Ruby Mountains

KAVU Athlete, Steph Davis brings us to a favorite place she had never been... and tells us why a KAVU day is about every step and every minute of the path

By KAVU

August 15^th, 2018

new terrain!

Ian and I have been talking about visiting the Ruby Mountains for years….and never had made it happen!

momentum

Finally, we decided to take a few days and just go to check it out.

Much to our surprise, a bunch of our friends were already planning to go!

remember to look around during the mission

What stood out most about the Rubies is the geology—it’s the kind of place that makes you want to learn everything there is to know about rocks, magma, lava and geologic time.

There are walls and peaks scattered all around rising valleys, and the rock changes dramatically as you go up and down in elevation.

Some walls reminded me of the Black Canyon, with angling streaks of rock looping over the walls. Other sections made me feel like I was in Tuolumne, grabbing quartzite knobs in a sea of smooth granite.

Often when we go on adventures like this, the goal is to wingsuit BASE jump.

Although I love hiking and peak scrambling, sometimes the ascents are a little bit less fun than the descents: not in the Rubies!

I was so excited about the geology and constantly changing rock layers, the hike itself would have been enough!

There are even garnets lying around—a little mistake that gave the Rubies their name.

unforgettable

We made our way up this amazing landscape to the top of a clean, beautiful wall and flew back along the rock ridge, opening our parachutes in clean air and landing right on the road, right next to our impromptu gypsy camp of vans.