Stewart Point, Eagle Mountain #2

2-Mar-91

By: Karen Leonard

We met Saturday at 7:30 am at the Shoshone Crowbar Cafe--they had opened for us at 6:30, as arranged in advance. Many of the cars sported a new coat of mud, the result of splashing through a spectacular, deep puddle on the road from Baker to Shoshone in the wake of the heavy rains which ended just in time for this weekend. Those of us who had tried to get into the usual Mud Bluffs camping place just 1/4 mile east of the Shoshone crossroads on 178 the night before had been, greeted by a deep puddle there too and had gone elsewhere.. We drove to Stewart, 16 miles east along SR 172, for a moderate climb of some 7 miles round trip and 2600' gain. This we accomplished from 8:20 to about 1:20, going up the route described in the guide (and spotting John McCully and his dog ahead of us) and coming down a ridge route to the west of the peak which went well and rejoined the main gully where we had gotten out of it on the way up. Climbers were Donna O'Shaughnessy, Bob Greenawalt, Peter Kinsman, Rob Talbert, Cyril Weaver, Wendy McCully, Randy Ragland, Hoda Shalaby, and Delores Holladay.

After our climb, most of us went to the Tecopa Hot Springs and then joined the Leora Jones Chili Cook-off trip. George Pfeiffer and Judy Ware joined us there too--they had climbed Pahrump instead of Stewart. Luckily there was enough chili for our group to join in the eating, and a wood campfire followed. We left at 7:30 the next morning to drive back down to Eagle, where we were joined by Bob Beach, Dick Farrar, Vic Henney, and Sue Wyman. The big challenge here was to cross over the Amargosa River which curls around the foot of the peak; it was flowing fast, swollen with the recent rains. Several routes kept our feet almost dry, and then the climb went well (2 1/2 miles, 1800' gain). The leader had remembered the 3rd class at the top as worse than it turned out to be although the fierce wind still made it more than just fun), and Vic Henney led some nice variations on the route. This was the 6th and qualifying peak ror Rob Talbert, a new DPSer.

Down well before lunch, we split up for the hot springs, lunch, driving back to wherever.... those who cancelled fearing rain missed a glorious week-end out on the desert!