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@Tugela60

9 ай бұрын

You need a new camera, lol, the image quality from that one is pretty awful.

When I climbed Wheeler in August, 1966 there was a very historic monument on the top. It was made from a large squared slab of quartzite about 20 cm on a side and 1 m long. This had the names of several of the early USGS geologists, as well as another party that claimed the first ascent around the 1870 period. It had already been broken into about 3 pieces, but it was laying down at the summit. The carving was a work of art, someone had spent several hours up their toiling away. As it was not shown, I take it to either have been taken down to a museum or destroyed by the mindless. My memory was that the parking lot was on the tree line, and we went south up a moderate slope to the top. I was young and fresh from a boyhood in the Chilean Andes and thought it a stroll! I was the junior geologist at the mine at Ruth, NV at the time.

You are a trooper Dr Willsey; going places that I can not. Thank You!

@spidyr2k

10 ай бұрын

Same. Bad knees, bad ticker, but can recall climbing steep mountain trails many times. Appreciate Doc Willsey taking us along on his teaching trips.

@daphnewilson7966

10 ай бұрын

I suddenly became an "armchair hiker" age 68: pretty much just half of one knee bone-on-bone, forget about almost all of the bucket list. So wonderful people like Wilsey do it, with amazing video capability, and then there's the interpretive education! It is a consolation.

@davidpnewton

10 ай бұрын

He doesn't have a doctorate.

@dbrodbro1

9 ай бұрын

@@davidpnewton Thank you but, I anoint him as such.

Home to nearly 5000 year old Bristlecone Pine trees.They are at higher elevations. The rocks are very very old here and raised up from where formed making it a range with many fractured by the heating -cooling changes into smaller rocks. Tough walking on it without a walking stick! Of course the air is colder and thinner here too.Thanks so much for taking us along with you professor. Amazing views with a great geology lesson!

Ive always wondered about seeing trees shaped that way on certain slopes. Now i know the answer. Thank you.

Learning about rocks while enjoying my coffee.

@korodski

10 ай бұрын

Smoking rocks while learning about rocks 😎

@wendygerrish4964

10 ай бұрын

There's no way I could huff that trail in a half day. Enjoying my fresh made coffee here at 1000ft.

Bro you deserve a donation just for hiking up there! Once you got to the top and were looking over the edges of the peak my pucker factor was pegged. It's clear I have a problem with heights generally but dude, I was scared shitless for you up on all that foliated and unstable rock - especially along sheer cliffs pointing _straight_ down. Maybe I'd feel different if I was there but on video it is terrifying.

@wendygerrish4964

10 ай бұрын

Agreed especially with each crispy crunch under foot.

@shawnwillsey

9 ай бұрын

The video always looks more risky than the actually location. I felt solid the whole time.

@Skank_and_Gutterboy

Ай бұрын

No doubt! I did the glacier hike, which goes up to the base of the sheer Wheeler Peak cliff. Looking up at a 1700' sheer cliff is really majestic and there's a lot of cool rock formations and bristlecone pines along the way.

I have done this hike and wondered about those aspens. I took a bunch of black and white images of those trees. Very interesting!

Awesome.. Had a good friend back in the 80's to early 2000's that had a Bell Jet Ranger. He would take me with him on occasion to fly the Nevada - California mountain ranges. RIP Peter..

I always said Great Basin is one of those parks that you really have to want to go there, lol. If you don't count Ely, it's in the middle of nowhere. (When I was out there, the closest city of any size was 100 miles away...) Of all the roads out west, the road up to Wheeler Peak scared the heck of me for some reason. Maybe it was the lack of oxygen. Probably the lack of guard rails... Great views from the peak. The drop-offs gave me a little anxiety, though. 😁 (And Doso Doyabi Peak? Not Jeff Davis Peak? Name change during the past decade?) Hope you're going into the Swell to the East. Place fascinates me...

Beautiful location. I need to explore. Thanks. Retired NAU Grad and Ex-Oil Guy here. The beauty of studing Geology is that you never get it out of your system.

Rock glaciers. Pistol butt trees. Two new things to file away for future identification. Thanks Shawn.

Thanks for letting me see the view from the top. I nearly made it there in 1996 but the day I tried the weather very suddenly turned cold with strong winds. I wasn’t prepared for that had to stop and turn back there’s no shelter up there. It was still an unforgettable experience.

Great video! For me, hiking/skiing above 12K feet is agony. Fantastic views.

