Ruby Mountains Part 3

Another morning and this one is the most beautiful of them all. It is Valentine's day and the Rubies have a lot of love in store for us. On this day we cover the most ground of any day. We start our day by working across boiler plate snow conditions that is impossible to get grip on. We have to be creative and pick just the right spots to step to insure that our skins grip. We quickly are looking down on Overland lake and we have 1,000 feet of beautiful bowl skiing all the way onto the lake. Above the lake is an amazing blue ice fall. All around us are long, steep lines which have probably never been skied before. You could spend an entire ski career in the Overland Lake drainage.

Yeah We got to ski this!

Epic lines. This is the kind of stuff movies are made of!

We were able to traverse across the bottoms of huge cirques and cover a lot of ground in just a short period of time. Then it was time to climb again. The sun had warmed the south facing ridge we were moving on and we went straight up it. After a lot of sweating, we reached the ridge at the top of Long Canyon and get a view of Ruby Dome and the other monster peaks of the range.

The Infamous Ruby Dome

We are now on the crest ridge and ready to move and move we did. We were practically running along the barren ridge and were driven like two kids in a candy shop. Upon topping out on a small peak we look down on the saddle and see a herd of mountain goats. Just looking at their tracks and where they had been scared me and I envy their mountaineering skills!

Mountain goats standing on the edge of the world.

We finally stopped moving when we realized that we were about to bonk. We had been moving non stop and covered over 9 miles. We found a clump of trees to hunker down behind and spent the rest of Valentine's day at 10,500 feet enjoying some classy dehydrated meals.

Tune in later for the the final day of action!

Ruby Mountains Part 2

When we woke up on day 2 feeling that the hard part was behind us. Our plan for the day was to get back up on the ridge and cruise. It ended up being another day very similar to the first. We quickly reached the ridge in the morning and found that we would have to rip our skins and enjoy some of the great Ruby powder. When we looked out over the ridge we saw nothing but impassible ridge line. Our other option was to ski down about 2,000 vertical feet, cross over 2 drainages and ski a few miles up the third drainage. Needless to say it was not what we had planned. But we did get some good downhill.

Once we reached the top of the drainage, there was a pretty large headwall. We climbed up to the pass expecting to see Overland lake on the other side. We reached the top and decided that we were sufficiently spent for the night. So we set up camp on a pristine ridge at almost 10.000 feet that gave a us great view.

Nothing beats this view out your front door

Mark chasing the sunset

We ate 2 dinners that night to help prepare for the next day and give us the much needed calories. Life just keeps getting better in the Rubies!

Mission Accomplished!

The trip went off without a hitch. Well almost. We headed off to the Ruby Mountains of Nevada for an epic journey. I am currently writing an article that is explaining everything in full detail. So for now I will post the stats of the trip with a few photos and a just a couple of the highlights. Keep checking back for updates because I will do it in sections.

Total trip details:

February 12-15, 2010

Mileage-37 miles

Vertical feet climbed-11,300

High Point-10,860 ft

Pack weight- 36 pounds

This was probably one of the most physically demanding trips I have ever done. Part of the reason for that was due to the fact that we were not always completely clear on our route and what we were capable of each day. Along with the physical effort put forth we were able to really test our navigation skills.

We were about 2.5 hours into our drive to Elko, NV when Mark realized that all of our topo maps were sitting on his kitchen table. The next morning we stopped everywhere we could looking for a topo map that would help to gives us an idea of our route. Luckily Cowboy John, our shuttle driver, had a recreational map of the area which we were able to use and totally saved us multiple times.

Cowboy John

We skied from Harrison pass up past the Green mountain trailhead and headed north. Our ultimate goal was Lamoille Canyon via the Ruby Crest ridgeline. We were very anxious to get up on the ridge so we could get a view of our objective and we also thought that once on the ridge, we would be sprinting along it and cruise on through. Boy were we wrong! For the first 2 days it seemed like every ridge we reached was nye impassible and we were forced to find a safe route down and try to access in another drainage or location.

Typical view of the ridge we were supposed to be "cruising" along

So after a few ups and downs (about 2500 feet each) we finally felt like we got on course. Our nights seemed to be perfect. we stayed warm and always had great views when we woke up.

Camp 1

I know the average attention span for blogs is usually just a few photos and even fewer paragraphs. Tune in for the next update and more photos. I have lots more to share. Feel free to ask questions. I love talking about this trip.

Be Prepared

I am going to give you a sneak peek at an adventure that is just around the corner. In preparation for this trip I have been trying get some exercise on a regular basis so that I do not get half way through the journey and start asking my cohorts to carry me. The trip could be a great experience in the mountains or a death march to insanity. We have a solid crew lined up and I really can't wait to get started. So now that I have built it up are you ready to hear what it is.

We are traversing the Ruby Mountain range of Nevada. Oooooh, Ahhhhh! Alright, for those of you that have no idea what I am talking about here are the details of the trip.

The Rubies are known as the Nevada Swiss Alps.

Distance- 35-50 miles (depending on the side trips we take)

Elevation 6500 ft. - 11000 ft. With lots of ups and down between.

4 days to do it with everything we need on our backs!

Wish us luck as we prepare and keep checking to see the trip report on this epic journey. If any of you have any valuable info that will help make this trip epic, please fill us in.

Who are we and what are we doing?

Welcome everyone!! Magog Corp is here to take over the world! We are an up-and-coming outdoor recreation and events company that is based out of Northern Utah. We have grown up with the Rocky Mtns as our stomping grounds and playing in them anyway we can. Kayaking, rafting, skiing, climbing, and general Tom foolery is our specialty. The members of Magog Corp. have an accumulative of about 1 million years of outdoor experience and are excited to give you a taste of what we do.

Updates will come often as we tell you what we are doing, review gear, and keep you posted on events and classes.