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| College Peaks (North), AZ | |
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| | College Peaks (North), AZ | | | |
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College Peaks (North), AZ
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| no partners | | Note: We did this hike in conjunction with College Peaks (South). See my trip report for College Peaks (South) for all stats!
WARNING: This was a solid class 4! Do not attempt this without good class 4 climbing abilities! Bring rope even if you don't use or need it, just in case.
This peak was something Amy was interested in and so was I. I decided to get up early, meet Amy out there and attempt these peaks. I left Tucson around 6.40 am and arrived around 9.20 am. I had to stop for gas and there was a minor traffic delay that slowed me down on I-10 East of Vail. See driving directions under my College peaks trip report for one good driving route from points North and West.
We parked at some pullouts on the NE side of N Cazador Trail, off of highway AZ-80. Then, we started out by crossing AZ-80 which didn't seem to have much traffic. Just past that crossing there was a barbed wire fence which we crawled under. We didn't see any gates anywhere and also no signs on the fence. Our plan was to stay North of the private property and just travel due East toward the College peaks, but somehow we managed to cross over a corner of the private property without even knowing it. Again, we didn't see any private property signs the entire way. Along the way, the brush was not think and we could go around everything easily.
We agreed to hike College Peaks - North first, which we heard had a 4th class climb section. I brought a 20 foot coil of braided rope. Not the kind professional climbers use, but the kind amateur climbers like me tend to use. First, I should say I'm not really a climber. I'm really more of a hiker who ended up doing some class 4 climbs over the years and I haven't done very many of those.
In the first mile of the hike, looking to the East we saw a slope that we needed to hike over. After getting to the top of this slope, we could see a wash down below which we needed to cross. It was steep getting down so we needed to look for a good spot to cross. After hiking about 1.4 miles, we dropped down into a canyon and found some nice cattle trails. Both Amy and I were surprised that these trails were this good. Perhaps the cows plow through all of the brush making it easier for us. Perhaps they eat a lot of the brush. Either way, we were glad to find a nice trail and it continued for quite a while. We stayed in the wash until after we hiked about 1.77 miles, then we saw a cattle trail leading up and out of the wash. We could have have gone to the saddle between the North and South peaks but that would have been a little out of the way. Instead, we decided to hike straight up to the right side of the cliffs which was the side that looked better.
Once arriving at the cliffs, I looked up and what I saw reminded me of the photo that Jesse sent to Amy, which I saw a copy of. But, Amy felt that the route went to the right and around the cliffs. We walked around to check it out. I didn't see anything back there that looked safe. I saw a lot of dangerous exposure and many unknowns. I convinced Amy that we should go back to the Southwest side of the rocky cliffs and look at other options. We went back to what I thought was Jesse's route and looked at it from 20 feet away. Amy felt like she couldn't do it and I wasn't even sure if I could do it either. Sometimes it's hard to tell without getting right up there. There was only 1 spot of exposure that I could tell, about 10 feet up, which didn't look too bad, but getting up there seemed difficult.
We decided to look at other possibilities to the North. I found what looked like a route that we felt we could both do. Looking at it from down below, it looked fairly easy but when we got closer, we realized it would not be easy. We left our backpacks down below and I carried the 20 foot braided rope with me which wasn't easy to do while climbing. This looked like a solid class 4 option. There were 2 parts to this class 4 climb with each one being about roughly 15 feet from bottom to top. At the bottom of the first section was a huge desert spoon plant. I had to straddle that and climb up a steep rocky smooth section that had only small grips. After getting about 15 feet up there was a small dead tree which was strong enough if you hold it near the base. Right above the dead tree was a safe "landing pad". Above the landing pad, there was gap where we needed to do a basic chimney climb to get higher up. This time there were some better foot and hand holds but it will still scary for us because of the exposure. At the top of the 2nd 4th class section, there was a small agave. Amy used the agave to pull herself up the final class 4 move. I ended up finding some solid grips on the rock and pulled myself to safety. At this point, the class 4 stuff was over and it was a safe walk to the summit.
When we got to the summit, we found Jesse's registry from Feb 2025. There were 3 other hikers/climbers in the last year - a 2 person group in December 2025, and a solo hiker on March 1st, 2025. We signed the registry, got some photos and a video and decided to head down. I was nervous the entire time because going down can sometimes be radically different than going up. I had a 20 foot section of braided rope with me but noticed there were very few places to tie it. Luckily the down climb seemed to be easier than going up. Often times, it's the other way around. Amy did the first class 4 section downclimb without rope, then I threw the rope down to her, she tied it on the dead tree halfway up, and used one hand for support on the lower class 4 section downclimb. After she was down I did the upper class 4 section downclimb facing outward, got to the dead tree and SLOWLY worked my way down still facing outward. I felt comfortable enough getting down without needing the rope but I did have to stretch really far to reach good holds. Either way, it was at the edge of my comfort level. This climb route, in my honest opinion, was as scary as Tam O'Shanter (Dripping Springs) and Peak 5414 in the Catalinas. I believe the grips and holds were slightly better on Tam O'Shanter. Going up on Tam O'Shanter was fairly straight-forward but going down was harder because of a rather large awkward step down near the halfway point. Peak 5414 only had about an 8 foot section with small holds and was scarier going down than up.
After getting down, we both were extremely relieved. We sat down and took a 30 minute break and then we headed down toward the saddle and onto the easier College peak (South). We knew the hard part was over and hiking College peak would be a piece of cake in comparison to what we did! See my trip report for College peak for the rest... |
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Michael Williams
IT Professional
Rocky Point Vacation Rentals
Ocean Front Condo in Rocky Point, Sonora, Mexico
www.beachfrontmexico.us
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