there-local USFS station, a lady ranger pointed to me the route she thought was best--as we huddled over a plaster 3D scale model map of the area. However upon questioning, I learned she had never attempted the climb. This is a user-unfriendly region since trail signs are just about nil, and numbers like 2042, unmarked on the USFS map, mean nothing to the visiting hiker. I began from east side Deer Creek, however again the lack of signs or markers certainly confused this newcomer. Mummy looks to be not over two miles away from the parking lot. The Charleston Loop Trail with its several blocked and abandoned graded roads is just not well denoted as the hiking trail it is intended to be! What I could not fathom was that no trails to Mummy Mtn are shown on any of my maps. Now I know why! There are none! I feel Mummy delights in restricting access to its heights. Its upper reach ascent is as though trying to climb a high birthday cake! There is little or no means of obvious ingress on most all of its perimeter. The apparent, fifty foot or so thick, white rimrock, seemingly completely girdles the several acre, quasi flat, summit. Using my best judgment as to where to leave the main Charleston Loop trail at the south side of Mummy, and as suggested by my USFS advisor, I found some previous bootprints, but no signs or marking ducks were around. My route choice began at the only on-trail spring along the Charleston Loop route. This may also be reached a couple of miles up from the Kyle Canyon roadhead. After a two-hour plus upswing, I was not quite at ease with false attempts up two chimney-like cleavages with a more than just a little exposure! All they offered were steep near-side scree slopes that led to deep, V-grooved saddles overlooking steeper scree on their far sides! Such events spelled no progress. I found a third and last chimney and went up a bit--again the exposure had me scared ropeless! What a place to fall! I was on a secure ledge but how to get down? Tossing off the day pack, I felt more agile. I made it down the chute-always facing the rock. What next? Go home? The PM was going fast. Just about thirty more feet and I felt I could conquer the cake, as I could see stubby trees hanging over the edge above me. I was determined to try it again, so did. Ever so lucky, I reached the top, but was sure I could not get back down this way. Several hundred level feet away I saw an entrenched pole indicating the register. I approached and found it--housed in a WWII-looking metal cartridge case, complete with spring-loaded cover to deter the elements. I wrote a resume of my ascent, and also noted some of my sentiments. I was still wondering how I would get off this monster! I must leave this summit as it is freezing at night and I am skimpily dressed--I told myself--followed by an order to calm down and enjoy the scenery. Being up there alone gives one time to think! I sat down at another spot and ate a juicy pomegranate. This fruit serves well atop a peak since it demands time to peel--while enjoying the vast views such a vantage point provides! Farther west, Telescope Peak over Death Valley way was in full bloom! With a 180 degree swing, it seemed as though I was peering around Zion N P, where I had been the day before. Next, I went to another portion of the cake and it was all vertical-and another-and another. Yes, an element of fear grabbed at me, but I knew I was not licked, since one 1984 register entry by an old DPS friend cheered me. Bill Banks penned that he had reached this summit by means of pawing up some ridge extending from

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