@wendygerrish4964

10 ай бұрын

Doing this in my early 30s was torture just doing some of the eastern sierra. It took a couple of days up there then to feel better. Not the usual granite.

Wow! What a view! And that cirque was amazing. Thanks for going all the way up there, yet another thing I just gotta try.

@shawnwillsey

10 ай бұрын

You should!

Fantastic! I made the summit on Sep. 24, 2023. The weather was perfect. Now about your mention regarding the challenge of ascending the summit block... That was no lie! I moved slowly and made numerous stops. Well worth the effort though. Thanks for sharing the geology of the region.

Camping about Flagstaff With a view of SF peaks about to wonder about for a few hours, windy a heck last night with drizzle. Thanks for the lesson!

@shawnwillsey

9 ай бұрын

Awesome. I loved my time there. Enjoy. And thanks for your kind donation.

Awesome view! Thanks for sharing your climb! 👍

Like a trip home. I spent over 20 years living in the vicinity of Great Basin National Park and I did make the climb to the top of Wheeler Peak. Thank you, means more than I can say now that such a trip is beyond my physical means. Just one helpful comment - the first view of the valley below the ridgetop, the valley with the wind farm and the numerous crop circles is called Spring Valley. Snake Valley is on the 'tother side.

@shawnwillsey

9 ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the correction.

I look forward to watching your adventures great job as usual keep up the good work

@shawnwillsey

10 ай бұрын

Thanks 👍

Thanks for making the peak summit…so we don’t have to!🤣. Seriously though, appreciate the “stories” in the rocks (and bent trees) you relay to us. The onscreen graphics are a nice addition to your skill set. Look at you, you’ve come a long way in the content creator-o-sphere!

@shawnwillsey

9 ай бұрын

Gee, thanks. Yeah, I'm slow to learn some of the computer skills but have added a few tricks. I agree that they are an upgrade from the early videos.

Fantastic view up there! Wow. A fear of heights might be helpful. 😅 Intriguing rocks and explanations, esp Cambrian succession. I'd not learned of rock glaciers. Nor mass wasting affecting tree growth. I've camped there but wasn't aware of Wheeler. Really great! Thanks, Shawn. ❤❤❤

@briane173

10 ай бұрын

Yeah I tend to forget about rock glaciers, because when you hear "glacier" you're thinking of thick packed ice from top to bottom, whereas a glacier can easily survive under a couple hundred feet of sediment on account of it insulating the ice from the elements. The Conness glacier in the Sierra Nevada is a good example. Just looks like another talus slope from a distance, but it's actually packed sediment covering most of the glacier; so plenty of ice, we just can't see it coz it's buried underneath moraine sediments.

@wendygerrish4964

10 ай бұрын

Ohhh. All good to know stuff

Clambered the tinkling quartzite trail 3 Saturdays in a row, each time got easier. Cooled-off after in pure cool Cave Lake-

Thanks. I've seen Wheeler from Pahrump and wondered about the local geology.

@nothanks3236

10 ай бұрын

Um I thought Pahrump was way down south near Las Vegas? GBNP is up in the northeast-ish part of the state. Can you really see it from way down there? Seems to me there are more than a few mountain ranges in the way...

What a view! that took some work to get there thank you stay safe ALL

Far and away, my favorite KZread channel. I've watched more of these videos than I can count. I was a ranger at Great Basin in 2016. Spent all my spare time hiking the peaks of the Snake Range and poking around the West Desert, so I'm really digging your recent presentations about the geology of this area. Thank you!

@shawnwillsey

9 ай бұрын

Awesome. Thanks for your loyal viewership and comments. More Utah west desert videos coming soon.

Appreciate the geology along with the hike and views. Most peakbaggers in KZread don’t know or venture into a discussion of formation. Thanks

Rock glacier is new to me. Wonderful views Profrssor Willsey, thank you for taking us along!

Great video. love the scenery as well as the lesson in geology

Fell in love with GBNP a few years ago on a quick trip. They have a wonderful dark sky gathering, magnificent bristlecones, high forest camping and the crowds are nonexistent. The hike to the top is a great walk. Even Baker is strangely inviting.

Woah ! I had a couple of shudders there as you approached that edge ...

Pretty serious climb with beautiful rewards. Thanks for brining us along!

13000 ft is way up there. Your in good shape. Ive only climbed to the top of a few 14 teeners in Colorado. Such a pretty view from the top of the world.

