn right about 150 yards on the pavement. Then turn left (N) on the dirt road which is the one that leads to the "corral" as shown at the center bottom of the quad. From here follow the dirt road, NNW, adequate for passenger vehicles, 8.7 miles to the loop turnaround; plenty of parking and over-night camping.) Our party of seven left for the peak about 7:00am, following the jeep road through the gap into Jacks Pockets and then up through the sagebrush to the entrance to the canyon, up past the dry waterfall, and up the W slope to the saddle NW of elevation 4542. From the saddle we climbed the SW ridge on a partially ducked route where we spotted a herd of six Bighorn sheep high on the ridge above us. As described in the Smatko (DPS #148, 1979), Akawie (DPS #151, 1979), and Russell (DPS *160 , 1981) writeups, we crossed the S face of the peak by means of a wide and undulating grassy shelf, then up to the ridge which we hit right at the point that the infamous "knife-edge" begins. There is an easy access route to the ridge about 20 yards around the end to the N side and to the left. The ridge runs for about 150 yards with several hundred feet of exposure on both sides, but is truly knife-edged only in about two places. Ropes were carried but not used. Randy Bernard had some fun with his camcorder, filming our party nervously balancing its way along the narrow ridge. We reached the summit before noon and spotted yet another Bighorn in the summit area. Starting down at 12:40pm, we were back to the cars about 3:45 where we found Barbara Reber who had had a long dull day after pulling in that morning too late to join us.

REGISTERS NEEDED!

Small and medium size glass jars (such as coffee, mustard, pickle, etc.) would be appreciated by Gordon MacLeod and Barbara Lilley to use as desert summit registers-since retiring, they are rapidly exhausting their supply. Please save yours and bring them to DPS meetings. It would be a shame to have to give up peak climbing due to lack of registers!

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