November l3, 1993 - Steve Smith
It all started back in 1948, as told by Bob Greenawalt, when he made his first climb of a DPS peak before he ever knew a Sierra Club Desert Peaks Section existed. That was Telescope Peak but it was not until 1957 that Bob did his first DPS scheduled climb on a bus trip to Martinez Peak. Over the years, he continued to enjoy climbing the desert peaks and so it was that 45 years after his first climb, Bob completed the DPS List on Moapa Peak.
After 1957, Bob became very active in the DPS, began going on DPS climbs, became a DPS climb leader, served as DPS Chairman in 1964 and was editor of The Sage from 1965-1969. Over the years, I had occasion to participate on several of Bob's trips and for some reason they were all memorable. The most memorable for me was, Bob's 1977 Thanksgiving three day backpack climb of Pico Matomi the southern highpoint of the San Pedro Martir Range in Baja.
A major Pacific storm coincided with our three days of backpacking and it was the wettest, coldest and most uncomfortable I have ever been on any DPS trip, as Bob heartily agrees. Five of us actually made the summit in a snowstorm and somehow all successfully got back to camp. By the end of that trip, everyone's completely soaked down sleeping bags had turned into small worthless blobs not much bigger or useful than a large chunk of ice.
For the past few years, Bob was working on his few remaining peaks to finish the DPS List. He mentioned that Moapa was going to be the last having saved 'til-last the major roper summits. So it was with relish I took up the chance to schedule it. We bad a good initial signup of 17 people but a major winter storm hitting across the southwest caused most to cancel. Checking the dirt access road on Friday in the rain and with Moapa completely obscured in the clouds, I was sure there was no way we would be climbing it the next day.
However, upon meeting Bob and six others at the meeting point Saturday, no snow was visible on Moapa (higher nearby Virgin Peak was covered in snow) and with partly cloudy skies, we decided to go for it. It turned out to be a good day
for
climbing with some great views as clouds periodically blew up against the
southern side of the peak. Bob and I were joined by Julie King, Mary Sue
Miller, George Jewell and legendary Phantom of the Desert Bill Banks.We followed the traditional route by winding up the spur ridge, around the summit block and over the narrow summit ridge. There was only a light covering of snow along the north side of the top