Hike Lone Mountain via South Ridge Lone Mountain Park, NV

Feb 17, 2019 — Lone Mountain is a popular little peak within the suburban sprawl of Summerlin, Las Vegas. There are a bunch of routes up this peak, though most hikers obviously take the heavily-trafficked northern trail that starts here (36.24030498, -115.319923). Instead, I chose to approach the peak from the south ridge, a much more fun option. While I could have chosen to take the trail back on my descent, I've done it a handful of times and it's just a steep and loose trail. I decided to return to my car by taking an exploratory stroll down the east ridge, forming this route's loop.

I parked within Lone Mountain Park on the east side and headed south along a series of paved and heavily-graded dirt trails to the southern ridge. I started up the south ridge on Class 2 terrain, locating a series of social trails along the way, but there's definitely no single best way up. After some easy Class 2 I was on the ridge crest and approached the base of a short Class 3+ headwall, a series of fun moves on sticky, blocky limestone. Originally, I was excited to attempt a feature adjacent to the Class 3+ headwall locally called the "Bandana Variation", which would require some Class 4 exposed scrambling on solid rock (see photo below), but I decided to skip that and stick with the fun, slightly less dangerous option. Past the crux, the ascent was just more fun Class 2/3 to the summit.

From the summit of Lone Mountain I headed down the east ridge, which was less interesting and ended up just being the typical Class 2/3 limestone stuff found all around the greater desert surrounding Las Vegas. The ridge dropped me pretty much next to my car. You might consider parking at the main trailhead and using the trail as a descent instead.