Northwest Passage

Route

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Geography

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Page Type: Route

Location: Nevada, United States, North America

Lat/Lon: 38.98610°N / 114.3125°W

Route Type: Mountaineering

Season: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter

Time Required: Half a day

Difficulty: 55 degree snow, AI2

Grade: II

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Page By: colint

Created/Edited: Jun 4, 2007 / Jul 17, 2007

Object ID: 298632

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Table of Contents

Overview

The north facing basin and headwall below Wheeler Peak offer numerous opportunities for alpine rock, snow and ice climbing. This route is technically to the saddle between Jefferson Davis and Wheeler Peak. There exist numerous potential variations, in June all of these required some alpine ice climbing, although I suppose in May there was more snow.

Getting There

Follow directions to Wheeler Peak. Park at summit trailhead. Instead of following the summit trail, take the branch that leads to the Wheeler Glacier. At the Wheeler Glacier, put on crampons and pick a line.

Route Description

There is a large, obvious couloir heading up to the saddle between Wheeler Peak and Jefferson Davis. Follow it. There are what look to be quite difficult variations off to the right of the main couloir about midway up. At least one of these was a really sick looking ice line (at least WI4) that was in what looked to be really good condition on June 3 2007.

Essential Gear

Helmet, helmet, helmet. I would recommend wearing several! I was hit in the helmet by rockfall during the climb!
Ice axe, crampons.

External Links

There is information about the climbs at the Glacier Basin National Park visitor center. The rangers are friendly, but did not know much about the climbing.
I would recommend doing the Lehman Cave tour if you have not seen many caves before. It was pretty entertaining.