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| Hike & Climb | 8.00 Miles |
3,500 AEG |
| | Hike & Climb | 8.00 Miles | | | |
| 3,500 ft AEG | | 16 LBS Pack | | |
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| Second IV R • Trad • 5.5 Granite Good • 100 Feet 3 Pitches | | |
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| partners | | | Pro: small cam for the first pitch, no pro for the second, and bolts to clip with quickdraws on the 3rd pitch. | Got an invitation I couldn't turn down to knock out this peak. I wasn't that familiar with this area and did some research, which left me with more questions than answers as there is a lot of conflicting information out there. The plan was the Forbes Route, which varies in rating between 5.3 and about 5.6 depending on what you read.
The road in was a bit rough - mostly the bad parts are about the last 2 miles to the ranch. 4x4 high clearance is needed to make it to the end. The weather turned out just about perfect for this trip.
I was a bit slow on the way up, especially on the scrambles up through the burned areas. The trail is good until about the last half mile to the saddle, it is fairly rough going the rest of the way and the top has burned. There is a small campsite (no water) that some people seem to use, by camping at the obvious saddle to the northeast side of the peak. From the saddle you scramble up towards the obvious notch. There is a trail for the first two hundred yards but quickly you have to scramble up a gully for another 300-400 yards.
Soon enough we made it to the first pitch of about 30 ft. It has one move that seems about 5.5, but otherwise is pretty trivial. The lead climber can protect this move with a very small cam and quickdraw. After the first pitch you end up scrambling up a gully, then hooking around to the north side of the mountain to the second pitch which is basically a slab climb. This one goes 5.easy (5.1?) over the course of 40 ft, but I did make it more difficult by carrying both packs and not allowing myself to look up at what I was climbing  . Above this you scramble up an exposed ridge, but then have to descend a bit and scramble back up to end up at the bottom of the ladder route. We ran into a slow group here visiting from California. They had come from the west, and were doing the only climb you face when coming from that direction. This ladder pitch goes about 5.3 and is the longest of the day - about 100 ft. The first bolts are at about 25 ft and the second at about 45 ft. That's about all you get in for protection in the first half. The second half is very low grade and probably offers some more placements but they did not seem needed.
After this you scramble up the rest of the mountain - a GPS is useful for tracking the route and finding your way back down. The view from up top is great and there are some interesting offerings to the goddess of the mountain you can look at. There is quite an extensive summit log, but didn't see any HAZ folks who had done it recently.
The way back down went fairly smoothly - we passed a large group from ASU making a late ascent, but after getting through the traffic jam at the rap station we finished fairly quickly.
These routes are all way-run out, though the anchors at the top are pretty good. Thanks for the lead Todd! |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
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Thomas Canyon |
Light flow |
Light flow |
| | | Fairly light flow through most of the hike, a little stronger where it flows over the road. | | _____________________
http://hikearizona.com/garmin_maps.php
Hike Arizona it is full of sharp, pointy, ankle-twisting, HAZmaster crushing ROCKS!!
Hike Arizona it is full of sharp, pointy, shin-stabbing, skin-shredding plants!
Hike Arizona it is full of striking, biting, stabbing, venomous wildlife! |
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