China Mountain (8350 ft.), Northeast NV

last March Skip and i ventured down to Utah and found excellent skiing:

after a few mouthfuls of powder in the Wasatch Range, we headed west to Lake Tahoe to visit my cousin Kam for more of the same. as we drove along I-80W, we were greeted by a quick glimpse of the East Humboldt Range and the Ruby Mountains.  they were some impressive mountains jetting out of the Great Basin of northeastern Nevada. we didn't have time to stop for a closer look last year, but we knew we would be back to explore.

so that's what motivated this trip.

Skip and i planned to go to the Rubies and then traverse east to SLC to ski in the Wasatch Range. to maximize our ski time, we decided to stop for a quick tour in the Sawtooths, so. ID. that was the plan.

on Wed. night Skip and i packed his pickup and left Seattle at 7:30 pm. that same day Kelvin and i just finished building a new pair of skis for the trip -- i called them the "Bangers and Mash" and i was excited to try them out. we drove through the night, taking turns and sharing about a gallon of coffee. at 5:30 am we found ourselves in Twin Falls, ID. before leaving Twin, i dialed the Wipe (AKA Cass) back in Seattle to say hello. all i got from him was, "why are you calling me at 5:30 am...*#&$�&!!!?". after the short phone conversation, Skip and i found ourselves exiting Twin on US93 heading south toward Wells, NV and I-80. unfortunately, the highway didn't pass through the Sawtooths as we originally thought. no skiing in the Sawtooths as planned. now what?

a bit disappointed, we looked at the road maps for an alternative. along 93 an atlas showed the Matterhorn, a 10837 ft. mountain in northern Nevada's Jarbidge Mountains. access to the Matterhorn didn't look quick. then suddenly we spotted on one of the maps China Mountain, a 8350 ft. bump within miles of 93. China Mtn. is nothing special -- it only appeared in one of the maps we had in the pickup. but what the heck... or was it that our judgement was clouded by sleep deprivation..?

from Twin, Skip took the wheel as i dozed. about 25-miles past Jackpot, NV, Skip spotted what appeared to be the north side of China Mtn. according to him it was a go. i could not confirm as i was still asleep. i awoke just shortly before we turned onto a primitive road leading to the mountain. we drove about a mile before a fence stopped us. the top of China looked to be a few short miles from where we stopped at ~6200 ft.

at 7:30 am we shouldered our skis up the west side of China Mtn.

about two-hours later we found ourselves at the top, soaking in the view of the surrounding landscape. it was a change to see a mix of desert brown, sage, and white. it was more interesting to think that we were going to ski in a such a landscape. while snacking, we spotted our line, a 35-degreeish slope on the north side of the mountain with adequate coverage. the upper portion of the slope was open and it tighten and drained into a gully near the bottom. after a 30-minute break, we donned skis and traversed along a wind-scoured ridge to the start of our descent. Skip dropped in first on skier's left and found great turns in several inches of soft, wind-deposited snow on a firm base. i followed but stayed skier's right and found the same conditions. we took turns snapping photos and managed a good 1000 vf. of great skiing. there was nothing to complain about.

from the bottom we skinned back up, but to a saddle further east along the ridge we had skied down. from the saddle we decided to keep the skis on a long as possible by doing a huge clockwise traverse, sort of a like half a circum-nav, to catch the north slopes of several smaller peaks south of China Mtn. doing so we managed a total of 2200 vf. of skiing. not bad for NE Nevada.

after China Mtn, we drove to Elko to get info about the Rubies. we spent a few hours lolly-gagging in Elko and then decided not to pursue the Rubies. it was hard to beat such a great day on China Mtn. call us soft, but the nearly 8-mile approach into Lamoille Canyon mixed with a forecasted winter storm warning made us reconsider. instead, we drove to SLC to meet up with Allyson and Cass. that was NOT a bad idea.

More info

China Mountain is located about 25-miles south of Jackpot, Nevada, on the east side of US 93 heading to Wells, NV.  On the west side of the mountain there's a descent access road that puts you within a mile of the mountain.  The approach up the west ridge is straightforward.  All aspects of this mountain can be skied, but consider its north side.

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