West Desert

By: Steph Davis

By KAVU

September 19^th, 2023

Loneliest Highway

The west desert of Utah surrounds Highway 50, the “Loneliest Highway”—what it lacks in services or people, it has in superabundance of open space and large-scale geology.

We packed up the essentials: climbing gear, wingsuits, BASE rigs, paramotor, dirt bike, water and dog and headed out for some KAVU Days.

Base camp is a wide-open expanse of white hardpan below the quartzite walls of Ibex, where there is a lot of desert fun to be had. The handful of other campers spread far out along the playa, which makes it feel like you’re in your own little world, and a perfect place to explore by land and by air.

Since the climbing at Ibex almost all faces east, a late start is mandatory and there’s still plenty of time to climb a multi-pitch route.

Quartzite tends to make equally great crack climbing and face climbing, and most of the routes are a mix of both just to keep it interesting!

Notch Peak sits right across the main highway from Ibex, and it’s arguably the best wingsuit jump site in the US. Roads into Notch are sparse and rugged, so we ride a dirt bike to get in close to the bottom of the mountain, and then hike a few hours to the very top.

You feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere when you look out across the land from the summit of Notch Peak—Lake Sevier and Great Basin National Park stretch way out in the distance.