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May 30, 2021 — I teamed up with Chris Kerth to tackle the Grant Range. Initially I only had interest in getting to Troy Peak, the high point, and attempting a traverse to the unnamed 11er to its south, or just doing these two peaks as out-and-backs. However, after some coordinating Chris and I were able to plan a pretty cool traverse of the Grant Range's higher peaks. The 10ers at the end of the traverse we finished with were his sadistic suggestion. To start the traverse, we intended to more or less take the standard eastern route up to Troy (more on that later), and descended via Rimrock Canyon farther to the south after seeing a route posted by Teresa Gergen that seemed to work well to descend from the southern peaks at the end of the day (thank you!). We didn't have much of an idea of what to expect along the ridgeline, but were able to piece together enough information to feel like it would be a viable route. Needless to say, this route requires a fairly long shuttle. If you've only got one car, you could do a sort of out-and-back traverse combo by hiking up and bisecting the Grant ridgeline. This would require driving up Scofield Canyon Road (38.29401, -115.48718), getting to the ridge somehow, and hiking north and then south as far as you want. I don't know the quality of this road, nor the route to gain the ridge. Just thought I should mention I know it's an option.
The dirt roads from NV-318 are great, whether you come in from the north (38.41492, -115.0274) or south (37.74008, -115.11918). To reach the end trailhead (where we left our finishing car), we headed up this road into Rimrock Canyon (38.21863, -115.42316). The road is overall pretty good, though low clearance could struggle. Don't drive past my coordinates since the wilderness area begins here. We then drove to the the Troy Peak standard route trailhead, which was a bit more burly. Any car could make it to this turn-off (38.29295, -115.39068), but then there are a few dips in the road that even a crossover might struggle on, depending on the length of the front of your vehicle. Take this road as it leads northwest and turn right (north) here (38.32564, -115.44332). Make an abrupt left here (38.33488, -115.44324) where the road becomes a bit more rocky and decent tires are necessary. Not being able to drive this road would add a pretty significant distance to this already long hike.
From where we parked the start car, we headed west through a burn area as we picked our way through the eerie landscape and avoiding some minor deadfall and brush. The slope we chose to ascend on became steeper and soon we found ourselves ascending steep Class 2 scree, eventually making it to a spur ridge. I can't imagine any way would be better or worse than ours; it all looks steep and not particularly fun. We made it up to Peak 10535, Troy Peak looking mighty fine to the south. First we headed north to Timber Mountain, certainly an inconvenint peak to say the least. We dropped a few hundred feet to the saddle before ascending the lightly brushy 600+ vertical to its summit, only to have to come back to the summit of Peak 10535. Side-hilling was temping, but it looked steep and brushy and we decided it was best to just reascend. Onward to Troy!
The open landscape along the ridge crest to the base of Troy Peak's rocky northern ridge was really pretty, and my favorite part of the hike. Soon we were at the base of the rocky crest, where we decided to keep left and follow the standard route. This would mean descending a bit to avoid the scary-looking ridge. After playing with some potential options along the crest, we agreed it was too sketchy. However, shortly after following the standard route, I noticed Chris spying the slabby-looking face and knew he was going to suggest attempting a route to the summit. I agreed. We thought the rest of the standard route would be side-hilly and loose, and we were happy to attempt a scramble. In hindsight, we probably didn't save any time, but it was a nice alternative. I left the standard route in my attached map, but I don't think you're missing much by not following it. It more or less avoids all the sketchy stuff and just ascends the steep southern ridge to Troy Peak. Our route started off as nice Class 2 on the limestone slabs, where we soon pulled a Class 3 move up a crack to gain a rock rib. We then took a Class 3+ series of interesting moves on somewhat loose rock. I imagine there are more options to gain the summit, many likely significantly harder. Class 2 led up the last couple hundred feet to the summit of Troy Peak. We enjoyed our route enough that I'd say it's worth trying.
We continued southwest from Troy Peak along the loose and undulating limestone ridgeline. The views of the Great Basin Desert and surrounding peaks were fantastic, and the sheer drop on the right was very cool. We reached a Class 3 set of moves to get up and over a rock outcrop just before White Pine Azimuth Mark, and some more Class 2/3 to gain this minor summit. We had reached the spot we weren't sure would go, and honestly we were very lucky it did. Some light exposure on the Class 2 wannabe knife-edge brought us from White Pine Azimuth Mark to relative safety below. There is a thin arch that's on the verge of breaking, and serves as a marker for a Class 2 alternative to staying high.
The ridgeline past White Pine Azimuth Mark leading to the saddle with Peak 11028 took far longer than anticipated. There are lots of ups and downs along the ridge crest, and the limestone is often covered in big pebbles that warrant moving a bit slowly. Plus, there are a handful of short Class 3 down-climbs along the crest where the limestone ledges are layered on top of each other. We avoided one big sketchy rock outcrop hump by keeping left, but otherwise stuck as close to the crest as possible. Toward the end of this slower-moving section of the traverse was a cool Class 3 section that Chris did by keeping along the ridgeline. I skipped it accidentally by descending to the slopes below, where I had to pull some Class 3 moves anyway on crap terrain. I left my poor choice off the attached map, just to show how much I mean sticking to the ridge crest almost the whole time is your best bet.
Eventually we made it down to the saddle with Peak 11028, which was far less exciting-looking than the rest of the day had been so far. It was a very straightforward hike to its summit, with a quick stop to fill my depleted water with snow from the remaining snow that existed. It was a hotter day than expected. We continued past Peak 11028 and up to Peak 10460. This was also a straightforward, somewhat forested ridgeline section. We had to avoid a couple of rock outcrops along the ridge crest by keeping to the right, but nothing exceeded a few short sections of Class 2.
Peak 10460 was the spot where we could have started the descent into Rimrock Canyon, but there was no way we would be orphaning Peak 10292 to the south. It would certainly be an inconvenience we were happy to take on. It was an easy descent from Peak 10460, but we mistakenly kept to the ridge crest, where a small benchmark cliffed us out, resulting in backtracking. I removed this from my attached map, and recommend you just keep to the left of the crest on an animal trail beneath the cliff base. Some more light Class 2 and rocky outcrops along the ridgeline brought us to the summit of Peak 10292.
We backtracked halfway along the ridgeline and then decided to side-hill beneath Peak 10460 rather than re-ascend it to get to the ridgeline. Normally side-hilling isn't worth it, but it wasn't bad at all here and I'd recommend it to save a few hundred extra vertical feet. We made it to the eastern-trending descent ridge we'd use to get into Rimrock Canyon. It started off perfectly pleasant, a fairly steep grassy or lightly forested ridgeline. About halfway down into Rimrock Canyon, the ridge became a little more of a maze. We were able to weave around eroded pinnacles and descend on steep Class 2, keeping this section more reasonable than it appeared from above. Some more easy ridge walking brought us into Rimrock Canyon, which we followed almost ot its mouth. We left the drainage and ascended slightly on the left to pick up the old road that's now on wilderness-designated land and made our way back to the car.
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