Haystack Mountain is an mountain summit located in Sublette County of

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...

, United States.

Geography

The mile-long peak is situated in the remote

Wind River Range The Wind River Range (or "Winds" for short) is a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains in western Wyoming in the United States. The range runs roughly NW–SE for approximately . The Continental Divide follows the crest of the range and incl ...

, one mile west of the Continental Divide, and approximately four miles southeast of the

Cirque of the Towers The Cirque of the Towers is located in the Wind River Range Wyoming, U.S., part of which is in the Bridger Wilderness in Bridger-Teton National Forest, while the remainder is in the Popo Agie Wilderness in Shoshone National Forest. Located in ...

. It is set in the Bridger Wilderness, on land managed by Bridger-Teton National Forest.

Topographic relief Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin w ...

is significant as the northwest aspect rises nearly above Clear Lake in one-half mile. Neighbors include Schiestler Peak, 1.9 mile to the west, Big Sandy Mountain 1.5 mile north, and East Temple Peak 1.6 mile south. Access is via a half-day hike on the Big Sandy Trail. Precipitation

runoff Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to: * RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program * Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed * Runoff or run-off, a stock marke ...

from the mountain drains into headwaters of the Big Sandy River, which is a tributary of the

Green River Green River may refer to: Rivers Canada * Green River (British Columbia), a tributary of the Lillooet River *Green River, a tributary of the Saint John River, also known by its French name of Rivière Verte *Green River (Ontario), a tributary of ...

Climate

According to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

system, Haystack Mountain is located in an alpine subarctic climate zone with long, cold, snowy winters, and cool to warm summers. Due to its altitude, it receives precipitation all year, as snow in winter, and as thunderstorms in summer.

Climbing

A partial list of the 17 established climbing routes on Haystack's popular granite walls: * North Gully – () * North Face – (II 5.6) – 1958 – Jack Curtin and John Wells * ''Minor Dihedral'' – (III 5.9) – 1964 – Pete Croff, Phil Fowler, Richard Schori * ''Major Dihedral'' – (IV 5.9+) – 1964 –

Fred Beckey Friedrich Wolfgang Beckey (14 January 1923 – 30 October 2017), known as Fred Beckey, was an American rock climber, mountaineer and book author, who in seven decades of climbing achieved hundreds of first ascents of the tallest peaks and best ro ...

, Jerry Fuller * ''Flashflood'' – (II 5.9) – 1969 – Harvey Carter, James Ebert * ''Railroad Tracks'' – (III 5.8) – 1973 – Joe Kelsey, Bill St. Jean * ''Central Corner'' – (III 5.9) – 1973 – Elaine Mathews, Stuart Phillips * ''Southern Wall Left'' – (IV 5.10c) – 1974 – Joe Kelsey, Dave Loeks, Dick Williams * ''Seams Thin'' – (IV 5.10d) – 1995 – Tim Wolfe, Chris Abbott * ''Pika Alliteration'' – (II 5.8) – 2010 – Jared Spaulding, Jake Koplen, Jackson Smith

Hazards

Encountering bears is a concern in the

. There are other concerns as well, including bugs,

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...

s, adverse snow conditions and nighttime cold temperatures. Importantly, there have been notable incidents, including

accidental death An accidental death is an unnatural death that is caused by an accident, such as a slip and fall, traffic collision, or accidental poisoning. Accidental deaths are distinguished from death by natural causes, disease, and from intentional hom ...

s, due to falls from steep cliffs (a misstep could be fatal in this class 4/5 terrain) and due to falling rocks, over the years, including 1993, 2007 (involving an experienced NOLS leader), 2015 and 2018. A 54-year-old climber from Durango fell 400–800 feet to his death from nearby Steeple Peak in 2017.Nick Learned, ''Climber Falls to His Death in Wyoming’s Wind River Range'', August 31, 2017, k2radio.com
/ref> Other incidents include a seriously injured backpacker being airlifted near Squaretop Mountain in 2005, and a fatal hiker incident (from an apparent accidental fall) in 2006 that involved state search and rescue. The U.S. Forest Service does not offer updated aggregated records on the official number of fatalities in the Wind River Range.

References

External links