Slacks Mountain - 7339 Feet
Location: 43.07266°N, 116.73651°W
Stats
Date: 05/09/2009
Distance: 10 miles
Elevation gain: 2200'
Class (difficulty): 2
Time: 5 hours
Range: Owyhee
Prominence: 679'
Partner(s): Zach
Report:
Zach and I were low on time due to my busy schedule, but we decided to get out and do something local on a Saturday afternoon. We debated peaks and settled on Slacks Mountain in the Owyhees, as it seemed somewhat prominent and was still close to home.
On our way we both wondered if we could make it to the starting point for the hike, New York Summit. Before the road to Silver City started gaining elevation, were warned by the sheriff that the road was closed to snow ahead. Instead of making it to New York Summit, we stopped about 1 mile short of it at around 6000 feet, just past a "road closed" signed.
We decided against taking snowshoes and headed out. We crossed several muddy and snowy sections of road, but quickly made it to New York Summit. Here we turned right and started following a road that also showed on the topo. This road angled toward Slacks Mountain. As we neared Avondale Basin, both of us were surprised to see the mountain so far away. However, we did see that the now snowbound road continued nearly to the summit. Be plowed on in mostly hard snow, crossing an occassional large drift.
The roads on the topo were very accurate and eventually led us just west of the summit. A quick bushwhack and suprisingly neat finish on a twisted snow drift and rock brought us to the top of the peak.
Both us were very impressed with the views on top of the peak. The Treasure Valley was clearly visible, as were the rest of the Silver City Range peaks. We could see the snowy peaks of central Idaho in the distance to the north. The most suprising was the vast forested area just below the east face of the peak, which only had one road going through it (amazing for the Owyhees!).
It turned out to be a great afternoon in the mountains and both of us were impressed with the excellent scenery of this Owyhee peak.
Getting There:
Take ID-78 south out of Nampa. Turn right (west) onto the signed road to Silver City. Follow this road to New York Summit (approx. 17 miles from ID-78). This road is steep but doesn't require a 4wd.
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