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| Hiking | 4.25 Miles |
1,550 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.25 Miles | | | |
| 1,550 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | This was my second attempt at this small but mighty peak. A few years ago I tried it with no beta except for a rambling trip report from someone else who had climbed it with no beta. I couldn't make sense of it and ran out of time. This time I had a gps track from a trusted source (Susan Shih, see peakbagger) to help decipher the route. I still haven't seen a good description of the route I used though, so here's mine:
From the toilet, walk west and cross a wash. For least brushiness, stay south of the main wash and follow it to the base of the peak. Take the path of least resistance across the wash and work your way around to the right side of a blob of yellow tuff. Climb the ridge in front of you until you get back on another big swath of tuff. At the top of this, ascend southwest on broken rock to about 2800, then work your way south on ledges of varying width and quality - there are a few options. Eventually you will need to climb a broad sloping ramp covered with green lichen to the southeast ridge. On my previous trip I got near the beginning of this ramp but wasn't sure if I was at the right elevation to cross over the southeast ridge. It looks like the next level up could also work but this goes fine. After climbing the green ramp, ascend the southeast ridge as far as possible (not very) and then hike around to the south side of the summit block. You will see a large overhang at the start of the ridge and pass by another one on the south side. Then make an ascending traverse until you are below the second, and less obvious, low point in the summit ridge. A cairn marks this spot. Climb up to the ridge (again, a few options will work). Pass by a whole bunch of trash and turn left to walk up to the summit.
It's a short and very fun route that avoids slippery stuff for the most part. The summit has nice views of the rest of the Puerto Blanco range and the Ajo range, and of course the big beautiful green desert. But ugh, there is so much trash.
When I got back to the trailhead I ran into a couple of NPS volunteers in their 80s who have been cleaning up the park and doing their best to punk smugglers for the past 8 years. They seemed to get a real kick out of it. They said the pass west of Pinkley used to be called trash pass because of how much traffic it got and how much garbage was left behind. They had been to the summit by at least 4 different routes. |
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