Boundary Peak and Montgomery Peak
(NV and CA)

1-2 Jun 2002 - by Dee Booth

Ten of us made our way into the desert taking Highway 120 from 395 to the quaint town of Benton. Going North on Highway 6 into Nevada one comes to Janie's Ranch on the left. An unmarked dirt road off the right is Queen's Canyon Road. The road was unobstructed by snow or anything else and we followed it until we saw Arun's Subaru with a makeshift sign marking this area as the PCS campsite. By 7:30 PM the last of the group had arrived.

The area consists of three abandoned stuctures in various stages of disrepair. Since it was raining a bit on and off, those of us with bivy bags used these as shelters for the night.

At 4:00 AM the camp was stirring and by 5:45 AM we had shuttled everyone up to the start of the climb. We would have camped there but the turnout had been claimed by other campers. From this point the road continues up but is rugged in places. We walked up the road to the Queen's Saddle where we found a use trail that climbs up to a ridge. The trail is indistinct and we ended up slogging up the hillside. Once on the ridge the trail reappeared and is quite good to another saddle. The trail leading up to the next ridge is obvious but also steep and tedious.

We reached the summit of Boundary Peak at 10:20 AM and shortly thereafter the clouds started blowing in obscuring the summit of Montgomery. We waited a while to see if they would blow away or turn into a rain shower. More than half the group decided to turn back at this point. Arun went with them, having summited both peaks last summer. I went on with three others to the summit of Montgomery.

We left the summit of Boundary and made our way along the ridge towards Montgomery. In my opinion this is the best part of the climb. The ridge offers some nice third class scrambling. We skirted the many rock towers along the ridge on either the right or the left depending on which side looked less steep or where the snow patches were we wanted to avoid. On the way back we found staying close to the top of the ridge, climbing up and down the rock towers, was the better way to go. In one hour and 15 minutes we had all reached the summit of Montgomery .

After perusing the military register and signing in the register for the rest of us we started back. Staying high on the ridge we summited Boundary again in 50 minutes. One member of our party decided to skirt the slope lower down and avoid the summit of Boundary. This was more direct but offered loose, slippery sidehilling. We followed the same route back stopping once in a while to rest. We reached the car at 5:05 PM.

I cannot improve on the trip report Arun wrote on August 11, 2001 so I refer you to that report for details on the route. There was very little snow along the route, just patches here and there which could easily be avoided. There was no need for an ice axe.

Leaders: Arun Mahajan, Dee Booth Participants: Vince Coito, Tom Driscoll, Nancy Fitzsimmons, Chris and John Kerr, Dot Reilly, Bob Suzuki, John Wilkinson


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