Really cool. When I was there, I didn't climb Wheeler Peak, I did the glacier hike. At 0:14, its between the two ridges to the right and you go right up to the base of the cliff under Wheeler Peak. You're standing right under a 1700' sheer cliff, it is awesome, and the cliffs to the side have a ton of cool rock formations. On the way to the glacier, you also go through the bristlecone pine forest that has trees over 5000 years old. A lot of people turn back at that point. Continuing on to the glacier is well worth it. One hint: the hike involves walking across a couple of stretches of snowfield that are a couple hundred yards long. People in tennis shoes were getting wet feet, which made the hike less pleasant. It was 50 degrees up there, not cold at all, but cold feet is no fun. I got lucky, my hiking boots had a Goretex liner inside so my feet stayed dry. Take precautions to keep your feet dry!

I hiked this mountain twice years ago. The first time we did not get to the top because the weather was just too windy and cold. The second time I made it to the top and my friend Harry Johnson stayed lower on the mountain since he had Diabetes and could not go too high in fear of affecting his vision. Someone had taken a picture of me and was supposed to email it to me but I never received it. Harry had the camera and back then I did not have a camera. I always have a digital camera with me now along with my phone so I can get photos. I've always regretted not getting photos that day! Looks like you had great weather. When I did this hike the wind was blowing like 50 mph so I lost my hat one year and it was extremely cold for us Florida guys! The wind did not sound bad for you. Thanks for the video and the explanation of the rocks. I have a better understanding of the mountain and area. I also enjoyed your video of Crater Lake National Park (Caldera National Park).

Awesome! It's been a while since I've been out there, one of my favorite NPs. It's nice to know the geology a bit now, thanks for making this video! I remember how cold it was hitting that ridge above the timberline, stopped in one of the rock shelters and put on everything we had left for layers. I also love how you can see Notch Peak to the west and vice versa, excellent prominence.

Oh wow! What an awesome hike! What a fantastic view from the top! And that rock glacier, how fascinating... Thank you Shawn for taking us along :)

Wow! You must have been a mountain goat in your last life. What a view. Enjoyed it immensely!!!

thanks for sharing and the narrative about the history of the rocks! reminds me as well the day when I day hiked it 2022. it is marvelous from the top to see all around!

As I ended watching your climb on video, I see you wanting to get closer to the "edge" for a better view of the depth, and I'm saying in my mind to you, "don't go to or stand on the edge.......the rocks are loose or undermined!!". When taking my kids on Western trips for geology viewing, that was a strict rule, "don't stand on the edge!" Loved the groves of Aspen, and they were in their "yellow color".......too cool. I found in my late 60"s that 8,000 ft. is now my limit in elev. Wow! you were at 13,000! You made it! Quite the trek and thanks for taking us along.

So vast and beautiful thank you

Sometimes,,,like this peak location....we find and see the best vantage points inside a range like this,,(snake range)....your view was spectacular..,,.every direction is epic,,we can see why you chose this,...plus learned about tree formation,,never heard this formation at the base of poplar,.......cool,,,..tnx,pat&family..land o' lakes,wi.

Nice video! I hiked Wheeler peak in May 2020. What a fantastic climb. Much more snow at that time of year. My wife and I glissaded down the mountain! 😂

That was a E ticket ride. Boy what a view, absolutely incedible. Got the road altlas out to get me bearings.

Fantastic! This botany minor learned a fabulous forest lesson from you today. The geology is vary interesting there. An impressive glaciation lesson also. Thank you.

@shawnwillsey

9 ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it

Awesome Shawn. One of my favorite hikes. Sky island in the sagebrush ocean.

Wow, I just love Wheeler Peak! Can't believe all the great places you're visiting. If I could recommend another great hike, it would be Deseret Peak in the Stansbury Mountains west of Grantsville. In fact, the avatar to the left of this comment is of my wife and daughters sketching the fab view from its summit.

Fantastic views! Thanks for making the huge effort to get up there! Haha, I like that... "good work, team". My kids and I went through some of the wild caves in that limestone, it was really neat! Now I want to go back and hike to the top of Wheeler Peak!

Oh my word. I was terrified for you. Very interesting.

Wow Shawn, you must have one of the best jobs in the world! You get to visit some spectacular locations like this, on a scale which you never get over here in the UK. It's very similar to the views from Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs, which I visited some 20 or so years ago now. By the way the altitude got to me as well at c. 14000ft. . Anyway a spectacular location and great geology. Keep up the great work

@shawnwillsey

9 ай бұрын

Thanks. I am truly lucky and never take it for granted (or granite)

Really great video; thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge!

