Hike Castle Tower and Northern Highland Range Highland Range BLM, NV

Jan 16, 2021 — After hiking some peaks in the central portion of the Highland Range last year, my interest in the main goal of the range grew, the horrifying-looking Castle Tower. The rock and ridges of the area seemed really cool, and being a Las Vegas local I figured I needed to get this big hunk of rock sooner rather than later. I originally read about Castle Tower from local legend Harlan Stockman's website, but I've held off on this peak because of its dangerous nature until I could get a buddy to come with me. A new friend Luke from Salt Lake City came down to escape the cold and to nurture his growing psych for the desert. I love finding people faster than I am, and Luke's fearlessness while scrambling, great conversation, and psych for adventuring that rivals my own made the day absolutely lovely.

To access the trailhead, navigate here (35.66878, -115.0109) and turn right. The road leading from here was fine except a couple of steeper sections where 4WD is likely necessary. The road wasn't particularly rocky or sandy, though. We parked where we did because the road began to deteriorate. Additionally, this was a nice spot to access all the peaks we planned on for the day. Luke and I set out toward Possible Mesa first, a peak Adam Walker recommended highly to us. It would serve as a good warm-up before facing the trials of Castle Tower. We headed south along the old dirt road and left it when we located a major Class 2 gully that took us up the west side of Possible Mesa and over the north ridge. Some easy side-hilling on the east side of the ridge led to a Class 3 move within a funnel-like feature which brought us back to the west side. There are a couple of ledges with great overlooks toward Castle Tower that wrap around to the south side of the high point of Possible Mesa. Some Class 2 brought us up to the summit. It was definitely a pleasant route.

We retraced our steps back to the old dirt road and then headed up a somewhat brushy and loose slope to Castle Tower's east ridge. I left two tracks in my attached map: the pink line leads beneath all the cliff bands, requiring a Class 3 move to gain the ridgeline, and the orange line that parallels it leads up an unlikely-looking Class 2 bouldery slope that took us up to the ridgeline a little earlier than the pink route. Both lead to a pleasant slope just below Castle Tower's crazy-looking block. I gaped at the Class 4+ crux, thrilled we had a rope. After inspecting the available options, I'd say the standard route seems "safest". A Class 3 ramp-like feature on the north side leads to a scary step-across over a small bush. The step-across spit us just below a couple of Class 4 moves on fairly solid rock that brought us to a rest ledge. Luke got to this point without much thought, while I took my sweet-ass time. The crux was just above us, with a delightful 20-foot drop on the right should the wind push us off. A big handhold block block and an exposed right foot facilitated the single crux move. I'm calling it Class 4+ because of the exposure, but the move would have been very easy if not for the headrush prompted by the drop. There was a metal cable I believe Harlan rigged that aided in the crux. I used it becasue it was there, but I'm certain with a little more breathing I would have done the move without the use of the cable. Thanks for the assistance, Harlan! Luke down-climbed the whole thing, but I would be having none of that. I inspected the anchor and the state of the cable, unsure how long it was there, and determined I would rappel from its end. I left an old caribiner, so enjoy the free booty.

Once back down from the crux, we briefly considered attempting a route off the north side of Castle Tower's cliffs, but looking back at that section later determined that it was a sheer cliff and we were happy we didn't waste time attempting a silly feat. Instead we just headed back to the car and dropped our technical gear before heading up to North Castle Peak. The brushy and drainage-riddled terrain would have made side-hilling unpleasant, so it made sense just to return along the road and re-ascend from scratch. A nice drainage served this purpose nicely, but it seemed to get rock-choked and we instead ascended on a Class 2 slope to the saddle of Castle Tower and North Castle Peak. We wrapped around to the west side beneath the cliffs of North Castle Peak until we located a Class 3 chute to ascend. There might be a couple of options, but we took the first opportunity we could, unsure if there would be another. Some Class 2 led to a false summit, where we could see the true summit ahead. Direct access was hindered by Class 2 boulder-hopping down into a notch. At first we thought there was no way down from the false summit into the notch, but a Class 2/3 chute led us to just below the notch on the east side. Once at the notch, Class 3 fun on mostly solid rock brought us to the true summit of North Castle Peak.

We took in the views of Castle Tower to the south and Possible Mesa to the east, and then Luke suggested we try to find a route down somewhere along the northern ridge. Despite the ridge seeming unlikely, we headed north and were very surprised to find the route went quite well, leading all the way to a peak Paula Raimondi named Mouse House on the far north end of the range. Along the way, we mostly kept to the right of the ridge crest where we could avoid most of the rocky stuff and the sheer west face, instead following mostly grassy terrain. We encountered one Class 3 down-climb less than halfway across, where we kept left around a rock outcrop. Later was a Class 2/3 loose slope that we were initilly sure would be our turn-around point at first glance. Mouse House ended up being a delightful little Class 2/3 hike up bright yellow rock with a great view of the Highland Range. We dropped down from the saddle on Mouse House's west side and followed a nice drainage back to the car.