>>847973>>847969>>847961I went out there in the beginning of summer, took this route up this mountain.
No trails at all though. I went along the side of the dunes by the river for a while, then climbed the first mountain. From there I dropped back into the woods and got lost, so I climbed this 40 foot tall 5.9ish spire and got a good look at where I was. I went straight up the avalanche chute to the top.
At this point it was like 4pm and it was hailing, and I was super unprepared. I only brought like 2l of water because I diddent expect to actually climb it but I did anyway. I melted snow into my bottle but after that I went like 35 hours without water. Bad dehydration sucks anus.
I went down the backside of the mountain into this aspen forest along a river, it was quite beautiful. I followed that until I got out into the desert and made my way to the edge of the dunes.
At this point woods panic set in and I could no longer tell the dunes from the mountains. I wandered for a little, then decided I was fucked and bedded down. I went on the dunes because there were a ton of snakes in the desert. I shoved my head into my backpack and my hands into my pants and shivvered all night. I had these crazy astral projection dreams where I was walking around on the dunes meeting spanish ghosts. It was strange. I got maybe 3 hours of sleep overall.
I woke up at 5am, and because the only checkpoint I had was the mountains I headed towards them.
From there I had a clear view of the mountains that the campground nestles against, so I decided to cross the entire dunefield.
I walked for about 8 hours to cross the entire thing. I fell over a lot, and sometimes I just sat down and thought about water for a little.
I got back to the touristy section by the river, and I remember seeing the first humans, these 2 college girls.
The enthusiastically asked "Did you climb the high dune?" and I let out this raspy croaking noise and fell down a hill.
>tldr;do what you plan to do.