Frenchman Mountain (Mountaineers' Route) - 12/10/24

Bonanza Road from Frenchman Mountain

Starting up the Mountaineers Route

Cheryl, Theresa, and Brian

Climbing the Frenchman with Las Vegas and the Spring Mountains Behind

Following a few Arrows

Seven hikers met at the east end of Bonanza on a cold and windy Tuesday. We parked across the street from the east Mormon Temple of which our route was named. Unfortunately, there are two routes up the west side of Frenchman Mountain which start here so there was a little confusion of which route we were going to take. One route follows a trail up a ridge line. But the hike we were going on follows a road to a steep gully with lots of scrambling including several spots of class 3 scrambling. We started up a trail and then a road. The road led into our gully. There is a branch in the gully a short distance from the end of the road. We turned left and followed a trail for a short distance. The trail peters out and we started scrambling up the limestone gully. Most of the scrambling was on solid limestone slabs that have been polished smooth by many years of water flowing down. About two thirds of the way up we reached our first obstacle which was a short almost vertical chute of about ten feet. There were plenty of handholds and foot holds and we got all the hikers up without any issues. Right at the top of the chute we transitioned to a V shaped slot that is very steep but not vertical. It looks intimidating but there are plenty of holds and natural protection. At the top of the V slot we continued up to another obstacle. This one was a little easier and it was just a steep spot in the limestone slab gully.

Narrowing Down

Shimmy, Shimmy, Shimmy

Up

Interesting

Nearing the Top

After this we arrived at the ledge which we had to traverse to emerge from the gully.  The ledge is very wide at about 4 feet most of the way.  There is a spot where it narrows but it’s not that scary or difficult.  We emerged from the gully and hiked up the slope to the access road.  We followed the road to the summit but stopped short of the actual summit since there was tons of communication gear at the top and our group was reluctant to step in front of some high powered microwave transceivers.  We had our snack break, took a group shot and proceeded back the way we came.  There was no issues at the two obstacles and we got back to the cars in just under five hours.  One of our hikers commented on the uncanny accuracy of the time estimates made by the coordinators. ~J&C

Stats: 3.5 miles, 2300 ft, 4 hours 50 minutes.

Summit Photo

Down

Down that interesting Part

And, down some more!