Trip Report
Wheeler Peak is located in eastern part of Nevada in Great Basin National Park. The peak is the highest in the Snake Range and second highest in the state of Nevada. In addition to that, it is the high point of White Pine county and boasts the 12th most prominence of any peak in the lower 48 with 7563 feet of prominence.
The peak is named after George Wheeler, part of the Wheeler Survey that climbed the peak in 1869.
Wheeler had been on my list for quite a while, but I just hadn't gotten around to climbing it. When I heard Margo and Steve were headed that way, I thought I would invite myself. They accepted. Thankfully they were willing to go out of their way and pick me up in Twin Falls.
So Friday morning we met in Twin Falls and loaded all my gear into their Forrester. It was a tight squeeze, but we did it. We started our trek to the campground at the base of Wheeler Peak.
We arrived at the campground at 9900' in the evening. What a camping spot with a stream, grass, aspen, and fir trees abound. We set up camp and had a great meal prepared by Steve!
After a restless night, we hit the trail just after 7am. The trail is gorgeous and starts out in a aspen grove. In less than a mile it pops out into a meadow with incredible views of the Jeff Davis/Wheeler Peak cirque. At this point it switches back to a saddle at 10874' on the north ridge of Wheeler.
We had different intentions and wanted a second peak. We also knew we wanted to glissade a snow gully off of Wheeler. So it was now our never to go ascend Bald Mountain north of Wheeler. So we did.
Bald Mountain was a easy ascent of good terrain. If nothing else, it offered spectacular views of Wheeler!!!
We then descended cross country to the aforementioned saddle at 10874' and regained the trail up Wheeler. After gaining a few hundred feet we took a nice break. Margo was feeling a bit under the weather and also didn't sleep the night before. For the next 2000' of gain, she did great and we stood on top of Wheeler on a perfect sunny day. Other than bugs, the top was perfect. We were the last party of the day to summit, so after saying goodbye to a young couple, we had the top to ourselves. After photos, checking out the massive cliffs on the east side of the peak, selfies, high-fives, and hugs we finally descended.
At around 12,000 feet, we took a detour off the trail and descended the gully leading to Stella Lake. There was limited snow in the gully, but we thought we add some excitement to the day and glissade the gully. The snow was a bit rotten, but we got in 3 or 4 glissades of a couple of hundred feet. We then reached the lake, before Margo and I broke right to the campground and Sherpa Steve went the extra mile to grab the vehicle at the trailhead.
Wheeler is a great mountain, the weather was perfect, and my partners for the trip were exceptional!
After the hike we had some more "from scratch" cooking from Steve (sweet potato hash) before hitting the tents for a 5:30am wake up call to go climb North Schell Peak the next day.
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