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Jul 17, 2020 — The High Schells Wilderness Area is just west of Great Basin National Park, but gets almost no attention. The ridgeline running from North Schell Peak down to the range's other Nevada 11ers is grassy and beautiful. This route takes the standard route to North Schell, traverses the ridge over Middle Schell Peak, Uinta Peak, and down to Taft Peak, then creates a loop up to Ptarmigan Peak before descending back to the trailhead.
The trail begins at the end of a decent dirt road, but cars with bad tires may want to start a half mile before the trailhead where it got a little more rough. I started up the remains of an old dirt road, blocked by a downed tree. The road funnels into a trail as it ascends a shallow gully to the west of North Schell, paralleling a pretty stream. The trail slowly starts to fade toward the head of the gully, at which point I began to hike up the steep and grassy slope, sometimes some talus to hop over. North Schell Peak had some nice views, but I was more looking forward to the mostly grassy ridgeline with some minor Class 2 ahead. I passed over Middle Schell Peak and Uinta Peak before reaching Taft Peak. The view south to South Schell and a couple other 11ers was a tempting excursion, but I knew I would come back to the area to get them another time from a different direction.
From Taft Peak, I hiked back over Uinta Peak and continued over Peak 11345 on my way to Ptarmigan Peak to complete the loop. This short traverse involved some minor bushwhacking, but almost minor enough I didn't even mention it. I was aware of a trail heading up the basin that would lead me back to the trailhead, but I continued north from Ptarmigan Peak along the ridge since the slopes to the right (east) leading into the basin were at first a sheer cliff, and then just steep and potentially cliffy. I descended for a while on varying steepness of terrain, looking for a good spot to leave the ridge and head into the basin. I knew from previously scoping out the ridge that I may run into cliffs if I stayed on the ridge for too long. I eventually decided to follow some semblance of an animal trail off the ridge, basically sliding down the steep slope, and found another animal trail that took me down to the trail within the basin below. Ultimately my route down from Ptarmigan worked fine, even if it was a bit steep, but there are likely better options. I would not recommend doing this route counter-clockwise becasuse of the steepness.
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Hire/refer me as a web developer or send me a few bucks if you find my site useful. I'm not sponsored, so all fees are out-of-pocket and my time preparing trip reports is unpaid. I really appreciate it!
