Midsummer Night Scheme

After scouring the guidebook for something adventurous to spend a day on, we came across the description for msns and were sold on all four sentences describing the near 2k foot route.

This is a “choose your own adventure” type route that follows up a massive broken gully on the north face of Windy Peak. It is NOT visible from the road, and is NOT the large chimney system which you think is the route during the hike in. The line we followed never felt harder than 5.6 and included a wildly exposed arête for a pitch or two. Protection was good except for the slabby arête pitches, and the choss factor very tolerable even though you're surrounded by it. Again, this is a remote, seldom travelled area where you choose your own path, it would have been easy to make this much harder with many cruxy (albeit short) sections. It was evident that this “route” has seen little if any traffic in some areas at all.

After much scrambling and some bushwacking to gain the main ledge at the base of the gully we began in some vegetated cracks on the right. Eventually we began trending leftward across the gully towards the left wall of the gully, which after a couple pitches led us to a beautiful, wildly exposed, slabby arête for a rope length or two. Soon after was a step-across over an immense chasm out of the gully and onto a face of the main ridgeline. For the last couple of pitches we headed up towards the right side of a sub peak, from this point we followed plentiful cairns (or are they called ducks?) up to the summit of Windy Peak.  Note that after reaching the ridge, there are still one or two 4th class moves ascending out of the notch area.

Descent follows the normal hiking descent route from the summit down past the south face.  Although it is possible to descend the east ridge (thus skipping the summit), the route is not obvious, especially if done in the dark.

LarryD summed it up nicely- “It’s not all that sustained, a bunch of class 3 and 4, but long enough to get lost and waste a bunch of time to make the day memorable.”

This description leaves a lot to the imagination, which is the identity and purpose of this route. We explored and found a 2 star route with 3 star exposure, in a 4 star location that offered solitude and adventure.

For a detailed description see the North Face of Windy Peak page for parking/hiking info.

This approach is very easy to screw up, even by Red Rock standards. We spent a rest day scoping out the approach and quickly realized that it is a maze of cairns, or are they ducks? Anyhoo, plan on 2-3hrs for the approach. If unfamiliar with the canyon or descent this could border grade IV.

Walk off following hiker cairns west from the summit ridgeline of Windy Peak towards the routes on the south face.

This is a remote, adventurous, and seldom traveled area, plan accordingly.

Thanks to LarryD for all the wisdom and guidance.

Standard rack; all natural & wild, no fixed pro or belays