Our original mid-Thanksgiving week plans called for Bridge Mountain, a peak that has been on my bucket list for quite some time. Unfortunately, the weekend storms had left a dusting of snow on the rainbow escarpment that was just deep enough to concern us. First, the nasty 4×4 road to get to the trailhead was already a challenge, and snowy and/or wet conditions would make it worse. Second, there is some exposed class 3 scrambling on the way to the peak, and although that can be really fun on the good sandstone, when it is wet it can get slippery and much more dangerous. So, plans scrapped. Boo.

Luckily, Robin had been in contact with Harlan Stockman, and he offered an alternate: he’d guide us to another impressive peak in the area, the informally named “Sentinel” in Lake Mead National Recreation Area. I had never met Harlan but was more than familiar with his prolific collection of trip reports over at his website and had used his beta on more than one occasion. I was excited to get to climb with a local peak-bagging star and get some good beta first-hand.

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