Find Nearby Peaks

This peak is not in the book. Published November 2019.

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Peak 6675 is the highest of three ranked summits near Daves Pass. It is the final peak in the Daves Pass Trifecta. With the exception of a few open areas, this peak is covered with beautiful junipers. The peak has a particularly long summit plateau. Based on altimeter readings, the west summit is slightly higher than the east summit. USGS Ibex Peak

Southwest Face, Class 2+

Access

Same as for Peak 6355 (Daves Pass South). This climb is the final leg of a ridge traverse from Peak 6450 (Cave Gulch Peak) to Peak 6355 to Peak 6755 (Daves Pass North). The climb begins at Daves Pass.

The Climb

From Daves Pass, stay on the right/east side of the cattle fence and bushwhack up through tall, thick sagebrush and cross a lateral cattle fence early on. The tall sage gives way to easier scrub and scattered junipers. Weave up through the junipers and scramble up through two easy cliff bands to reach the 3rd and final cliff band. A short, Class 2+ scramble up this one puts you on the summit plateau at its northwest terminus. The high point here is just east of the northwest end. This point is the high point of Peak 6675 according to my altimeter readings. There were no signs of previous ascent.

From the west summit, hike east-southeast along the summit plateau through a mix of scrub and embedded talus/boulders, a somewhat tedious combination. Visually, the east summit does NOT appear either higher or lower than the west summit. These two potential high points are VERY CLOSE in elevation. The actual topography of the summit plateau does NOT have a noticeable rise up to a higher contour line as the USGS topo map suggests. The east summit is rockier than the west summit. The high point here is a collection of large ground boulders. No signs of previous ascent here either.

South Face, Class 2

Access

Access is the same as for the southwest face.

The Descent

The south face is a somewhat treacherous affair. You can get a good look at it from Peak 6355 or from Coal Banks Creek Road/FSR-681. The face is a convoluted mess of thick junipers, boulders, shoulders, and minor gullies. There are also cliff bands mixed in just to make things interesting. There is a section just right/east of the center of the face (when viewed from a distance) that is more open and is workable, albeit a bit tedious. You do NOT want to go too far to the left/east on this descent of the south face since the terrain there is rougher and choppier than the middle of the face. All of this information must be reconned when you are atop Peak 6355. May your memory be a good one.

From the east summit, you must traverse a bit to the east to find a way to downclimb the summit cliff band. Once below the summit cliffs, move back to the right/west to be more in the center of the face and the semi-open terrain there. Work your way down the face through a mix of scattered junipers and scrub/grass, staying right/west of a prominent gully. Lower down, you will reach a shoulder of easy scrub which leads you down near the road. If you’re an adept map reader, you can see both the rounded shoulder and the prominent gully on the USGS topo map. They are located due south of the east summit. Avoid the thick brush/scrub of the gullies on either side of this shoulder. A final bushwhack through thick scrub/sagebrush lands you on the [blessed] jeep road. Cruise down the jeep road to your parking spot.

What is the True Elevation of Peak 6675?

Lest you think that I’m asking a rhetorical question (like “Who’s buried in Grant’s tomb?), I’m not. This is not a trick question. How can its elevation be 6,675 feet when there is no contour line for 6,640 feet at the west end of the summit plateau? Based on contour lines, the maximum elevation for this peak is “6,640 feet plus” and is located at the east summit. Did the USGS mapmakers mean to place the point estimate above the 6,640-foot contour line at the east end of the summit plateau? Or did they fail to include a 6,640-foot contour line at the west end of the summit plateau? Who knows?

The Ibex Peak quadrangle has numerous errors of this sort. Either the map is missing a contour line or the placement of the 6,675-foot point estimate is in error. Based on my altimeter readings, the true elevation probably is about 6,675 feet and the west summit elevation point placement is probably correct.