Fearing snow condition, this peak wasn't even on our agenda, but we heard about a hiking party that nearly made the summit two weeks earlier. Even though we lacked crampons and ice axes, Dinah and I decided to give it a try. And with temperatures expected to reach 33°C in Las Vegas, this mountain would be a good place to beat the heat. It's the second highest peak in the Spring Mountains.

Shin from the Las Vegas Meetup group emailed us all the information we would need to climb Mummy Mountain. Mummy is Shin's favourite mountain: he climbed it twelve times last year!

It took us about an hour to drive to the trailhead from our hotel at the edge of The Strip. We started up the Trail Canyon Trail and then turned left at the junction, taking the North Loop Trail a short distance before going offtrail up a scree slope.

The scree slope topped out onto a ridge that we followed to the base of a cliff band. There was still plenty of snow here, and we cautiously kick-stepped across and up the steeper slopes. A break in the cliff band, called the “chute,” affords access to the summit.

When we reached the top, the wind picked up. Nonetheless, we hiked to the north end of the summit plateau to look around. Our seven-hour trip included a 40-minute stay on the summit.

The descent was fast. The snow had softened so much there was little likelihood of sliding down the steep slopes that concerned us on the ascent. In some places the snow allowed us to run down.

We were certainly pleased to bag a peak in the Spring Mountains on our last full day in Las Vegas, nicely capping off our two-week vacation there.