Really awesome views! Very brave doing that hike alone. Thanks for letting us follow along.

Wonderful video thank you

@shawnwillsey

10 ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it

The rocks under your feet at 12,000 ft and at the summit sounded a bit like you were walking over broken glass bottles. Reminded me of the sound when you were walking in the basalt field at Moon Rock (don't remember the exact name of that formation) about one year ago. Great video as always. Thx.

Eastern Nevada bud, but yes, that hike is a grind! I've had to climb it way too many times, but luckily the view never disappointed. great job Shawn!

@shawnwillsey

9 ай бұрын

Thanks!

Thanks for your channel. I really do enjoy it. Look forward exploring Idaho. Please keep up the great work. Thamks.

@shawnwillsey

9 ай бұрын

Thanks, will do!

Coincidence: I just came across this great experience, and the one time I was at Great Basin National Park, it was during the Newt Gingrich Shut-down. Sad: trash was overflowing. Nobody around. Your views wonderful!

A note or two: the official "highest peak" in Nevada is not topographically prominent enough to be considered a peak, the true peak is on the California side. That leaves Wheeler Peak the tallest peak in NV without being the highest point in NV. Also, NV has a chunk of Death Valley NP, meaning it has two National Parks. Great hearing more about Wheeler Peak! Thanks!

Way cool thank you.

Dr. Willsey, would you please comment on the mechanism that caused some of that quartzite to become "banded iron"? Also, this is the same neighborhood that experienced three different gold rush episodes (Osceola) and I'd like to know your thoughts on that area's gold origin. The Osceola placer gold field is 14 miles wide and 7 miles deep with little or no lode gold. All the lode mines in this area quickly played out and there are presently several active placer gold mines in the area. They can be seen from Route 50. So, where was the original gold containing mountain located? Side note, the largest gold nugget ever found in the entire state of Nevada was picked up in an Osceola placer deposit and it weighed 24 pounds. It was found just a couple of miles south of this hiking area. Thanks for taking us along. Interesting hike.

I was surprised to see the peak covered in smaller rocks. From the bottom, it looks like one big rock. A solid mountain.

Thanks!

Thank you for another fantastic field trip Mr.Shawn. Great camera work dude! A great unresolved geologic controversy has erupted between my brother and I: Quartz vs quartzite!!! I argued quartz is either an igneous intrusive mineral or hydrothermally concentrated deposit while quartzite is metamorphosed beach, river, and/or desert sand. He responded that I was full of shit and that people who think they know it all really annoy those who do. Which one of us is the real know it all?

@wendygerrish4964

10 ай бұрын

I would side with you. The semantic construction of the word is missleading.

@shawnwillsey

9 ай бұрын

One is a rock and one is a mineral. Quartz is a mineral composed of silicon and oxygen. It is one of the most common minerals on earth. It is found in all three rock types (igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic). Quartzite is a rock made almost completely of quartz. It forms by quartz rich sandstone either becoming vey compacted so that it breaks across the grains (an orthoquartzite) or due to elevated temperatures (metamorphism) causing quartz grains to fuse together (a metaquartzite). I'll let you two settle this.

@thaddeusjones7868

9 ай бұрын

"People who think they know it all really annoy those who do" 😂😂 That's great I'm going to have to use that line

@candui-7

9 ай бұрын

@@shawnwillseyThank you for the clarification! My ex was correct: I'm wrong.

@shawnwillsey

9 ай бұрын

@@candui-7 Good on you for admitting it. Learn and move on as I say.

Magnificent view! Thank you for taking us along on your adventure and adding depth to the understanding of the processes that created such a beautiful place. I wasn't aware that there is a Wheeler Peak in Nevada. Way back in the 1970's I climbed Wheeler Peak, New Mexico, 13,167'. Though not a technical hike it was still quite difficult, the altitude causing some very uncomfortable physical symptoms. We made it to the top as a thunderstorm approached and made a quick descent to safety.

Really like the view from the glacial cirque. Personally I'm hoping for another ice age, not that I'll be here to see it. Thanks.

This park also has Lehman Cave at the base of the mountain. Beautiful formations inside. Can you / have you done a video about the formation and character of that cave? Thanks

You scared me although I know you obviously survived. Thanks for sharing because I would never survive the top.

I have been on that exact trail. I camped at the upper campground at about 9,000 feet or close it.

Sir I appreciate you for the elaborate explanations, but at the same time I request you please don't take too much risk . No doubt you shows exactly what you want to explain in a fantastic way, but please take care. Thank you Sir.

