Amber, Jodie & I made the 10 hour drive from Vegas to Jarbidge after work on Friday, arriving at around 1am. We were up around 6am for our 630am meetup time with Joel & Larry. Unfortunately, due to Jarbidge being on Mountain Time and the rest of Nevada being on Pacific Time, there was some confusion and we weren't all together until about an hour after we were planning. Once together, we drove to the trailhead, which was rocky with some stream crossings, but not horrible.

I had loaded a few different GPS tracks, so we had options on different routes and peaks in the area, with Matterhorn being the main objective. We followed the trail for a couple of miles, finally reaching the ridge that most use to access Matterhorn. We were all still sleepy and that ridge looked loose and not-fun. I suggested that we continue on the trail past Jarbidge Lake, where it would be easier to gain the ridge. We would also go up and over Government Peak and Cougar Peak, which Larry also wanted to do. The rest of the trail was great. Once we left the trail and started following the ridge to Government Peak, our pace slowed considerably. There were game trails, but they weren't very good. The ridgeline itself had too many trees and plants at the crest, so we had to sidehill more than any of us expected. Finally, we reached Government Peak and took a short break.

Cougar Peak looked steep and difficult from Government. While it was steep, it wasn't nearly as bad as we were expecting. It took us about 50 minutes to traverse, with lots of breaks. It was about this time that the smoke started getting really bad. It was settling around the mountains in the area and visibility got much worse. Our lungs and eyes weren't happy either.

The traverse from Cougar to Matterhorn was much more difficult. The initial descent off of Cougar was on steep, loose rock with plenty of exposure to the east. Once we got past that, there were a couple of rocky lumps that we still had to negotiate before the final ascent. This 1.18 mile traverse felt much longer. Larry put it into high gear and made it up about 15-20 minutes before everyone else. Looking back to Cougar from Matterhorn, we all agreed that if we had taken the ridge up to the saddle between the 2 mountains, nobody would have opted to go to Cougar! Matterhorn was a list finisher (Nevada Peak Club Emblem Peaks) for each of us, so we enjoyed a bottle of champagne on the summit (which I carried all day). Moods were better after that!

Finally, we descended the ridge that we were originally going to ascend. It was loose & steep - exactly how it looked. We made decent time down. Once on the trail, we all hiked at our own pace for the last 1-2 miles to the trailhead, where celebratory beers were waiting! We enjoyed a nice meal in town, went to bed early and drove home on Sunday. Jarbidge is a really cool, remote area. I just wish it wasn't that smoky.