We were in Las Vegas for Christmas, so I decided to do an early morning activation. This peak seemed like a good choice, with a parking area and trails to the summit. I started before dawn so I could be back in time for the day's other activities. From the parking area, the trail is paved until you reach a small dam. I went around the small reservoir, which was empty, and made my way to the Sloan 404 Trail.
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| Black Mountain before sunrise. |
This connects to the north trail that goes up Black Mountain. It was steep and rocky, but I made good time as dawn came. There are some sections that are steep, but nothing crazy. At the top it turns into some class 2 scrambling. The sun had come up at this point, and I was glad it had. It would have been difficult to get through the ridge walk in the dark. I did manage to trip on a rock and cut my leg pretty good, but other than that it was just really windy.
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| Almost at the summit. |
Once I made it over to the summit, I quickly found a place out of the wind and got my radio set up. It was cold, and I didn't want to stay any longer than I needed to. Thankfully there were enough people awake on Christmas for me to get four contacts pretty quickly. I packed up and headed down.
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| Trying to stay warm in the wind. |
To go down, I made it a loop and took the main Black Mountain trail. This is quite steep at the top, but after that relatively short section it is very runnable with lots of switchbacks. It was warmer out of the wind, but I was on the shady side of the mountain so it took a while before I warmed up again. Back at the car it had turned into a beautiful day, and I drove back to the hotel to get ready for the day's adventures.
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| Looking back at the peak. |