@briane173

10 ай бұрын

Oh man. My pucker factor was pegged watching this. Maybe it would feel different being there but on video it was terrifying.

@wendygerrish4964

10 ай бұрын

I was starting to rope up.

@Anne5440_

10 ай бұрын

Geology professors who are also mountain climbers can really get our attention. My ex was a mountain climber, I have enough experience to recognize that Professor Willsey is actually being safe and careful. I still grab my breath a time or two with some of the exposure. He makes Geology thrilling.

@shawnwillsey

9 ай бұрын

Thanks for the caution and concern. I think it always looks a little spicier on camera. Also while I’ve been climbing for over 30 years and am a licensed climbing guide, I’m also a cautious, middle aged guy.

Really want to hit Great Basin, hopefully next year. I need to start training harder though 😉

Wish someone would explain metamorphic core complexes 'cuz I don't understand them. The limestone at Lehman Caves has been metamorphosed to marble which is why they have the unusual shield formations, calcite deposition by capillary seepage along randomly-oriented fractures. There are garnet-mica schists in the northern Snake Range. I'm glad they re-named Jeff Davis Peak.

@shawnwillsey

9 ай бұрын

Good idea to do an episode on MCC's. Noted.

@benjaminralford

9 ай бұрын

Amen to renaming that peak!

Professor, you really shouldn’t be hiking alone like you do, especially this trail up 13k. We appreciate though.👍

@shawnwillsey

9 ай бұрын

There were other hikers nearby.

Wait! At 15:13 were any geologists or crew injured in the making of this video? 🤔🙄😢😢😢. Crickey Shawn!!!

@shawnwillsey

9 ай бұрын

It looked far spicier than it actually was. No injuries to report.

This Earth, is Forever!! We are not, maybe, but the Earth will always "find its way"!!

❤please becareful, Shawn!

@shawnwillsey

9 ай бұрын

I always am. Thanks.

Climbed Wheeler Peak in Aug 2012. There was plenty of glacier then. Can’t believe it has gone in 10 years. Any one else want to debate the reality of global warming?

Can you explain specifically why the tree trunks take the form they due to the freeze and thaw?

Random question related to your erosion content. In modern times with plants to hold mountains up, how much longer does it take a mountain range to a road away that it would have say in the Cambrian when there were no land plants? Is it significant to say that the Appalachia still exist because of land plants while the ancestral Rockies were destroyed multiple times and yet we're just as big of mountains or is this somehow not related to speed of erosion because of plant material? Is it just that the soil in the modern day Appalachia are highly resistant to erosion without any sort of plant life?

Can you make a video on the Mammoth Geological Site

The high point over by California border is a side point of a mountain whose peak is in California. Anyway it is not considered a peak. So the highest peak is Mt. Wheeler but the highest "point" is the one on the west side of NV.

@shawnwillsey

9 ай бұрын

Good clarification

The summit looks dangerously unstable - OMG🙄

9:50 so is this more a ”pressure-welded” ortho-quartzite? The relic bedding suggests little to no deformation, I thot I saw a few voids, but maybe that was just dark inclusions. Is this generally a more porous material than a meta quartzite? With the relic cross bedding, is it possible to tell whether the bedding is aeolian or worked by water?

@shawnwillsey

9 ай бұрын

Yes, the pressure of thousands of feet of overlying strata compresses the rock, reducing the pore space between sand grains. Groundwater flow through the sandstone can further reduce porosity as it fills pore space with cement. Both varieties of quartzite have similar and limited porosity. The cross beds in the is unit were low angle so not aeolian, but water. Likely rivers and deltas.

@jonadams8841

9 ай бұрын

@@shawnwillsey ok, your description suggests to me it’s still fully sedimentary, just deformed grains and glued together with silica and/or calcium/etc. No fusion of grains has occurred. Is that fair?

@d.jensen5153

9 ай бұрын

@@jonadams8841 I had your same question. Based on a comparison of the rock Professor Willsey showed and quartzite I collected east of Lava Hot Springs, I'd guess Wheeler Peak is ortho and the stuff I have is meta. But I'm no authority.

Isn't there a wheeler peak in NM?

@shawnwillsey

9 ай бұрын

Yes

Love your work but your camera is not doing you justice! You need to change cameras!

@shawnwillsey

26 күн бұрын

Agreed. Any recommendations? Mainly I use a GoPro Hero 8 but am open to changing.

Thanks!