Phil and Karen's Adventures: Lee Peak - Mt. Charleston Phil and Adam

Lee Peak is a hike I've been wanting to do for awhile. The route I decided to take is a shortcut through the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort. Since I've ridden my board there several times in the winter, I thought it'd be fun to visit in the summer.

You climb over 3000 feet in roughly 1.5-2 miles, so I knew it'd be a tough uphill hike. I also decided it'd be a good opportunity to try out some night/early morning hiking, so I planned to start hiking early in the morning with my buddy to make the summit by sunrise. Then I'd be able to take some amazing photos.

Unfortunately, our "sunrise summit bid" was flawed from the get go. I didn't budget enough time for the drive, I didn't budget enough time for the hike, and I woke up late. We hit the trail at about 5:45, and the sky was already starting to brighten with the rising sun.

The first part of the hike takes you right up the ski run called "The Line" which follows the main chairlift. At the top, you veer left and enter a dirt road just before the ski patrol shack. The road leads to a wash, which you follow up. At this point, if you look to the southwest you should be able to see Lee Peak, the most prominent peak on the ridge. You know you're going the right way when you encounter a small waterfall with water draining into a pipe. From here, you can pretty much see what you need to do; find a way up to the ridge. This is when the easy hiking ends. When we ascended, we simply followed the stream as it went up the mountain, always keeping the ridge in view and moving right (West) whenever possible. There is a lot scrambling up boulders, small waterfalls, and fallen trees as you follow the stream. Later, about 40%-50% to the ridge, it becomes a scramble up loose scree and gravel. The bear crawl will be very useful. The grade here is very steep and we had to rest frequently. Slowly but surely, though, the ridge will come into view and you'll reach the top. At this point, according to my Garmin, we were 1.3 miles into the hike.

Since there aren't a ton of detailed descriptions of this particular route, we had to make some decisions on our own. Specifically, once at the ridge, we were afraid the North Loop trail would descend too far down the other side of the ridge and we'd miss the summit of Lee, so we decided to make our own trail, staying as high on the ridge as possible. This worked, but it made for some very sketchy boulder climbs with some scary exposure. At a couple points we were forced to retreat and find a longer way around the scariest stuff. One particularly nervewracking climb put us at the top of a broad, flat peak with a wind measuring instrument on it. There was no label anywhere on it so I don't know if this peak is named. This was the final peak before Lee.

We reached the 11,300 foot summit of Lee Peak 1 hour 50 minutes into our hike at a distance of 1.93 miles. The 360 degree views from the summit are very nice, and even though the day was very hazy, we could see all the way to Lake Mead. Pahrump was clearly visible to the West. Also, there were nice, closeup views of Charleston Peak and Mummy Mountain in all its glory. We spent about a half hour on the summit eating and taking photos, then we started back down.

We decided to try and take as much of the North Loop as possible back to the ridge, since we didn't want to repeat some of the climbing we had to do on the ridge. Just after starting our descent, however, I slipped when climbing down a rock. My shoulder instantly dislocated (this happens to me a lot) and I fell on some sharp rocks. I had to calmly take my backpack off, raise my dislocated arm up with my good arm, and let the joint fall back into place. It was immediate relief from the pain, but I knew the joint would be tender and delicate the rest of the way down. I also ended up skinning my knees and elbow up pretty bad on that fall.

Following the North Loop back to the ridge worked really well for us. It was much quicker and safer. Once on the ridge, we assessed our line of descent and tried a slightly different one that seemed safer. We sideways-slid our way down the scree until we came to the wash, then picked our way through the fallen trees and sticker plants until we reached the road. From there it was an easy descent through the resort to our car. Total distance was 3.9 miles, elevation gain/loss was 3,219 feet, total time was 4 hours.

So if you're planning to do this hike, here are some quick tips:

plan on the hike being very strenuous (the Summitpost.org posting for the hike glosses over this a bit)
plan on there being no defined path for the majority of the hike
bring some gloves if you don't want your hands to be nicked up by stickers plants, brambles, and sharp rocks
once you gain the ridge, proceed to the North Loop trail just on the other side. Follow it to Lee Peak. Don't make your own path on the ridge
especially on the descent, plan on your shoes being full of pebbles and dirt, unless you wear pants

Most people don't set out to hike only Lee Peak, they make Lee a short excursion off of another route. However, if I were to return to Lee Peak, I'd think about taking the North Loop trail there. It'd be longer, but the North Loop is a beautiful trail and it'd be a lot less strenuous. Also, this route could serve as a shortcut to Charleston Peak. Perhaps for another time...